I’ve found it’s always best to learn from someone else’s mistakes rather than from your own (mostly because people have thanked me for all the good advice I’ve given them based on foibles I’ve committed). Therefore, this post will cover 10 mistakes I made when I first joined LinkedIn. These points will be followed by a link to the LinkedIn page where you can remedy this mistake if you currently find yourself doing the same things I did.

10. I had 2 profiles

When I first joined LinkedIn, I realized that because I was using many different personal email addresses (my webmail account, army account, alma-mater account and my current employer account) people sent me invitations to join LinkedIn to different email accounts. Therefore, by accepting, I inadvertently created multiple accounts for myself.

Solution: Go to this link, copy down

any recommendations, job descriptions, any other content and all your connections from the account you want to delete that you’d like to re-invite from your ‘good’ account. However, be very careful not to accidentally delete the account you want to keep.

https://www.linkedin.com/secure/settings?closemyaccountstart=&goback=%2Enas_*1_*1_*1

9. I wanted to be a LION

Being a military veteran, I’m sure I think I’m a lot tougher than I actually am. So, when given the chance to get the title “LION” I took it and proudly displayed it, especially when I learned it helped me to more rapidly increase my number of connections. However, since LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker and I realized all that I shared in TPL about the importance of having a high fidelity LinkedIn network, I ultimately removed a lot of the connections that didn’t fit my litmus test.

Solution: To do the same, go through and delete connections here:

http://www.linkedin.com/connections?displayBreakConnections=&goback=.con

8. I didn’t review my security settings

A major oversight given my background in a “defense-focused” industry, I didn’t check my security settings.  I didn’t know what information I was or was not putting out to my network based on my actions in LinkedIn until I found the settings section.

Solution: Review each section of this page to see where you stand and where you’d like to be: https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?trk=hb_acc

7. I didn’t resonate with my target audience

As I was in the process of changing industries when I first found LinkedIn, I didn’t pay particular attention to the language, tone and keywords that would be most appropriate in my new industry.

Solution: To get this right, go to your summary and read it in search of points of confusion or areas of too much detail. Think about what your target audience would need to know to compel them to do what you want them to do:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit-summary?locale=en_US&goback=.npe_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1

6. I put too much content on my profile

Having learned a thing or two about search engine optimization (SEO) and the value of many relevant keywords being assigned to my personal and company brand in a searchable space on the internet, I loaded up my profile with them.  However, much like with recommendations, I didn’t stop to consider how much people would actually read about me while they were scanning through LinkedIn profiles.  When writing a book, write chapters. When writing a summary, be concise.

Solution:   Review (or write) your summary in a way that tells your story without doing too much storytelling:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit-summary?locale=en_US&goback=.npe_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1

5. I didn’t connect to enough people

The incredible search functionality that LinkedIn provides to its users doesn’t exist for them until they connect to the people they know. Being able to see the first (and often only, for your 2^nd degree connections) step through a relationship path to someone in your target audience starts with connecting to the people you actually know first.  I initially jumped into LinkedIn and searched for folks I thought would be helpful to me, but didn’t really see the benefit until my connections number rose.

Solution:   If you have at least 50 connections, People You May Know is a great place to invite connections.

http://www.linkedin.com/pymk-results?full=

If not, you can use the connection-finding-and-adding functionality here:

https://www.linkedin.com/fetch/importAndInvite

4. I had too many recommendations

Once I had the understanding that it was more valuable to have other people talking about me than to have myself talking about me, I accepted and displayed dozens of recommendations from my connections. However, I then realized that I have never read through more than a few recommendations on another person’s profile, and therefore was likely just overwhelming my audience.

Solution:   Find the most compelling and concise recommendations you have from people that will resonate with your current target audience and hide all others (showing 3-5 at a time is probably a good number for most):

http://www.linkedin.com/references?mrs=&trk=recppl_recsforme&goback=.npe_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1

3. I didn’t have someone proof my profile

Simple enough to do, many people forget to ask a friend to proofread their profile. They take the “check the block” approach to LinkedIn, just trying to fill in profile sections but forget to ask someone else to give it a fresh look for quality. I had some grammatical and spelling errors in my early LinkedIn profile for months until a friend of mine pointed them out. That’s especially embarrassing since I held the spelling bee title for five consecutive years in my grammar school.

Solution: Search for one of your connections displaying a well-written profile and ask them to proofread your profile. You may want to copy and paste the sections of your profile that you would like them to review into a document where they can track the changes, making it easier for them to edit and send back to you. As you’ll recall in TPL with introductions and recommendations, the easier you can make your “ask” of your network, the better. You can see your list of connections here:

http://www.linkedin.com/connections?trk=hb_tab_cnts_top

2. I joined too many groups, too fast

Groups are a wildly popular element of LinkedIn.  Recognizing this fact, I jumped into a lot of them (which initially gave me a wave of group emails I didn’t find helpful) and then I realized I wasn’t actually closing business or meeting new people because of them.  Groups are helpful when you join knowing what you want out of them and what you want to contribute that will be helpful to the group.  Without these balanced goals, you may either join a group that isn’t helpful to you or you may be not too helpful (e.g. too sales-minded or self-promotional) to those around you.

Solution:   Go to this page and see what groups you are in and leave the groups that you joined for purely selfish reasons:

http://www.linkedin.com/myGroups?trk=hb_side_grps_top

1. I searched for someone in the mobile app and posted their name in my status

Unfortunately the only solution for this mistake is to pay more attention when acting in LinkedIn.  Between the various levels of functionality, the multiple devices on which you can use LinkedIn and the time-starved nature under which most professionals operate today, there is the potential to make mistakes visible to your network.  Thoughtfully taking things one step at a time while refining or leveraging your digital reputation in front of all the people you know and want to know, is the best course of action here.