150. Hypothetical (hopefully educational) LinkedIn value ladder

1. You register on LinkedIn following a friend's / colleague's invitation
2. You spend 20 minutes entering your previous jobs (only the titles, no job description)
3. You spend 60 minutes writing a concise summary of your professional status / goal / background
4. You spend 30 inviting close friends and trusted colleagues
5. You suddenly realize it might be a good idea to write a description of your responsibilities in previous jobs, so you spend 60 minutes on it
6. You spend 30 brainstorming about who else to invite to your LinkedIn network
7. You spend about 10 minutes to write a highly customized invitation letter to each new invitee, spelling out the benefits for them

The above is just a hypothetical sequence of activities a person might engage in, to use LinkedIn to his/her advantage. I call it a Value Ladder because the more you go down the list, the higher the likelihood that you will extract value from being "linked in."