This is the second part of a 2 post series looking at some key housekeeping tasks that I’d recommend on LinkedIn – things that we might consider to be in the “New Year Resolution” category but which I believe some be a continual process throughout the year.
The first post looked at some key planning and usage elements that I believe to be fundamental to how we successfully work on LinkedIn and here in the second, we turn our attention to some practical and functional elements which I would encourage you build into any back up process going forward.
Practical and Functional
1) Back up your Profile
I’m a great advocate of keeping back ups of your work whatever system you are working on – I’ve been caught out all too often in the past! – and LinkedIn is no different. Therefore, at regular intervals, I would encourage you to back up your LinkedIn profile – firstly, there’s a security element in play here but, just as importantly, I feel that your profile is a “movable feast” which needs to reflect what your tactical & strategic business focus is. Keeping a regular update means that you can make short-term changes when needed and then go back to previous versions that are more relevant where appropriate.
In practical terms, using a “Cut and paste” process from your Profile page does work but is a touch long winded – alternatively, as I do, you could use the “Save to pdf” option that sits in the drop down menu next to the “View Your Profile” button. That does not replicate the page in exactly the display format but will give you a text based copy with all relevant sections for your records.
2) Make a backup list of your connections
Likewise, you have the ability to make a copy of your connections (in spreadsheet format) which again I would strongly encourage. While there’s the practical rationale for backing up your connections, it will also give you the opportunity to evaluate offline if there are people that you should be in contact with more regularly and even categorise them – sometimes working in a spreadsheet is simply quicker and easier.
You can download a list of your connections via the “Connections” section of the site – you can find a quick link to the page here – you get 5 key fields including name, email address, company and job title so it’s well worth it … just don’t do anything “naughty” with the email addresses, please!
3) Check your Settings
There is a lot of control that you can have over your activity on LinkedIn from the Privacy and Settings page, so do check that the key elements that are controllable within your settings are in line with your use of LinkedIn. You might like to check the visibility of your profile, if you are receiving the most suitable homepage updates, if you can cut down on the noise of certain email notifications etc. These are all areas that will ensure that the information you receive on LinkedIn as well as the information you present on LinkedIn fits with your needs.
4) Make a back up of all your LinkedIn activities
LinkedIn introduced two additional features in September 2014 aimed at helping with our security and controlled usage of LinkedIn. The first of these allows us to request and retain a full list of all of our updates and activities on LinkedIn.
There’s lots that you can do with the information that you receive which includes all your activity and account history, from who invited you to join, to the time of your latest login – you can request it from LinkedIn on this page.
5) Make sure you have no open log-ins
The second feature shows us the open logins that we have for our LinkedIn account – essentially, it shows everywhere you’re signed in to LinkedIn. You can then manage these sessions from this new page so, if you see a session that you want to turn off, simply click on the sign out link. It just keeps it all nice and safe, particularly if you log in from different places or different devices. The page is accessible via your Settings page in the grey section at the top – quick link is here to the relevant page.
I hope that in these two posts, you will find some ideas about how to make LinkedIn work more effectively for you – if you have questions or other recommendations then do ask in the comments below.
