Looking to expand your LinkedIn network? Tired of individually finding people and clicking the Connect button?
I have good news for you… THERE’S A MUCH EASIER WAY!
Rather than linking with people one by one, you can quickly find people you know by allowing LinkedIn access to your online email address book. Heck, you can also import your offline address book as a .csv file if you use Outlook rather than an online email provider.
Let me show you how:
1. Hover your cursor over Network at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and select Add Connections. (You can also click on the Add Connections icon in the upper right hand corner of your LinkedIn screen)
2. Click the button for the email provider you use. If your provider isn’t listed OR if you want to import a CSV file, click the Any Email button.
3. Enter your information.
4. Click Continue.
DANGER WILL ROBINSON! LinkedIn automatically selects all contacts on the displayed list to be invited. If you don’t want to send invitations to everyone on the list, be sure to uncheck the Select All box and individually check the boxes next to contacts you want to invite.
I’ve seen grown men CRY over this! Be careful… you don’t want to blindly invite your entire email address book.
But my address book is in Outlook… how do I create a file to upload?
Ultimately you need to get into your offline email program and export your address book… here’s how to do it in Outlook:
1. Open Outlook
2, Click the File > Options > Advanced
4. Under Export, click the Export button.
5. Under Choose an action to perform, select Export to a file and click Next.
6. Under Create a file of type, select Comma separated values (Windows) and click Next.
7. Select the contacts folder you’d like to export and click Next.
8. Name and save your file, and then click Next.
9. Make sure the checkbox next to Export is checked and click Next.
And with this new information, go forth and multiply your LinkedIn network, my children!
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Importing csv files into Linkedin is no longer supported consistently.
Sometimes it works, but more recently, it’s been failing every time.
This was very helpful. I was looking for a way to send invites to a large group. I wonder if there’s a way to invite members of other social media networks to LinkedIn?