Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

LinkedIn has become a useful site for networking and occasionally even job hunting. With over 100 million members, it's now something of a knowledge-sharing destination as well, with tools making it possible to pose questions to professionals inside and outside of your network. Here are just are a couple ways to get more out of your activity there.

Turning LinkedIn contacts into email contacts.

Did you know that it's possible to export your LinkedIn connections via email? This useful trick is easy to manage; just log into your LinkedIn account, go to linkedin.com/connections and select your connections. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'Export Connections' on the right. From there you can choose the email account you'd prefer to export to. This trick makes all your connections easy to contact via your preferred email client.

Following companies on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn allows you to "follow" companies in a manner similar to Facebook's fan pages for businesses. This is a great way to stay informed about interesting developments and opportunities with companies of interest. To follow a company, simply use the 'More' tab in your toolbar and select 'Companies', then 'Search Companies. You can enter company names in the search field provided and select the 'Follow Company' button when you find the business you're looking for. Once you are actively following a company, you can view recent hires and other activities.

Do you have a LinkedIn trick to share? Leave it in the comments.