LinkedIn Profile Creation

LinkedIn is a social media service for the professional field. Having a profile gives you an opportunity to share your career experience to interested parties. This allows you to create new connections, search for jobs, contact potential employers, follow company updates, and join or create professional groups.

This Instructables article will show you how to create a basic LinkedIn account for your professional life. Below you will find a video that demonstrates the registration process for your new account.

We recommend having your resume handy to fill out your LinkedIn profile. 

Step 1: Name and Account Log In

Open your Internet browser and go to linkedin.com. There is a box titled “Join LinkedIn Today” on the right side of the web page. Enter your first and last name, and an email and password.

Step 2: Residence and Work Information

You will be asked for your basic employment and residence information. If your company already has a presence on LinkedIn you should see this business appear as you type. For your job title, use your official title within the company. 

Step 3: Optional: Email Contact Importing

1. You can now add contacts associated with the email you used to create your LinkedIn profile. This is optional, so move forward to the next step if desired; otherwise click “Continue.”

Step 4: Optional: Email Contact Importing

2. You will be taken to your email service provider and asked to grant LinkedIn permission to access your email account.

Step 5: Optional: Do You Know These People?

You will be shown a table of LinkedIn profiles that are associated to your email contacts, company affiliation, and additional information. You can add connections by checking the box next their contact information.

Step 6: Optional: Manual Email Invitation

You can invite specific colleagues and friends to join LinkedIn by entering their email address into the text box. Make sure to separate each contact’s email address with a comma.

Step 7: Free or Paid Membership

LinkedIn will ask you to choose between a basic account, free with membership, or a premium account, which is payable annually or monthly. 

Step 8: Video Tutorial

This video shows how to sign up for LinkedIn.

Step 9: Email Confirmation

1. Check your email inbox for the confirmation email and click or copy and paste into the browser, in order to verify your email address.

Step 10: Email Confirmation

2. You will be asked to log in with this email and password to finalize your information. You will then see a green banner on the top of the LinkedIn homepage acknowledging the confirmation.

Step 11: Optional: General Profile Editing

1. Place your mouse over the “Profile” tab at the top of your LinkedIn page. Select the option for “Edit Profile” from the drop-down box.

Step 12: Optional: General Profile Editing

2. In the “Edit Profile” window you can add a photo of yourself by clicking the picture next to your name.

Step 13: Optional: General Profile Editing

3. Click “Add a Current Position” in the main profile box to add current employment information such as Title, Location, Time period, and Description.

Step 14: Optional: General Profile Editing

4. Click “Add a Past Position” in the main profile box to add previous employment information. 

Step 15: Optional: General Profile Editing

5. Click “Add a School” in the main profile box to add education information such as School, Degree, Field of Study, and Activities.

Step 16: Optional: General Profile Editing

6. Click “Add a Twitter Account” in the main profile box to add a Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile.

Step 17: Optional: General Profile Editing

7. Click “Add a website” in the main profile box to attach your business website to your LinkedIn profile.

Step 18: Optional: General Profile Editing

8. Click “Ask for Recommendation” to message previous employers for professional endorsements. 

Step 19: Optional: General Profile Editing

9. You can add a home address, phone number, IM, birthday, and marital status by clicking “Edit” in the “Personal Information” section below the profile box.

Step 20: Optional: Adding Connections

1. To add new connections manually, find the “Contacts” tab of Menu Bar, and select the “Add Connections” option from the drop-down box. 

Step 21: Optional: Adding Connections

2. Add email addresses of future connections in the box labeled “Enter Email Address.” Make sure to separate each address by a comma when inviting more than one contact.

Step 22: Optional: Adding Connections

3. Click the “Send Invitations” button when finished.

Step 23: Optional: Adding Groups

4. Groups can be added to your profile by the “Groups You May Like,” “Groups Directory,” and “Create a Group” options under the “Groups” tab.

Step 24: Optional: Adding Groups

5. Groups can be joined by clicking on the “Join Group” button to the right of each group description. 

Step 25: Optional: Adding Groups

6. The “Groups Directory” to the left of the group list allows you to browse alumni, corporate, conference, networking, nonprofit, and professional groups. Groups that do not fit into these categories can also be filtered by language and keywords.

Step 26: Optional: Following Companies

1. Click the “Companies” tab on the menu bar to access the “Follow Companies” feature.  You can search businesses by name, keyword association, and industry on the Companies main page.

Step 27: Optional: Following Companies

2. You can search businesses by name, keyword association, and industry on the Companies main page. Click the “Search” button to review all results or select companies from the drop-down box.

Step 28: Optional: Following Companies

3. You can refine your search results on the left side of the page in the “Search Companies” tab. Results can be filtered with location, job opportunities, industry, relationship, company size, number of followers, and Fortune status categories.

Step 29: Optional: Following Companies

4. Select a company and click the “Follow Company” button to the right of the screen.