The ability to multitask is a must for the working mom. LinkedIn is one of the tools you can use to maintain your work-life balance while also gleaning key insights from other career minded professionals. The site is also a fantastic way to establish your professional identity online, let other professionals know about your recent career accomplishments and even nab your dream job. Look at LinkedIn like a business lunch for 80 million professionals across the globe. With a new member joining every second, LinkedIn has become the de facto place where professionals go to do research, get advice and insights so they can be better at their jobs and build their careers. Below is an array of the best practices and tips for four areas (the who, why, what and where) for getting the most out of LinkedIn.

Who: Your LinkedIn Profile

• Build a profile and make sure it’s 100 percent complete.
• When you are filling out your work history and summary, include keywords you want to be found for. (For example, if you’re a lawyer, include the type of law that you practice, if you do work for individuals or corporations, special accreditations you have achieved, the kinds of clients you specialize in, etc.)
• Get connected to at least 35 people. This is the magic number of connections that enables you to start uncovering first, second or third degree connections that can help you open the door to new career opportunities. Your network should consist of people you know and trust. Connections can be former co-workers, bosses, college classmates, professors, clients, family and friends.
• Upload a professional headshot to your profile. Some people recognize their colleagues and classmates more reliably by face than by name so this is an important addition to your profile. (Especially if you have gotten married and changed your last name.) A good professional photo is cropped and centered.
• Post at least three recommendations on your profile that speak to your strengths. Don’t send a generic recommendation request. Instead opt to send your own personalized request so you receive recommendations that help you stand out from the pack. Here’s an example: “Haley, I’d really appreciate it if you could provide me with a recommendation on LinkedIn. If you could note in the recommendation that you were my manager for three years and discuss my ability to deliver on a tight deadline (like the time you needed that Nike project turned around in 36 hours and I got it back to you in 12) that’d be fantastic.”
• Join the group: workingmother.com

Why: Owning Your Professional Identity Online

• It’s tough to stay in touch. People switch careers, move across the country and take time off to have kids. Being connected on LinkedIn helps you keep track of the people that matter most to you in your career.
• If you haven’t done a Google or Yahoo! search on your name lately, you should. If you have a popular name, like say Jane Smith, a lot of irrelevant information may pop up about other Jane Smiths. Nowadays people do a web search on you before client meetings and even job interviews. LinkedIn Profiles tend to appear high up in search results for your name. That means you can claim your piece of digital real estate at the top of search results and also control that information (since you can change and update your profile whenever you want to).
• Over 60 percent of the Fortune 100 use LinkedIn’s hiring solutions to fill open positions. If you don’t have a profile on LinkedIn (or if your profile isn’t up to date or is missing information), you may be letting the next great job offer pass you by.

What: Things You Can Do To Keep Your Network Healthy

• Make sure you network both online and off. If you are visiting Boston for a conference, do a quick search and see if you can grab coffee or dinner with people in your network that live in that city. (After you sign in, click the “contacts” hyperlink at the top of the page. You’ll notice you can sort your connections by “locations.”)
• Keep your network “warm.” Don’t just rekindle connections when you need things. Periodically touch base with people in your network when you see status updates from them. If you notice a former co-worker just got promoted, congratulate them.
• Join LinkedIn Groups and give advice to other professionals on LinkedIn Answers. Getting involved in discussions and providing your expertise to others will enable you to expand your network/meet new people while also keeping your skills sharp. It might also lead to new clients, job opportunities or other ventures. (If someone is asking a question about their filing their taxes on LinkedIn Answers, they might also be interested in hiring an accountant. If you can provide that person with stellar advice, they might be interested in having you as their accountant full-time. Whatever you do, mind your manners. Look at LinkedIn like a business lunch. Provide insights and advice, get to know other people in the group, but never blatantly ask for a job or simply say people should hire you.)
• Periodically update your status. Did you just land a big client? Did your company just get mentioned in an article in The New York Times? Sharing great news about your company and your career gently nudges your network and reminds them that good things are happening.
• Stay on top of things. There are over a million LinkedIn Company Profiles. Make sure you are following prospective clients, companies you’d like to work for and even competitors. When you follow a company on LinkedIn, you’ll get updates when new employees join the company, when people leave the company and also when new job opportunities are available. These updates will appear on your home page when you login.

Where: Tying in LinkedIn With Other Activities

• Do double duty. Sync your LinkedIn account with your Twitter account. This will enable you to send professional updates to both networks without having to log in to both sites. (You can specify in your settings if you want to share all updates with both networks or if you’d prefer to only have Tweets that have #in go to your LinkedIn network.)
• Add applications and take your LinkedIn profile to the next level. (If you’re in sales, you might want to add the Google Presentation app so you can upload a PowerPoint presentation with cases studies of customers that have successfully used your products. If you are in a creative field, you might want to add the Portfolio Display app by Behance so you can share examples of your visual work.)
• Give yourself a makeover. Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search (just click the “Advanced” hyperlink in the top right-hand corner of LinkedIn after you sign in) to search for your competition. Type in your current title in the “title” field and in the “location” selection put your zip code. Take a look at the people you might be competing with for job offers and promotions. Are there accomplishments in their profile that you’ve also achieved, but left out of your resume or your profile? Are there things about their profile that you dislike? Double-check and make sure that those things aren’t in your profile or your resume.
• Add websites on your LinkedIn profile. If you’ve redesigned a client’s website or there was a great article on your photography studio in the local newspaper, make sure you add those links to your profile.