In both our business and personal lives, etiquette holds lot of importance. However, on the Internet, the rules of etiquette tend to blur. The impromptu abbreviations and slang that we often use on social networking sites may not be the language that’s proper for the professional world. When you become part of the website LinkedIn it becomes even more important that you follow the rules of etiquette that define the world’s only professional networking site.

What makes LinkedIn so different from other networking sites is that people you are networking with can be your next boss or colleague, people who can make or break your career. So, all those good manners that you carry into your interview should be applied here. Of course, formal etiquette translates into more than “avoid Capital letters” or “do not spam.” Here are the top LinkedIn etiquette rules to help you make the most of your LinkedIn profile.

1. Presentation

Presentation translates into creating a polished profile. In the virtual world of LinkedIn, your profile is how you first appear to other people – your first impression. A crisp, polished profile is the same as a crisply ironed business suit. Upload a complete profile before you start networking. Incomplete profiles make bad impressions, like mismatched socks. Casual language will make a casual impression. Build your profile like your resume, putting your best foot forward. Your skills, assets, accomplishments – present everything clearly to make the best impression.

2. Networking Protocols

Unlike networking in other social websites, LinkedIn networking has its rules of conduct to follow. First of all, the purpose of LinkedIn isn’t to socialize. While your goal is to connect with professionals who you have worked with and those who want to work with or get help from, unsolicited networking requests are bad manners in LinkedIn. Network carefully, extend your handshake first to known people and then to unknowns, but selectively and with the help of your current connections.

Be polite in your requests to strangers. While people in a relevant field should not have any reason to decline your request, phrasing your request incorrectly can get you into trouble. Repeated requests or requests to people who are not even remotely related to your field or your friend circle are also no-nos. A “best practice” is to use your current network on LinkedIn and find one of your 1st Degree connections that is also connect to the individual you hope to connect with and ask your 1st Degree for an introduction.

If you are asking anyone to forward your profile to someone in his or her network, then remember your profile will reflect on your friend’s credibility as well. So, along with a good profile, word your request politely as well. Don’t lie or give false impressions. Networking with someone on the premises of sharing ideas and then trying to sell him or her product will be seen as bad form.

3. Social Etiquette

Of course, there is a social aspect to LinkedIn. Just like in any social gathering, there should be politeness, small talk and some give and take.  For instance, if someone recommends you, return the favor. If you are introduced to a new contact by someone, send a thank you message. Make a good impression with your entire network and it will automatically fetch you more good contacts.

Good manners also apply to handling requests and messages that are sent to you as well. If you receive a request from a known person that you do not want to connect with, you might not want to reject the request outright. Simply archive it. People tend to forget over time or understand that you do not wish to connect with them.

Similarly, if you are sent a networking request from a stranger from an unrelated field, reject the request with a polite message stating your reason. If a friend extends the profile of a third party contact that you do not want to entertain, reply to your friend stating clearly, but politely, why you are hesitant. However, if you get too many such requests from a known person, you might want to consider if your friendship is worth that hassle.

4. Don’t nag

LinkedIn is not like Facebook or Orkut, where people spend hours chit chatting. Professionals hardly get the time to spend on networking and they don’t like wasting time over unnecessary updates or messages. Since most people on LinkedIn have their daily updates mailed to them periodically, constant activity or buzzing people with profile updates hourly will definitely irritate your contacts. Try to limit your activity to once per day, and keep it professional.

5. Don’t Lie

You’ve heard it all your life, “don’t lie,” and that applies to LinkedIn too.  Even white lies and half-truths can come back to bite you. Just like in job interviews, it never pays to lie about your work history or skill. Since this kind of networking is without any boundaries, if at any point you lose the trust of any one of your contacts, it will filter down to all your contacts.

6. Read the fine print

In case you haven’t already, go through the User Agreement you accepted when you registered with LinkedIn. There are certain obligations on your part that LinkedIn expects you to follow and you should be clear about them. LinkedIn is not a market place where you can make a profit. It is more like a gathering of like-minded people where you can develop ideas. Understand the LinkedIn mission and you will be able to understand what is the right etiquette for such a place.

Remember, your online presence can be the first impression you make, so make it a good one! By following these steps, you’ll be on your way to connecting with those important people in your field.

Do you have other “etiquette tips?”  List them below.

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Don’t you love simple and easy stuff?  Well, here are my 5 Simple Steps for getting started with LinkedIn.

As you know, LinkedIn is the professional networking site where you connect with like-minded business professionals or prospects that you would like to do business with.  LinkedIn is not as “social” as Facebook and Twitter or even YouTube, it’s truly about building a strong professional relationship with others that you would like to do business with whether you are the buyer or the seller.

To get started with LinkedIn is quite easy:

Step 1 - Establish your account at linkedin.com.  Enter your email address and a secure password. (Be sure to jot it down so you don’t forget, or you can use Roboform.com to assist with remembering passwords)

Step 2 - import your current contacts, those that you are already connected to and/or doing business with, into LinkedIn through the Add Connections Tab located under Contacts.  This is an easy way to build your connections in LinkedIn without having to search for them.

