It is worth noting that there are a whopping 300 million people on LinkedIn, and it can be a rewarding marketing tool—if used properly.
Assuming your public profile says that you have 500+ connections, it is actually over 4,000 connections. LinkedIn is one of three or four social networks that you should constantly use. You must regularly post updates and publish information on LinkedIn. You may use Hootsuite (a powerful free tool) for these posts.
To make effective use of LinkedIn, your priority should be to fill exhaustively out your profile. Make sure to include photo or location or background with your profile. Unless people recognize your name, they are probably not going to connect with your LinkedIn profile. It does take some effort but is richly worth it.
The next step would be to connect with people that you know—as also people who know you. Remember that you live in a mobile society where individuals change positions. The publishing world is nebulous, and it’s natural for people to change positions often during their career.
Many self-employed professionals and business owners use LinkedIn. If they change positions or move, they carry their LinkedIn information with them. They change their emails, phone number, and address information in the contact section of LinkedIn.
If you are trying to pitch a particular professional or and you are connected to him through LinkedIn, you can quickly check to see if the person is in the same location by checking his profile—before you shoot your proposal, you can learn he is no longer with the company or has changed positions.
LinkedIn has tools to help you enlarge your circle of connections. Because of your large number of connections, you will receive many invitations in a day to connect with individuals. You should not want to be connected to spammers or individuals who you don’t immediately recognize. Therefore each time it is necessary to check their profile.
Do not connect with people that offer incomplete profiles. Again, if they are located in far-off countries and you see no immediate relationship, then do not connect with them. Sometimes you may mark a person as spam, and if so, LinkedIn will not allow them to send you another invitation.
If you see they have connections with other people belonging to your industry that you know, like and trust, then you may connect with those individuals.