I’ve always been a fan of making sure that my information and files are safe and sound – I guess it comes from having lost data or information in the past (having of course vowed “that would never happen to me!”). At the same time, I’m also a great fan of using the information that we have to best effect – though only within both the letter and the spirit of the law!
Anyway, although you have your connections nicely stored away within your LinkedIn system, it may also make sense to ensure you keep a backup and perhaps that they are also kept in your own Contact Management or email system, whether you use Outlook for example or something more sophisticated.
Let’s be clear, this is not because I believe that you should be simply emailing them stuff or adding them to newsletters without their permission – not at all! In fact that’s one sure fire way to start losing those connections at a rate of knots.
Anyway, to do this simply click on the “Contacts” tab in the main menu and then you will find at the bottom of the page a link marked “Export Connections” which will take you through to the page shown below.
Just select the format that you want to export to, fill in the antispam CAPTCHA and then click on “Export”. This will give you a file containing name, email, job title and company on all of your connections in a form that can then be imported into the program you require or simply stored.
Like that you can make sure that you have a copy of all of your contacts safely stored … just in case. But remember, it is the relationships that you have with these people that is the key to sucessfully using LinkedIn, so use the information wisely!
