Jenny Bernade, head of social media at digital marketing agency Bozboz, shares her professional experience of using LinkedIn with five important networking pointers.

Ensure your profile is fully up to date

“LinkedIn will give you a blue star on your profile when it’s fully updated and will push you to update your profile and fill in any gaps.”

Contribute to the newsfeed and share relevant updates

“Make sure your updates are set to ‘public’ – this means when your connections engage with the post, their connections can see your update too. Think of it like your personal brand awareness and the number of impressions your content is making.

“Use hashtags in your updates so people outside of your network can browse content, find updates and connect with you.”

Go out and make connections with people in your industry

“Search industry job titles, keywords, or companies for people you might like to connect with. When you connect with someone, include their name and add a personal note to acknowledge their interests are similar to yours.”

Connect with users who have engaged with your content

“The chances are, if they liked your content, they’ll want to speak to you about potential opportunities. Again, when you connect, thank them for engaging with you.”

Join networking groups and follow other company pages

“You can spend a long time on LinkedIn reading and engaging with articles from other experts, and finding new people to connect with. Once you get involved and active in the online community, you will find your network grow as you meet people across the platform.”

No matter how effective online connections can be , nothing can take the place of building offline relationships, so where possible, get on the phone, jump on Skype, organise a coffee meetup and build on those relationships. Dont neglect the good ole fashion way of communicating that served us well for years before the birth of the social media. You never know where it may lead.