We have already written several times about the most common errors in profiles on LinkedIn social networking site, such as a bad photo selection, bad description of job experience or a bad selection of discussion groups. Today, with the help of the Inc.com business server we are going to focus on errors in practical networking through LinkedIn.
Making recommendations only to get the recommendation from the other person in return
Just as you should not give a recommendation to anyone, whose work you really do not know, do not ask the same from others. Follow the rules of keeping the maximum sincerity in your recommendations.
You do not give any recommendations
Build contacts means giving rather than taking. So if you do not want to write recommendations to your contacts in your own words, use the LinkedIn Endorsements tools. Just view the profile of the respective person and click on his/her properties you appreciate.
You do not build contacts continuously
Networking is not one-off issue; you have to do that continuously. By the time you really need a good network of contacts for the purpose of finding employees, customers or a new job it will be too late to start networking.
Forgetting the professional behavior
LinkedIn is the professional social network. You should not be ashamed for anything you publish here under your own name. You never know, who among your contacts can be your potential employer or customer.
You do not share content
Articles, comments or videos that you share, are displayed both to your contacts and to anyone else in the upper part of your profile. By this you let other know what you are interested in and that you know about what is going on in the world.
You are not following your contacts
The only way to know what your contacts are currently interested in is to see what they share and comment. For this purpose you can use the update listing of the LinkedIn home page.
You do not get in touch with members of your team
People, with whom you work, may have interesting people in their contacts; they may have people you need to get in touch with. You can get yourself introduced to them through your trustworthy colleagues.
You send automatically generated messages
If you want to contact someone, please take a moment to send him/her your personal invitation. An automatically generated request "I am using LinkedIn to maintain my professional network and I want to add you to my list" does not make a good impression.
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