The trick to building a polished LinkedIn profile that attracts potential employers and contacts and cements your professional reputation isn’t as mysterious or painstaking as you might imagine.

A spin through some of the site’s super-users might give you the impression that you should be linking personal blog entries, joining professional groups, participating in discussions, and otherwise devoting a significant amount of time to online networking. You certainly could (and depending on your line of work, you quite possibly should).

But the foundation of LinkedIn’s effectiveness as an online professional networking site — think of it as the business world’s version of Facebook — rests on making the most of your personal profile. Whether or not you choose to use all the extras, your profile needs to hit all the basics in a way that’s useful to people who are looking for your services. An incomplete profile is like a resume submitted on notebook paper — neither worth your time to put together nor an employer’s time to review.

via The 9 Secrets of a Stand-Out LinkedIn Profile – My Life Scoop.