New to online business networking and job hunting on social media? Even a cursory Googling will likely have suggested a LinkedIn profile as your first stop. Launched back in 2003, by 2007 LinkedIn had reached 10 million users and has just continued to grow since then. As of April 2017 it had 106 million active members in 200 countries across the world. Even if they aren’t all in your industry, that is a lot of potential work!

So how do you get in on this rich seam of job opportunities?

As its a professional networking site, rather than just for keeping in touch with friends, there are some differences in how you set up a profile and what info you need. LinkedIn are after all trying to ensure you see other profiles and companies that are the best match for your business skills. Don’t be put off though, its all still relatively straight forward. Just to ensure there are no hiccups, this article will run you through the process of setting up your profile.

• At the front page you’re met with the obvious first step: fill in your name, email and pick a password.
• Next up you need to enter your current country and postcode so the site can personalize your experience. All simple enough so far!
• Now, depending on your career situation, you’ll either need to enter your most recent job title and the company you work(ed) for or hit the button marked “I am a student”. What do you do if you have useful industry experience and are still a student? We assume bask in the envy of your peers.
• Afterwards, you should be greeted with a request to confirm your email. LinkedIn has sent a six digit pin to the address you entered earlier, stick that in where prompted (or simply click the “I agree” button in the email itself).

That’s the basic groundwork done! On to the ‘social’ part of the social media

• The current screen gives you the ability to enter an email (it doesn’t have to be the one used in profile set up) to import your contacts and streamline the initial ‘finding useful people’ stage.
• You’ll be faced with a series of screens where you can connect with contacts already on LinkedIn or invite those that aren’t.
• You can click on each of the profile cards to customise the selection (not everyone on your contact list is going to be useful in getting a job!) and then hit the ‘Connect’ or ‘Invite’ button down in the lower right corner.
• If anyone from your company is on the site you’ll also get a prompt to connect them with your LinkedIn profile as well. As above, pick those you want and then head on to the next step.
• Now we’re on to the typical social media stuff: You need to pick a photo you want to represent your business persona (so, as proud of it as you may be, maybe skip the keg stand photos).
• Finally there is, as with most sites since mobile became king, an app, which you will now be hassled to download.

And you’re done! One shiny new LinkedIn profile all of your own

You’ll already have some interesting articles in your feed, pulled from what’s currently trending in your profession, and prompts at the top of the screen to link up with new contacts or follow leading voices in your industry. So we’ll leave you here. Go! Be free and frolic in the land of professional networking.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about your next step, worry not! We’ve got an upcoming article on overhauling your social media accounts for job hunting. Our blog is published every Wednesday so check back soon!