Step 3 – Build your Profile to 100%. LinkedIn walks you through the process of building a strong profile, shows the progress you are making and what remains to be completed.  Work toward 100%.

Step 4 – In order to reach that 100% completeness of your profile, you need to be recommended by former clients, colleagues or co-workers.  Don’t be afraid to ASK for these recommendations.  All they can say is NO.  Or better yet, recommend others and maybe they will return the favor by recommending you.

Step 5 - Search and Join “niche” groups and get into the conversation.  What better way to position yourself as an expert than to respond timely and accurately with answers to questions.  Those who are not connected to you will quickly want to be connected because you are the expert or “Go-To” person for this topic.  And you can answer as many questions as you have the answers for.  So Become an Online Celebrity by responding to questions on LinkedIn.

Just those 5 Steps will get you started and racing out of the gate on LinkedIn to quickly build your connections and potential clients.

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If you enjoyed “5 Simple Steps to Getting LinkedIn” please share it with your friends by clicking the links below or posting a comment.

Want to send a message to your friends on Facebook, but don’t know how? Here are simple steps to help you send messages through your Facebook Inbox and other helpful tips for sending messages in Facebook.

• Type the person’s name into the Search box at the upper right of any Page. When the search results are returned, click on the “Send a Message” link to the right of the result. A box will open to type in the subject and message. When finished, click “Send.”
  
• Open the Inbox and click on “Compose” the same box will open to type the specifics of your message
• To learn how to send a private message on Facebook, visit my YouTube Channel to view a short video where I walk you through the entire process.

Here are other tips to help with sending messages on Facebook:

• You can message up to 20 friends per message
• If you have a Group or Fan Page, you can send to all of your Group Members or Fans with one message
• Users can receive messages from anyone on Facebook, regardless if you are friends or not. To avoid this, go to Settings/Privacy/Search and under “Search Result Content” uncheck the box for “A link to send me a message.”
• Photos, videos and links can be attached to messages
• The Inbox is not intended for “live” conversations. The Chat option can be used for instant messaging others on Facebook
• Be careful of promoting a product or service or any type of advertising to your friends through the Inbox as it is considered spam and against Facebook policies
• The Inbox has search features for finding messages by sender, keywords, recipients or Friend Lists
• You can manage your Inbox notifications by going to Settings/Account Settings/ Notifications. Here you can select which information you would like to see in your Personal Email Account. For example, if you use Microsoft Outlook for your email management, you will receive an email each time you get a message in your Facebook Inbox. You can uncheck this notification to stop those emails from going to Outlook.

The Facebook Inbox is a great communication tool when used properly. It is just another alternative for connecting with your online friends and business contacts.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the current news related to Social Media? Take a look at this video.

http://facebook.com/socialmediatraining

Well, today’s your lucky day! Today at 1 pm est. is the official launch of the Blastoff network. It is free, easy and fun, plus you can make money with your Blastoff site.

Watch this short video to get more information and then click I Want a Free Blastoff Site

Take a look at this video to help you evaluate and develop a strategy for accepting Facebook Friends.

Some of you probably don’t even know what #FollowFriday or #FF is. Others are probably annoyed by all the Twitter posts with #FF or #FollowFriday in them.

I just ran across a new perspective on this seemingly useless marketing approach. To read a post from TwitTip, follow this link #followfriday Revolution.

I like this blogger idea and plan to implement it this coming Friday!

After you read the post, come back and let me know what your #FF plans are.

I just found this very interesting video about social media. It is filled with statistics. Some I know are accurate, others I’m not sure, but it’s still very powerful and speaks to the fact that social media IS here to stay and we should all embrace it and make it work for us and our business.

Take a look!

Did you get your username for your Facebook Public Profile? (Also known as Fan Page or Business Page) It was a crazy dash on Sunday evening, June 28th to get the required number of “fans” to be allowed to get your personal url for the Page.

Facebook had originally said that anyone with a Public Page and 25 fans could get their url, but suddenly changed their mind on Sunday to 100 fans! People were scrambling to get to that magic number.

There was even a chat set up by my friend Hazel Grace Dirksen at Socialbees http://facebook.com/socialbees to help Page owners get 100 fans by midnight! I called it the “Race to 100 Facebook Fans!” It was a lot of fun and I made some new friends with incredible Pages on Facebook.

So, do you have a Public Page? Did you get your url for the Page? If not, contact us and we can help you through the entire process. From setting up the page, customizing it, promoting it to get Fans and ultimately getting your Facebook username.

My new Facebook username for my Public Profile Page is http://facebook.com/socialmediatraining

Come on over and join in the fun!

One of the most asked questions I get when I’m speaking to groups or training individuals on social networking is, “How do I send a private message to someone? I don’t want to accidentally send something that I intend to be private and have it been seen by everyone.”

So I thought this would be a great topic to add to my “Social Networking Nuggets” videos on YouTube. Find out how to send a private message on Facebook, visit my YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/avirtualbiz.