You’ve built a network of professional contacts on LinkedIn; here’s the most direct way to import them into Google+.

There’s been a lot of discussion on Google+ about how to best utilize the social network lately. Last week +Ryan Crowe published an article, “Using Google+ and LinkedIn to Expand Your Professional Network” contemplating the merging of the two and his personal suggestions on doing so. After giving it some thought I decided to toy with the idea of how I’d best leverage the two networks together. The first step of course is getting your contacts into Google+.

A quick search came up with a few articles discussing ways to get your contacts into Google+. However, nearly all of them provided a very round-a-bout way of accomplishing this where you first import everyone into Gmail/Google Contacts. You can of course import your LinkedIn contacts into your Gmail account, and if you find value in having those professional contacts available that way there is nothing wrong with that approach. However, you don’t have to go through the step of exporting from LinkedIn, into Google Contacts, and then into Google+. Google+ allows for a direct import of .CSV and .VCF formats; LinkedIn will export to BOTH!

Export LinkedIn Contacts

• Log into your LinkedIn account and hit “Contacts” on the top navigation bar
• Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click Export connections
• You’ll be presented with a screen showing the formats you can export to and a CAPTCHA. Outlook CSV is the default so simply fill out the CAPTCHA and click Export.

Import LinkedIn Contacts to Google+

• Log into your Google+ account
• Click the Circles icon
• Choose Upload Address Book and when the dialog box appears just point it to the CSV file exported by LinkedIn

Of course Google+ currently requires a Google Account to have access to the platform, for more information on Google Accounts visit the Google Accounts Help Center or the Google+ Profiles Help pages.

Article originally published for Plusheadlines.