LinkedIn For Dummies, 5th Edition

Chapter 4

Discovering and Building Your Network

IN THIS CHAPTER

Searching first-degree connections

Using special keywords in your search

Saving your search requests to run later

After you sign up for LinkedIn and build your profile (see Chapters 2 and 3, respectively, for more on those topics), it’s time to go forth and find connections! As you start searching your own immediate network of your first-degree connections, plus second- and third-degree network members, you can see just how valuable LinkedIn can be to you. LinkedIn is the embodiment of the Six Degrees of Separation concept because, in most cases, you can connect to any other person in the network regardless of whether you already know that person.

In this chapter, I demonstrate the different ways you can search the LinkedIn network, both your ever-growing personal network and the greater LinkedIn member network. I talk about viewing your own network, searching in the second and third degrees of your network, and performing searches on LinkedIn using different types of criteria or search terms.

Searching Your First-Degree Connections

I recall an old saying: “You have to know where you have come from to know where you ...