Today’s Sunday Skills is an often neglected tip for LinkedIn.
Nowadays, most professionals have their profile up on this networking site. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account yet, then it is time for you to go and register !
There are numerous advantages to being there and active in the community. LinkedIn is not useful only to people who are looking for a job and recruiters. It is also a great source of information, a place for networking and meeting new people, and it offers business development opportunities for those who are in charge of growing their business.
Why have multiple email addresses connected to your LinkedIn account ?
The one thing that most people neglect to do, is to list all their existing email addresses to their account.
Your main address is usually the one you used when you registered to LinkedIn. A lot of times, people use their professional email as their primary address. They receive all messages, all invitations, and all group news emails to this address.
It is all well and fine…. but soon, as your network expands, you can experience a flooding of emails to your inbox, which is distracting in a work environment.
The other point is that the population in the Gulf region is by nature more transient than in the mature economies, due to the very large number of expatriates. So, your professional email or that of your contacts will, sooner rather than later, become obsolete.
If you only have one professional email address linked to your account, and you change companies, then you will lose access to your LinkedIn account and you will have to start from scratch all over again. Not good !
So, what to do ?
It’s simple : add at least one of your personal email addresses.
You can make it your primary LinkedIn address and therefore direct all communications there. It reduces the distractions you get in your work mailbox.
Or, more simply, you can keep your current primary address and select to direct to your personal email only some of the Group communications you receive, and keep receiving the invitations and messages to your primary address.
Having multiple email addresses allows people from different walks of life to connect with you on LinkedIn. Imagine that, like me, you have a blog or a website with its own email. Or maybe you have responsibilities in some community activities or a charity. Some of your contacts there may know you only in this capacity, and only have your charity’s email address to contact you. Adding this email address to the ones linked to your account will allow you to accept their invitations.
If people send you an invitation to an email address which is yours but you did not add it to your LinkedIn account, and by mistake you accept that invitation, then you will in effect create a second account in your name.
That means that down the line, all contacts you have on that second account will have to be transferred to your “true” LinkedIn account.
This is not an easy thing to do and you have a high risk of losing some of these precious connections in the process as your contacts can get confused, or don’t want to be bothered. So – avoid the trouble, and add these email addresses !
How to add an email address to your LinkedIn account
It’s very simple :
- Get into your setings (completely at the top of any LinkedIn page, a scroll down under your name)
- You will be required to confirm your sign in by entering your LinkedIn password (for security purposes)
- Right under your picture you will see a link to “change/add” next to your primary email address. Alternatively you can scroll to the bottom of the page, click on Account > Email & Password > Add & change email addresses
- Enter the new email address in the boxand then click “add email address”.
- Then confirm this new address by clicking on the link in the confirmation email that you receive there.
- You’re done !
After you have confirmed your email addresses, access your account again and click “make primary” next to a confirmed address.
You can also remove an email address if you don’t use it any longer.
Don’t forget to do this simple exercise and you will ensure that you always have access to your account, don’t create duplicate accounts under your name, and are accessible to people fromall the different streams of your life.
Related post :
Two uses of LinkedIn Groups for the Compensation professional
Dear Ms. Sandrine,
Nice information in this article, but I do not really think that Linkedin is considered by most of its users as place to networking in your business circle and I do think that is used mostly by colleagues in certain institution, or old friends and so, I myself use it for connecting and mutual benefits but I do not think people use it in that way or at least most of them in the Middle East Region.
On the contrary to what Saed mentioned, I believe its a place where miracles do happy,some people I know got job offers through linkedin, I personally recieved consulting projects and my brother use it as a tool for his own business…. its a a great tool!
… Yes… and that’s how we met too 🙂 !
Dear Saed,
Thanks a lot for your comment. LinkedIn is actually a place where a lot of people initially go to further their career. Many headhunters are there and they are using it as one of their primnary ways of fining talent, whether the person is actively looking for a job or not. Then, people realise that LinkedIn allows them to stay in touch with former colleagues even if they change companies. At a later stage, a lot realise that by interacting in Groups and Discusssions they can get some ideas and feedback and learn things. Finally, some use it as a place where to help growing their business : sales people check the profile of potential clients, small companies find providers, consultants may find referral partners etc… It is basically used in any way possible for professional reasons.
I agree with your point that in the Middle East, there is a smaller percentage of population who is on LinkedIn. The internet penetration rate is not as high as in the West (fewer people have an access at home for example) and there is definitely a time lag in adoption rates. Also, the culture of the Middle East is based a lot on personal relationships, loyalty to the inner circle of trusted friends, “wasta” etc… But, as the events in Tunisia and Egypt have showed us, social media usage is booming in the region as people find it a nice way of expressing their ideas. For sure nowadays there are fewer GCC Nationals on LinkedIn than expats, however in the past year or two, I have seen a big increase in the number of people I meet professionally who have a profile on LinkedIn, including the locals. So, there is hope ! 🙂