LinkedIn guru Wayne Breitbarth has a message for everyone who hasn’t joined the 80 million members of the largest professional networking site on the Internet. Don’t join, at least until you have a strategy. Then, when you do, you’ll be amazed by the connections you develop.

“I went into this thing saying I want nothing to do with it,” he says of his first exposure to LinkedIn. That changed “once I had that ‘ah-ha’ moment” and realized how connecting with other business people through the web could help him, and others, be more successful in business.

Breitbarth is returning to Nashville March 18 and 19 to sign copies of his just-released book, “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success,” and to teach a seminar. That class, “LinkedIn Power Formula Training for Beginners,” is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 19 at ESpaces, 4322 Harding Pike.

Everyone who purchases a $59 ticket can bring a friend to the seminar for free. See meetup.com/Nashville-Tech/events/16531508/?a=socialmedia for more information.

Breitbarth will drop in on March 18 to sign copies of his book at Barnes & Noble in Cool Springs, 1701 Mallory Lane. On March 19 at 2 p.m., he will sign copies at Landmark Booksellers, 114 E. Main St. in Franklin.

He says the “takeaway” for seminar participants is an understanding of LinkedIn’s capabilities and the confidence to decide how they want to begin using them. Then, instead of ignoring those e-mail messages that say someone wants to connect with you on LinkedIn, they’ll confidently click “yes.”

“You’ll get rid of the fear factor. Baby Boomers didn’t grow up with this stuff,” Breitbarth says of social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

His typical audience is mostly Baby Boomers who came of age long before social media or even the Internet existed. About a quarter of each audience are people in their late 30s and their 40s. His audiences understand the advantage of having a network of personal contacts but often hesitate to use the Internet as a tool to develop their network.

“This tool is super powerful for those of us who don’t want to do it,” Breitbarth says.

When he speaks to college-age audiences, Breitbarth says the opposite is true. They understand the value of social networking sites but haven’t spent years developing their own network of professional contacts.

To use LinkedIn successfully, it’s important to know what it is – and what it isn’t, he says.

“Most people think you log into LinkedIn and out of the screen will flow orders for whatever you sell,” Breitbarth says.

Those users are going to be disappointed, he adds.

“It’s a networking site. It’s not an advertising site,” Breitbarth says.

That doesn’t mean LinkedIn members aren’t interested in making more contacts, doing more business, making more money or creating more opportunities.

“We know building relationships will build your business,” he says.

In “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success,” Breitbarth uses screen shots from the LinkedIn website to demonstrate its features and how to use them and explains how to create a profile, use keywords to help find and be found by others, build a base of connections, solicit recommendations and more.

For more information about Breitbarth and his book, visit powerformula.net/

New LinkedIn members “need to have a plan,” says Breitbarth. “But you can’t have a plan until they uncover the tools on LinkedIn that can help you.”