I was a member of LinkedIn for more than a year before I realized it's power and efficiency for business purposes. I'm a very experienced Internet user, yet I was slow to catch onto the possibilities of LinkedIn. Since the mean number of connections of all LinkedIn members is a number less than TEN, many other people are clearly having the same trouble.

I was encouraged to do more than fill in my LinkedIn profile and wait for results, by other people. It was their encouragement that got me to build, 50, 100 and now more than 4000 first level connections. Thanks to my friends, I got good advice. Not everyone is so lucky. For the rest of you, there is "The LinkedIn Personal Trainer". It's a small book FULL of practical and useful stuff that LinkedIn users should know. Even after four years LinkedIn membership I was still able to learn a trick or two.

I run training courses on the use of LinkedIn. I can tell you with assurance that 90% of LinkedIn users don't know this basic detail. That's why their profiles look like personal resumes, and why they fail to build their networks. LinkedIn works if you work. "The LinkedIn Personal Trainer" tells you HOW to WORK. If you've got fewer that 500 personal contacts on LinkedIn, you need to read this book.

Of course if you've got endless time you can use the help section of LinkedIn, and you can search the LinkedIn forums and you can find all Steven Tylock's advice without spending a cent. However, since time is your most precious resource, I do recommend buying the book.

John S Veitch
www.openfuture.biz/

Let’s face it. In order to survive in the job market today, it’s critical to learn how to network with the right people. And The LinkedIn Personal Trainer does a wonderful job of introducing networking concepts and how you can use those concepts with the LinkedIn website.

The book is a quick read (88 pages) but don’t let that fool you. If you really want to reap the benefits of what the book it trying to explain, you’ll need to actually spend some time on LinkedIn and actually do the exercises in the book. And if you’re really serious about learning how to network, you’ll need to re-read the book a few times over a few weeks as you complete the exercises.

I was a casual user of LinkedIn before I read The LinkedIn Personal Trainer. After reading it though, I realized that I had to be more proactive with my network and it did help me grow my network with what I consider quality contacts.