LinkedIn is all about connecting with colleagues and other professionals for career opportunities, professional networking, and business development. If you went on a job interview, would you leave your contact information blank on your resume? Do you bring business cards with only your name and company to a trade show or industry happy hour? Do you walk out of sales meeting and leave your potential customer with just your email address? The answer to all of those questions is a resounding NO, yet in my experience most people do the equivalent on their LinkedIn profile. Why is it inconceivable to only provide someone with a sliver of your contact information during an interview, networking event, or sales meeting, but almost par for the course on LinkedIn? The answer to that question is most people do not know where to go to edit this information into their profile. To edit your current contact information onto your profile you first need to sign in to LinkedIn and enter the "Edit Profile" mode. Once you are here, look for a tab on the lower right corner of the top box that contains your picture that says "Edit Contact Info". [caption id="attachment_542" align="aligncenter" width="718"] Clicking the Edit Contact Info tab will allow you to add your office number, mobile number, office address, company website, and social sites to the contact info portion of your profile[   Once you drop this tab, you can begin to add your contact numbers, work address, company website, blog, and your social media pages. Adding this information is a critical step in turning your profile into your LinkedIn business card. One of the great features of your LinkedIn business card, compared to your physical business card, is that it is interactive. Your connections can click right on your email and have a new message in Outlook pop up or go directly to your Twitter feed and begin following your social updates. [caption id="attachment_553" align="aligncenter" width="652"] You can add contact phone numbers, work addresses, email addresses, your company website, your blog, and your social pages to the Contact Info tab on your LinkedIn profile[   What is awesome is that once you connect with a potential candidate or prospect, you can find this information on their profile, provided they have added it. Navigate to a new connections profile and simply look for the “Contact Info” tab underneath of their profile picture. This tab is fairly inconspicuous and I am always surprised by how many people never knew it existed anytime I am working with a group on a LinkedIn sales training. [caption id="attachment_539" align="aligncenter" width="653"] The contact info tab appears directly under a 1st degree connection's profile picture and when clicked will always list their email address and any other contact information they have added[   Clicking on this button reveals a drop down window that will share whatever information your connection has added to their "LinkedIn business card". While it is unfortunate that many individuals have left their business cards half blank, LinkedIn will always provide an email address in the Contact Info tab of a first degree connection. [caption id="attachment_538" align="aligncenter" width="645"] Clicking on the contact info tab reveals a drop down box that can contain a wide range of information including phone numbers, addresses, websites, and social sites[   For your connections that have a complete LinkedIn business card, this is a great source for gathering contact information to add into your CRM. You can also use the social links to engage with a connection's social streams by following them on Twitter, liking their Facebook page, or subscribing to their blog. Whether a connection provides a finished LinkedIn business card or one that needs major updating, it is a great resource for gathering as much information as possible about a potential prospect. Whether you are on LinkedIn to find a job, target new prospects, recruit talent, or just simply to network, make sure your LinkedIn business card, just like your real life business card, contains all your correct contact information. This post is the second part of our LinkedIn Profile Tips series. These posts cover various aspects of the LinkedIn profile and provide a wide array of tips and strategies designed to help individuals build a great profile. For more information on how AltaVista Strategic Partners can help your sales professionals create great LinkedIn profiles that can be leveraged to generate sales on LinkedIn, please fill out the contact form on this page, email us, or call us at 410-760-6680.