LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5th, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking.

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Step 1: Go to www.linkedin.com and fill out the information fields in the ‘Join LinkedIn today’ form - name, email address and password. Click ‘Join now’.

Step 2: Compile your profile: Write a ‘professional headline’ that clearly tells people who you are and what you do. This is how you will be commonly viewed on the network, so it is important that it provides an accurate reflection of your skills, expertise, roles or aspirations - depending on what you want from LinkedIn.

Include a suitable and decent quality photograph of yourself. Be professional and recognisable.Provide concise information in the summary section. Be credible and aspirational - tell people something you have achieved in business and what your key goal is. Concentrate on your professional identity.

Get as much detail into your ‘Experience’ profile as possible and, as with a CV, be honest about your career.

Add feeds from your blog, if you have one, and link out to three websites, including your business website. Others might include websites you use for information or inspiration.

LinkedIn will provide you with an automated URL for your profile, but you can change to one that includes your name, if available. This will make you more discoverable to other users and makes it easier to share your LinkedIn contact details as part of an email signature, for example.

Step 3: Start networking:   - Search for people you know by name and make quick connections with existing colleagues and current business contacts.
- Use the email account tools to search for LinkedIn users within your email lists. - To make a connection, select from the options asking you how you know this person, then send a short, personal message inviting them to connect.
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