LinkedIn is much more than a job search website. For students and professionals, LinkedIn serves as a platform to manage your professional network, share ideas, research companies and contacts, discover new career and business opportunities and develop a personal web presence. Business professionals use LinkedIn on a daily basis to learn about the backgrounds of business associates, identify and screen prospective hires and uncover sales opportunities and contacts.

The following column includes some high-level suggestions and tips on how to make the most of LinkedIn.

Develop a professional online presence

The first and most important step toward effectively utilizing LinkedIn is to complete your professional profile. LinkedIn users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.

The key items Elon University students should focus on while building their LinkedIn profiles include desired industry and location, an up-to-date current position with a description, past positions or internships, skills (minimum of three) and a professional profile photo. Include Elon and any other applicable schools, major(s) and international study. An informative profile headline with a short, memorable professional slogan will help promote your skills and intentions.

Students can further improve their profiles and demonstrate professional commitment by adding extracurricular activities and coursework and sharing relevant articles, reports or projects. And remember, LinkedIn isn’t Facebook. Your photo and all content should be professional, appropriate and accurate.

Build your professional network

Once your LinkedIn profile is complete, it’s time to connect with colleagues and peers. Your time at Elon presents a unique opportunity to start building your professional network. As a student, you meet new people on a daily basis and have access to accomplished professors, business professionals and supportive Elon alumni and parents. Alumni and other contacts are more likely to want to help you while you're still a student. Nurture these relationships while there's no pressure, and your contacts will be more likely to want to help you when you transition to the work world.

A great starting point is to connect with friends, classmates and current and former colleagues. While it’s acceptable to use the default invitation message for connecting with close friends and colleagues, a personal message is always more effective. An efficient way to identify these contacts is to sync your email accounts to find people you know.

The next step to building your professional network is to connect with business acquaintances and second-degree connections. When connecting with people you do not know personally, it is very important to include a personalized introductory note. Make sure the note includes the detail that connects you to the person (mutual connection, school, hometown, employer) and the reason you want to connect. The reason shouldn’t be that you want a job. Asking for a 15-minute informational interview to learn more about your connection’s company and career is a great way to initiate a relationship.

The focus should be building and maintaining a broad network of professionals you can trust, not a bunch of random people you don’t know. Pro Tip – Don’t connect with hiring managers directly before or following a job interview. Stalk much?

Check out LinkedIn’s alumni application by visiting here. This application is an opportunity to search and connect with the 17,000+ Elon students and alumni on LinkedIn. You can filter your search by industry, city and company to help you find specific alumni with whom you would like to connect.

Uncover opportunities

Steve Dalton, author of "The 2-Hour Job Search" and Senior Associate Director in Duke University's MBA Career Management Center, encourages students to focus on using the right technology and connecting to the right people in a job search. Steve suggests students develop a list of companies they are interested in and try to find people in those places who might help them. LinkedIn makes this incredibly easy. Find a contact, join a group that corresponds to your target industries, functions and locations, and you've just earned the ability to directly email them for free through the group's members page.

By following companies of interest on LinkedIn, you'll be able see your connections at the company, new hires, promotions, jobs posted, related companies and company statistics.

Take notice of the groups that are relevant to your target companies and industries. Sharing news, interacting with other members and being an active group member is a great way to increase your visibility and demonstrates your desire to connect with people with whom you have something in common.

For example, if you are interested in careers in Digital Media, become an active member of the Digital Media Living group. University and geographic interest and affinity groups like LinktoCharlotte or Elon’s New York City Alumni Chapter can also help you grow your network and increase your odds of uncovering the right opportunities. Elon’s LinkedIn group, The Elon Network, is a great way to connect to Elon alumni, faculty/staff, parents and other students. There are nearly 7,000 members of the group who are resources to you.

Stay active

Staying active on LinkedIn is just as important as completing your profile and building your network. Even once you have found a job, remember to update your status and interact in groups. Successful professionals make a practice of actively nurturing their networks long before they are in job search mode.

LinkedIn is a tremendous networking tool that makes it easy to stay in touch with colleagues and can keep you well positioned for your next career move or sales call.