In the last how to, we talked about how to get your LinkedIn contacts out of LinkedIn.
Now, how do you manipulate them?
One popular way is to import the contacts into Microsoft Outlook, and use the LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar to manage the contacts through LinkedIn.
To get started, you need to download and install the Outlook plugin. At the very bottom of the LinkedIn page, click “Outlook Toolbar.”
On the following page, click the yellow button to download the toolbar installer. The installer will ask you to accept a user agreement and choose a folder to install to, but you can mostly get away with just clicking OK to get you through the screens.
After you’ve installed the plugin and open Outlook, the LinkedIn toolbar walks you through a step-by-step setup. While it scans your Outlook email for potential connections, pay attention. It will show you some of the more powerful features of the toolbar.
For instance, this little splash page highlights two of the more important benefits of the LinkedIn dashboard (just push the “Dashboard” button). The dashboard will show you people you email that you’re not yet connected with on LinkedIn, and will allow you to track which of your contacts you need to follow up with based on your own Keep in Touch reminders.
The “Grab” button is also a huge time saver, allowing you to highlight address/contact information in an email, hit the button, and have the information automatically populate a new contact.
Lastly, when you’re reading an email, in the top right corner you’ll see a new icon:
When you hover over that icon, you can see info about the email sender on LinkedIn, including their number of connections, recommendations, and their LinkedIn status.
If you want to become more comprehensive about how you use LinkedIn for networking, the Outlook Toolbar may be a good tool for you. And it’s free! No risk if you don’t like it.
Have you used the Outlook toolbar?
Related posts:
- HowTo LinkedIn #7: Take your connections with you
- HowTo LinkedIn #5: Add a photo
- Left out on LinkedIn: How can I use LinkedIn more effectively?
- HowTo LinkedIn #3: Connect with the people that you know
- Job search tip: Finding the hiring manager, Part 3
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve had some problems with the LinkedIn toolbar for Outlook; for me it shows the same updates every day. It doesn’t remember what’s been updated. Every day, it tells me that the same people have changed their profile, but they haven’t. Every day, it tells me that I should invite the same people. It even tells me to invite someone to my LinkedIn network, then below it, it tells me that this person (who’s already in my network) has updated their profile. I reported the bug to LinkedIn and got a very useless form letter in return (“…this affects a small number of users…”). The other tools are good (grab, etc.), but the dashboard is useless to me.
David: I’ve seen some little blips with LinkedIn lately as well — invitations to connect that stay in my inbox even though I’ve already accepted them and the like. I’m hoping that the system gets a few important tweaks. Glad that the grab tool is worthwhile for you… and good feedback for those considering the toolbar.
Hi
You should give relevant links in the article, e.g., for this outlook toolbar. It would help us.
Thanks
Nimesh: At the time the post was written, a direct link didn’t work as the toolbar was behind the login. Now, there’s a page I can point you to: Outlook Social Connector.