I am often disheartened these days by what I see as squandered opportunity on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is, and has been a powerful tool for growing my business for some years now. While I confess that I don’t use it as LinkedIn would have me use it, I none the less have prospered by it.

Virtually every account First Approach® has secured in over 24 months began with LinkedIn.

It is the single most important data base and resource I know of to develop new prospects, business, and relationships in today’s B2B environment.

Without digressing into the nuances of how best to use LinkedIn, this post will instead focus on what LinkedIn is, and what it isn’t, and some basic do’s and don’ts.

There is facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Google+, and god knows what else out there amongst the myriad of social media sites and services.

What all these other sites have in common, is that they all fall under the banner of “social media”. In other words, they are about our social lives, socializing in our private lives amongst family and friends. Let me repeat this …. social.

LinkedIn is not about our social lives but instead, our business lives, relationships, and careers. It is a virtual resume that engaged with properly, can yield a bounty of opportunities. It is for business and business networking. It’s not about letting your network know about your favorite restaurant, wine or vacation spot.

So, on that note, a few tips.

• Having the most, or 500++ connections is not what LinkedIn is all about. Choose carefully. Your connections should be people that at the very least, you know at some level. It’s not a popularity contest. It’s a quality event

• Many of LinkedIn’s advance functions interface with your connections, so be selective. Your connections should represent your brand and status. You get from LinkedIn what you put into it. Aunt Agnes doesn’t belong on LinkedIn, that’s what facebook is for.

• Be judicious about handing out endorsements, recommendations, etc. Remember, too much of a good thing ceases to be a good thing. Over use this feature and you will soon find your connections fading away, or worse, disconnecting with you.

• We all know you love your dog, kid, or girlfriend however, would you put their picture on your resume? The number of people who post profile pictures of themselves on a boat, in a bathing suit, with a big beer in their hands, or, standing at the door of a private jet (that we all know isn’t theirs) is vast. Your picture should be an appropriate representation of your professional profile. If you’re an actress, then the glamor shot thing is ok. If you’re not, go put on some more clothes…

• Updates should be brief (or with links) and within the scope of your expertise or profession. There’s no point for someone in the financial industry posting an update on something they saw in People magazine about JLo. Your contacts don’t or shouldn’t care. It does nothing to promote your brand or your wherewithal about your industry. In fact, it is detrimental to your brand.  Again, just tasted a good wine? Post it on facebook.

• Don’t post too often. Linkedin is a utility and serious users of this tool, generally speaking, only connect, and stay connected with others who are serious. If you’re the bored executive that is posting ten times a day, beware, you might just get un-connected. Further more, you need to consider how all the time you’re spending on LinkedIn is perceived by others. Nothing better to do?

• Make sure your personal settings deliver the LinkedIn experience you’re comfortable with. You can decide who sees your connections and who doesn’t. You can control what types of in-bound communications you want or don’t want, and you can decide what others see, should you post or up-date.

Finally, the time to get up and running on LinkedIn isn’t when you have a need. LinkedIn is like a baby elephant, twenty two months in gestation. The time and effort you invest, and most importantly the quality of that effort, will make you the proud Papa or Mamma of new opportunities before you know it.

Happy Linking.