If you are job-seeking Nike Shox Gravity Metallic Gold Grey Men's Clearance , you need to join LinkedIn, an essential job-search tool. If you're not on a job search but you're into online networking; or want to acquire new partners or clients; or otherwise want to rev up your networking activity level, you should likewise become a LinkedIn user, in my view. All that being said, there are some iron-clad rules for polite and professional use of the network. Here's my Top Ten list for LinkedIn do's and don'ts:


1) DO connect to your 'real-world? friends.


I'm amazed by how many LinkedIn users join up Men's Nike Shox Gravity Gunsmoke Grey Clearance , create a profile, and immediately set to work inviting all sorts of online strangers to join their networks. Sure, it's fun to browse the LinkedIn database and look up people you might want to know better?.but what about your friends back in three-dimensional space? The first thing to do as a new LinkedIn user - after creating a rockin? profile for yourself - is to invite your true-blue friends and former workmates to join your network. There are three steps in this process:


a) Download your Outlook address book so that LinkedIn can find your friends who are already members.


b) Use the Find Colleagues and Find Classmates functions to synch up with people you know from school and past jobs; and


c) Invite bunches of 'real? friends who aren't already LinkedIn users, to join the network - you'll be helping them get connected at the same time you grow your own network.


2) DON?T become an Invitation Spammer.


It's tempting to start sending ?connect to me? invitation to every Tom, Dick and Sally you find on LinkedIn Men's Nike Shox Avenue 802 Black Silver Clearance , but it's bad manners. If you want to reach out to someone you've spotted who has an enticing profile, send the person a Contact request rather than an invitation to join your network. A Contact request, to use an offline networking analogy, is like an invitation for a coffee date. An invitation to Connect is like asking someone to go steady. Unless you know a person already, don't spam him or her with a ?want to start recommending me to people Men's Nike Shox Avenue 802 All Black Clearance , and vice versa?? invitation - it's creepy.


3) DO unto others?.


It's astounding that a person would send out connect-to-me invitations while proclaiming on his or her profile that no new connection invitations will be accepted. Talk about all take and no give! There are other LinkedIn users who set up a profile and make connections, and then specify on their profiles that they won't act on requests to forward (a key piece of LinkedIn's value). These messages say, I want to be on this site and get its value, but I don't want to deal with other people's requests. A modern-day Dante would design a special, uncomfortable and crowded level of Hell for these folks: no pits of fire Men's Nike Shox OZ D Black White Clearance , but perhaps a zone where all connections are dial-up, cell phones can't hold a signal and no one helps you with anything, retribution for the me-first approach to online networking that you showed in your most recent incarnation on Earth.


4) DON?T make assumptions about your own irresistibility.


Connection invitations should state clearly why you expect your invitee to link up with you - for instance, because you serve on the same fund-raising committee or because your daughters are best friends in the fifth grade. With so many activities crowding a typical businessperson's schedule and so many people in the mix, it's easy for people to forget how they know you. Likewise Men's Nike Shox OZ D Black Red Clearance , even Contact requests should state your case as plainly as possible. A message that says ?May I call you? We could collaborate? is not the world's strongest pitch. People are incredibly busy - if you're job-seeking, or trolling for new clients, you may lose sight of the fact that a person needs a compelling reason to even spend ten minutes on the phone with you.


It's helpful to remember what I call the Happy Life theory of networking: when you reach out to a stranger, that person is presumably leading a happy and fulfilling life without the benefit of knowing you. It's not enough to say ?I'll buy you lunch!? or the online equivalent of that offer; a $25 lunch (or a scintillating phone conversation with you) just might not be as hard to pass up as you believe. So lay it out there: here's what I can do for you, or here's what I need Men's Nike Shox OZ D Dark Blue Black Clearance , or both.


5) DO keep your profile current.


A pox on the person who lets her LinkedIn profile languish! If you can't be bothered to keep your profile current, why should another person bother to engage with you? If I receive a Contact request, jump over to the requester's profile, and find that its details don't match what's in the requester's email message, I'm already underwhelmed. Bonus: when you update your profile Nike Shox OZ 801 Womens Clearance , you can send a one-click blast message to let your entire first-degree network know about your news. Note: please don't abuse this feature! Reserve profile-update blasts for news on the order of a job promotion, book launch or appointment to a national commission?.as opposed to news items like ?I have started my PMP certification class.?