As I have not yet got my first book published (any day now), you are
reading this online and one can almost assume that you have been invited
to join LinkedIn from a friend or coworker. Did you join? If not, read
on. If you did, use these reasons to evangelize to everyone that’s not
joined up yet – just like I do…
If you are online you cannot have avoided joining one of the social
media networks, Facebook with over 350 million users is by far the
biggest. Whereas Facebook is great for catching up wth friends and
family, LinkedIn focuses on your professional life and even serves as an
online resume. LinkedIn currently boast just over 50 million users,
which means your boss is probably on there. If you managed to sign up
for Facebook, joining LinkedIn will be a walk in the park, albeit a
little longer one.
LinkedIn is a networking tool that gives you access to people and
companies that can help you and your career grow. By joining up, you can
reconnect with current and old colleagues, school mates and other
people that you have crossed paths with in life.
Personal Brand
Your personal brand
needs to beamed out to the masses and LinkedIn is your best channel to
reach out. You want people to search for you and find the information
they were looking for, and hopefully be pleasantly surprised. To raise your profile further you can join in discussions, join groups, get recommendations and create events that will bring you to attention.
Online resume
How many times have you lost your resume and had to trawl through
your email accounts for an old copy? By sticking all your career data on
LinkedIn, you and everyone else can see exactly what you have done in
your working life by simply clicking on your name. By having it online
constantly, it’s obviously easier to update it and it can be done from
any computer anywhere in the world.
Job Search
If you are considering moving jobs, LinkedIn is the place to be as it gives you a presence in your industry and a visibility to recruiters and HR folks that pull up searches based on key words and location. LinkedIn allows you to be found, as opposed to you searching for a job, a project or the other way around. So whether you are actively looking for a job or passively ‘open for suggestions’ – you can let others do the work for you. If you are happy in your job, don’t worry as LinkedIn is not solely based around changing jobs like for instance Monster is.
Sleuthing for information
LinkedIn is great for finding information on people and
organizations. Just like others will spy on you, you can sleuth around
LinkedIn and find out what your new boss has done in the past, what they
look like and what interests they have. You can gather background
information on your suppliers, on prospective customers and anyone else
that deserves a scrutiny by you. LinkedIn is not as closed as Facebook
for instance, all profiles are open to everyone although you can only
contact people direct if you are connected.
Conclusion
LinkedIn will not create your career but it can help to tip the
balance. If you are up against one other person with the exact same
skill level when going for a job, having 5 recommendations on LinkedIn
will certainly be in your favor and could be the deciding factor.
Recruiters, headhunters and HR people have long used LinkedIn as a
primary resource for finding and looking up people. Line managers are
doing the same and so should you. I would venture to say that if you
take your career seriously, you cannot afford not to join LinkedIn.
Anybody still not converted? Tell me…
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