5 often-neglected LinkedIn best practices

The career-focused platform affords an array of opportunities to network and to build your professional brand.

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LinkedIn has more than 200 million members, and when it comes to that platform, it appears fewer people are saying, “I don’t need another social network.”

It’s easy to be myopic about the career-focused site, especially when you’re out of work and scrambling for a new gig. However, the most successful people on LinkedIn are ones who take a different tack. They are not trying to find a job; they are trying to build their personal brands and advance their careers. That distinction is what separates the strong from the weak on this growing and hyper-networked platform.

Think of LinkedIn as a dynamic resume. It’s a place where your interests, personality, and capabilities come to life in a vibrant system of links, logos, videos, images, and more. Let’s face it: A resume can take you only so far in 2013. Summing up a career through active verbs methodically aligned on ivory-color, cotton paper truly underutilizes the tools at hand. Resumes remain distant and sterile, and they are fast becoming a relic of the pre-Internet society.

So, how do you make the most of LinkedIn and build your personal brand in the process? Here are five ways to help you fit in, yet stand out.

1. Be a player in the news feed.

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