10 LinkedIn Tips to Boost Your Networking Success

Whether you’re looking for new ways expand your network or want to explore some of LinkedIn’s newest features, we have you covered. Here’s a look at 10 tips to boost your LinkedIn success.

[The Ultimate LinkedIn Guide]

You can save each of the job searches you perform on LinkedIn by clicking the green (+) button at the top-right of the search results. When you save a search, LinkedIn asks you to name it and determine whether you’d like to receive emails with new job openings daily, weekly, monthly or never. But there’s another way to check in on open positions that fit your criteria.

Navigate to the jobs tab. In the right-hand column is a box for saved jobs and saved searches. Here, you can quickly see how many new jobs have been posted since you last checked, and apply to any that pique your interest.

[4 New LinkedIn Features for Job Seekers]

LinkedIn’s redesigned Alumni tool helps you find contacts from college and gives you insights into the companies they work for, the fields they work in and where they live. Clicking on each graph will display additional information about the people in that network.

At the top of your Alumni page you’ll see a handful of subheads, such as “Where they live,” “Where they work,” and “What they do.” Or, if you’re job hunting and know you want to work for Google, for example, use the Alumni tool to find graduates of your school and with your major who work there now.

[How to Use LinkedIn’s Alumni Tool to Network, Job Hunt]

When it comes to how many LinkedIn connections you should have, the magic number is 50, says LinkedIn Connection Director Nicole Williams. Reaching 50 helps you take better advantage of extended relationships, which are second- or third-degree connections.

But it’s also important not to flood your network with contacts you don’t know, she says. While five connections are too few, 500 may be too many.

[4 LinkedIn Tips for Career Success in 2013]

If you’re beginning a new job search and don’t want your current employer to see the changes you’re making to your profile, you need to turn off activity broadcasts. This will prevent your connections from knowing when you change your profile, make recommendations or follow companies.

To turn off activity broadcasts, navigate to your Settings page and click the Profile tab. Under Privacy Controls click “Turn on/off your activity broadcasts,” uncheck the box and click Save.

[5 LinkedIn Tips to Resign From Your Job Gracefully]

LinkedIn Endorsements let others highlight the skills you’re known for. When a connection visits your page, he or she can vote up one of your areas of expertise or recommend a new skill for you to add to your profile.

Revisit the Skills section of your profile to add ones you want included or delete skills that may no longer be relevant. You can also remove unwanted endorsements by clicking the arrow next to the people who have endorsed that skill, then selecting “Hide endorsement.”

And return the favor: “If a client does a great job on a proposal, why not take five seconds to endorse their hard work,” LinkedIn’s Williams says.

[How to Use LinkedIn Endorsements to Highlight Your Skills]

If one person is cluttering your activity feed—or if you’re not interested in viewing the “Jobs you may be interested in” section—you can adjust your settings so you only see information that’s important to you.

Navigate to your Settings page and select the Account tab at the bottom. Then, click “Customize the updates you see on your home page” for the full list of options you can show or hide. You can hide individuals from appearing from your stream as well as remove updates such as when connections change profile information or receive recommendations.

Not sure what to do with your pile of business cards? CardMunch, a company LinkedIn acquired in 2011, may solve that problem.

The Cardmunch app uses your iPhone camera to take a picture of business cards you want to save. It then converts the information on the card into a contact, showing you LinkedIn profile information and connections you have in common, making it easier to connect online with people you meet on the road.

[LinkedIn Tip: Digitize Business Cards with CardMunch]

If you visit LinkedIn from open Wi-Fi hotspots, your security could be at risk. HTTPS browsing, which provides encrypted communication and secure identification of a network’s Web server, is an opt-in feature.

To turn it on, select “Settings” from the drop-down menu that appears when you hover over the link to your name in the top-right corner. In the “Account” tab at the bottom, select “Manage security settings,” check the box and click “Save changes.”

[LinkedIn Revamps Security and Privacy Options: Your Guide]

LinkedIn Today is a social news service that aggregates the top headlines and stories related to your industry and based on what your connections share.

You can personalize the type of content that appears on your homepage based on industry and news sources, and you can save, like, comment on or share articles that you find interesting. To access LinkedIn Today, hover over the News tab at the top and click “LinkedIn Today.”

[LinkedIn Today: Tour What This Service Can Do for You]

If you need an afternoon break from work, head over to LinkedIn Labs for a game of LinkedIn-inspired Tetris.

DropIn, which was developed during a Hackday competition, puts a professional twist on Tetris. Instead of the standard, colored Tetris blocks, DropIn blocks are comprised of your contacts’ profile pictures and LinkedIn “in” logos.

[For more LinkedIn tips, tricks, analysis and how-tos, check out CIO.com’s Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn.]