Using the New LinkedIn Contacts Feature

Social media users have been using LinkedIn for business networking for many years. It is a place to meet new business contacts online and form beneficial relationships with other people in the industry. LinkedIn is getting ready to introduce the new LinkedIn Contacts feature on its social network. It promises to bring users better functionality that will help improve social engagement and manage online relationships with fellow users. When you are ready to start getting the most out of the new Contacts feature on LinkedIn, here is what you need to do: Import Contacts While you have always had the option to import your contacts from various sources, it is now even easier to do with multiple options. The Contacts feature will also help keep track of the source for each of your contacts. To get set up, click on your LinkedIn profile and choose "contacts." Next, click on settings. If you have already added your face book contacts at some point, you can easily update that list to include anyone you've friended recently on the social network by clicking on the refresh button. Facebook does not allow you to export user emails to LinkedIn, but there is a way around that. You can import your contacts on Facebook into your Yahoo Contacts. When you do that, you can then export your Yahoo contacts into LinkedIn. If they have their email listed, it will also be added to your contacts. Set Reminders to Make Connections How many times have you met someone new at a business event? How many times did you interact following the event? Chances are, not many. We tend to forget to follow up with new contacts shortly after we meet them and this is no different from meeting people through social networks. You can now use LinkedIn to set reminders for yourself so that you can follow-up with the people you connect with. When you make the effort to reach out to someone, it shows that you have a genuine interest in maintaining a connection and sharing information. Consolidate Duplicate Contact Info There are many people on LinkedIn who have multiple accounts set up. This can be for any number of reasons, like creating a new profile and not deleting the old one. LinkedIn will now find what appear to be duplicated profiles on the site so that you can consolidate them into one set of contact information. This helps to keep a cleaner and more organized contact list. Keep Your Connections Tagged LinkedIn typically adds the tags friend or colleague without you having to do it yourself. You should still take the time to add your own tags to each contact. This will allow you to make a more specific message for each of your contact groups and avoid some messages from being marked as spam. Keep Track of Relevant Details Any notes that you make with the notes feature on LinkedIn are kept private. Make sure you are adding any notes about contacts that can be useful in the future. This can be information that you want to share with them, details about their business, or products that you've discussed. LinkedIn is working hard to bring users tools that can be the most helpful with networking business professionals. The new Contacts feature will make it easier for you to keep track of and stay connected to the people you meet. What is your favorite LinkedIn tool? How do you get the most out of each feature? Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7749489