APU Careers Careers & Learning

Managing Relationships on LinkedIn

linkedin-managing-connectionsBy Jill Kurtz
Online Career Tips Contributor

LinkedIn has added functionality to help you track your relationships with the people who you connect with there. You can access these tools when viewing the profile of any connection by opening the “Relationship” tab next to the “Contact Info” tab that usually appears in the section just below the person’s photo.

Here’s a quick run-down of the tools available:

  • Note: Here you can add anything you want to remember about this connection or document any recent interaction. I also use this area to document things that help me to personalize my communication with each connection, such as relationships with other connections (“Mary Smith’s boss”), the names of co-workers (“John answers the phone”), and the names of spouses and/or children.
  • Reminder: You can schedule your next interaction here. You might want to send the person an interesting article, ask how a new job is going, or share news of a development in your professional life. Write down the task and pick one of several preset reminder options. You’ll get a ping when it is time to act.
  • How You Met: This field lets you document how you met the connection as well as document who helped you make the connection.
  • Tag: You get direct access to any tags you set up to group your connections. You can tag the connection with existing tags and add or remove tags. This feature was previously only accessible from the Manage Connections area of LinkedIn.

[see also: Five Steps to an Awesome Presence on Twitter]

In addition to the content you can add in the Relationships area, LinkedIn automatically displays any messages from the connection that were sent through LinkedIn. For me, this is a real time saver since I find the messages area of LinkedIn to be clunky at best. Now I can, at a glance, see all my interactions with a particular connection.

These tools are a great way to enhance your networking. Give them a try. And, while you are there, be sure to connect with me and other people you know at American Public University System.

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