So many people I talk to say, "yeah, I use LinkedIn, but I do not really now why.
" I am sure that you have heard it before also.
I was just in a job search seminar this morning and the guy doing the teaching stated hist distaste for LinkedIn openly to the audience.
It was at that point, when I decided that I needed to share how I have effectively used LinkedIn.
I do not work for, or own stock in or have family members working for LinkedIn.
I simply think it is valuable to me.
I will admit that I have also been a subscriber to LinkedIn for over 18 months and it has grown a good layer of dust until I finally got clear on its usefulness to me.
For the younger people out there, no doubt you have adopted LinkedIn since you have grown up on sharing your life in one's and zero's.
For those of us "more accustomed to the past," using web resources like LinkedIn is akin to adopting texting when the we know that a telephone works "perfectly well.
" For Whom Does LinkedIn Work? LinkedIn is not used the same way for all people.
Maybe LinkedIn has not done a very good job in educating people on what to use it for.
For small businesses and private practice individuals, LinkedIn is good for seeking out professional peers and obtaining suppliers, for individuals it is a great place to obtain recruits, and for individuals it is a place to seek others of similar interests.
3 Fabulous Uses for LinkedIn In this article I am going to tell you just how to use this thing so that you can spend as little time doing it as possible and get the most out of it.
The focus here is on the benefit to you.
LinkedIn is all about you.
It is not public service duty or some exercise in doing something that you should do (like straightening up the junk draw in the kitchen).
It is something to groom that captures who you are to ready yourself for what it is you do in the world.
OK.
And so you may say, and what about Face book, doesn't that do the same thing? Well yes, sort of.
Face book is all about you also.
Face book is a very social-oriented site where hanging out, discussing attitudes, beating the celebrity hollow log, bringing product offerings to light are possibilities.
LinkedIn to me is about moving yourself forward in your life, profession, and interests.
LinkedIn is for seriously moving ahead in the world.
Maybe you are a poet, a hot-shot marketing professional or fisherman that wants to get to life quickly.
LinkedIn is a great place to be what you want to be now.
Let me tell you exactly what LinkedIn can do for you.
1.
Establish Your Brand What the hell does that mean? The word brand is getting thrown around these days in a way that I have never seen before.
When I used to think about the word "brand," I would think of that stupid rooster on the Corn Flakes box.
In the case of you (which is what this article is all about), your brand is all of the things about you that never change and you can be counted on for, by others.
It is the way you behave, the way you think, the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you approach problems, the way you complete work, the things you do not do.
On LinkedIn, you will (or possibly already have) completed your profile.
I am going to suggest to you the three things that will help you be the person that you want to be using LinkedIn.
First off, there is a place to put your picture.
For the things you need to do in your life, how is it that you want to portray yourself in a photo? Are you truly a formal person for which a suit or a dress would best represent you manner.
Perhaps you would rather display yourself as a more artistic or creative individual.
Or maybe yet, you will want to put a graphic element or picture of something that relates best to the cause you stand for.
Second, there is a place for a written summary for you.
This can be pure magic.
What are the words define who you are? The person that you have always been.
Tenacious, fundamentalist, martini-spilling gregarious, humanitarian to the core, or detailed oriented (your junk drawer is actually organized).
These are the things you are.
They are assets.
That is what a brand is, it is an asset.
State them.
You know what they are.
Take some time to write them down, look at them tomorrow, finalize them the day after, and again Saturday.
Put them in your summary.
Also state also what type of change you want to see in your life, your world or the people or causes that concern you.
Also state in general terms how it is you want to go about making those changes.
Lastly, use only as much of your experience, education, and history that line up with what it is you want to accomplish.
You do not need to be stuffy.
So many people get really stiff and boring in their LinkedIn profiles.
Be who you are.
Put in what you learned from being a bartender in college or what you would like to tell others about being a starving artist.
Your brand will ultimately be know by your audience.
This is your opportunity to be honest with yourself about it and get clear.
Do not waste your time being anyone else but you.
2.
Your Community Awaits In LinkedIn is a section in the upper left of your Home page called "groups.
" This is where you can join various groups of interest to you.
This is very powerful from both a personal and professional standpoint.
You can only be passionate or effective in an area of your life that has meaning to you.
The group section of LinkedIn allows you to search using keywords to find groups of use or interest to you.
There are many types of groups here - bird watchers, wind energy enthusiasts, knitting and crocheting group, senior executive network and PTA groups.
So, join a group or a couple.
Read the posts.
Get comfortable with the kinds of things people discuss.
What type of things would you want to talk about.
Take the initiative and create a posting about something of which are passionate.
Remember that in any group sometimes it is better to give first and receive later.
So I would recommend strongly that you respond to some other peoples' questions or statements with suggestions or encouragements or just a simple acknowledgment.
The goal here is to recognize that you are part of a community in your area of interest.
The community in this case just happens to be waiting for you on LinkedIn.
The channel does not define the community, the community defines the channel (in this case it is LinkedIn).
The pictures of others will confirm that these are people just like you.
3.
Tell Us What You Know One way of making a difference in your life is to tell people what you know.
Maybe you have heard that many people's greatest fear is public speaking.
Yet, nearly everyone has the need to tell someone what they know or to help someone else.
Within LinkedIn is an application that can be added into your profile that allows you to create a presentation in slides of what you know or what you want to tell others or if you are looking for a job, you can tell them what you know technically.
This sort of presentation is so much easier to read in bullet points than in long sentences or paragraphs.
Better yet, use graphics and pictures.
Above the using the brand new applications in LinkedIn can create uniqueness of your LinkedIn appearance.
There are several ways of putting some unique features such as using visitor polls to engage your visitors, creating a web-quality blog, adding a You Tube video of you.
Think about it.
If you are looking to get hired, what better way to show who you are than a video of you talking about who you are, or what you have done and what you will do for whom you get hired.
The possibilities are big.
Summary It is all really about you.
It has always been.
Even this article is about you.
Everything you choose to do is all about you.
LinkedIn is about seriously promoting you and your stuff to the world.
I would suggest you take this useful platform to take your life to the stage and make the case for yourself.
© Copyright - 2008 Frank Dobner