Favorite Friday: LinkedIn Maintenance (for the year?)

July 17th, 2008. LinkedIn Maintenance: Do This Right Now (or else?) (61 comments – once you do this, leave a comment to report back :))

Make today the day you spend a few minutes to back up your LinkedIn stuff… this post tells you how to backup CONTACTS and your PROFILE (including Recommendations).

It might be the most critical thing you do today… I’ve heard of many, many people who have lost access to their LinkedIn account.  How would you like everything you’ve done on LinkedIn to go away?  I wouldn’t like that either.

So go read the post, and backup both your Contacts (by exporting your LinkedIn Contacts) and your Profile (by saving your Profile as a PDF).   Do this at least once a year.

BONUS IDEA: Once you have your Contacts exported, do something with them!  Many people import them into a CRM system (like JibberJobber).

If you don’t do that, at least go through the spreadsheet and look for people you should reconnect with.  The spreadsheet will have their email address, so it will be really easy to write an email and reconnect.

A big part of networking is NURTURING the relationship, and you do that with communication… like an email.

I dare you to nurture relationships!