LinkedIn is not just for job-seekers
Last night, I attended a Young Professionals of Rock County networking event at Hhffrrrggh Inn in Janesville. Great event. Over great pizza and cold beverages, a group of us talked about LinkedIn and how it really works. What surprised me the most was that many people look at LinkedIn as solely an online resume or only for job-seekers.
Many of you reading this are probably familiar with the basics of creating a professional profile on LinkedIn and connecting with your peers in the industry. However, it still seems to be unclear as to how to effectively use LinkedIn to further expand your reach.
If I could tell you to do just a few things today on LinkedIn to further your business-to-business networking, I recommend doing the following:
Follow existing and potential clients
For example, for those of you in sales, this tip can come in handy. Just like following brands, you can also follow personnel. You can see who has moved from agency to agency, who has been promoted, different clients they are working with etc. Take time to read your LinkedIn email updates. You’ll learn a lot about your network.
Join a group of interest.
If you only have a profile and add connections on LinkedIn, you have missed the whole networking aspect of LinkedIn Groups. Utilize LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers to gain “expertise points” in a specific category that interests you. Users tend to trust those who have expertise. You are not only engaging an audience and providing information, but your ideas and thoughts are being pushed into the news feed of all your connections.
Share links.
Your LinkedIn homepage features the “share” functionality just like the Facebook status bar. By using this feature, you can share a popular industry topics, share your company’s latest announcement or simply post a question pertaining to your market to get instant feedback. This share feature helps you to stay fresh in the minds of your key stakeholders.
How do you use LinkedIn? Does it benefit your career, personal brand? Join the conversation!
Trish Skram is a communications professional who works at Mercy Health System in Janesville and writes about Janesville's professional community. Trish is a community blogger and is not a part of The Gazette staff. Her opinion is not necessarily that of the The Gazette staff or management.
Oct 15, 2011 at midnight
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I have yet to use LinkedIn to its full potential, but as you pointed out there is a broad range of uses for it other than job search. Join some groups of similar interest and learn something or share knowledge. For a limited time, the Relationship Capital Co. is offering free job search training for your unemployed readers at: www.RelationshipCapital.Co/JobNetworking...
Apr 13, 2011 at 8:06 p.m.
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LinkedIn has become so much more than the resume posting-place it started off as. We use LinkedIn to connect and discuss industry-specific topics in the Groups. We use Answers to offer help to those with questions about marketing and social media. Most importantly, we use LinkedIn to maintain relationships with potential-, new-, and existing-customers.
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In a recent training class we demonstrated that LinkedIn can directly benefit many businesses by spending just 15 minutes per day. But, like any other social media, you need to have the right attitude. It's not right for everyone, but anyone can succeed with it.
Apr 11, 2011 at 3:40 a.m.
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Think of it this way. LinkedIn is a social network that is a little bit like Facebook, but you link to colleagues instead of friends -- and the system makes it HARD to make those links instead of EASY. This ensures that most people have high-value networks.
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I was an early adopter, and I have a few very high-profile friends on there who had more career success than I did. I was always stymied, though, because when I was still in Chicago there were very few people in my actual WORK network who used it. As a result, having a robust network did not do me much good, and now in Janesville I'm in something of the same pickle. It's only in the last couple of years that it's begun to penetrate non-major cities like ours. Still, I'm finding it useful in my community activities, and it may yet help me in a few other ways.
Apr 8, 2011 at 7:39 p.m.
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I'd been using LinkedIn as a place for peers mainly, seeking out the like minded of my field of interest. Clients and possible clients are welcome and sought. There is possible work to be had out there, some willing to send work your way if they'e bogged down at the moment. So staying a bit active, such as in group discussions, are important. Beyond that, LinkedIn is visited much less frequently than others like FaceBook or Twitter. I can make one post to either of those and get alot of response immediately, whereas on LinkedIn, not so much and not as 'timely'. So I guess I see it as a way to network with people who know just as much if not more than I do, and I value the input they provide, from ideas to new trends.
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