You've optimized your profile. What's next?

Creating a killer profile is a key first step toward building a strong LinkedIn presence, but there is a lot more you can do to nurture your connections and make your profile easy to find. Here are some of the avenues LinkedIn provides to engage with your professional community.

Follow

Follow the influential companies in your target field to stay informed about new discoveries, trends, and current events in your professional sphere. Identify companies where you can imagine working, and follow those too; you'll see job posts sooner and you'll be more likely to show up in their recruiters' searches.

Post, Like, and Comment

Authoring original posts is a fantastic way to boost your visibility, but if you are a little shy about posting at first, don't worry. Plenty of people get meaningful value out of LinkedIn without authoring posts. You can also engage by liking and commenting; these small actions can go a long way toward boosting your visibility.

Endorse and Recommend

There are so many good reasons to endorse and recommend on LinkedIn. Effective team players recognize the contributions of others. By endorsing and recommending current and former colleagues you can show future coworkers that you are capable of acknowledging your teammates. This acknowledgement will also deepen your relationship with the colleagues and collaborators you endorse, not to mention it will increase the likelihood of someone acknowledging you in return.

Here's a profile from Mike, a former Udacity employee . Take a look at his "Recommendations" section. Notice that he has received and given multiple recommendations. Not only does this give us a window into working with Mike, but it shows that he's a colorful and clear communicator.