You've probably heard of it. You may have already
signed up. But how much do you know about the
social networking website called LinkedIn?
You may be thinking the following:
- That's probably a great tool for 20-somethings to
take advantage of
- Sounds interesting, but, really. Who has the time
for something like this?
- Networking through a website? How does that
work?
- I have already registered, but I'm not seeing
valuable results. Am I missing something?
If any of the above thoughts represent you, I
encourage you to read on for a crash course on this
essential networking tool for anyone interested in
growing their professional and personal network.
For starters, it is important to understand the
concepts behind online networking. To best explain
how LinkedIn works, allow me to paint a quick picture.
Imagine that you are at a party where everyone walks
around with a list of all of the people they trust in their
social network. After quickly scanning a few of your
fellow party-goers lists, you see names of friends you
have in common or names of people you've been
dying to meet. A friend of yours has someone on their
list that would be a perfect business partner for you.
Another person lists a key contact at the company
where you are applying for a job. At a normal party
(without lists), even if you can really work a room, you
leave without realizing the small degrees of
separation between you and the people you would
like to meet. LinkedIn helps you see these degrees
of separation and allows you to ask your primary
connection if they would introduce you to others.
Instead of cold calling people, you now have an
intermediary who can introduce you.
Seeing other people's networks allows both parties to
have a richer networking experience, and that's what
LinkedIn does for you. This level of transparency can
be frightening at first. You have spent years building
your trusted network, so why would you want other
people to leverage it so easily? Don't worry...you have
control over who gets to see your network and you can
choose whether or not to pass on an introduction.
Features like this are why LinkedIn has become so
popular among business professionals - you can be
as inclusive or exclusive as you want.
For a website that has only been in existence for
several years, it already has quite an impressive list
of members. All 500 of the Fortune 500 are
represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are
represented by director-level and above employees.
So, how can you tap into this invaluable opportunity?
Here are three tips to make the most of being
LinkedIn:
Complete your profile
Nothing is more
important to building trust and getting noticed on
LinkedIn than completing the profile template after
signing up. A profile with only a name and current
employer gives the wrong impression. Did this
person ask their teenage son to sign them up on the
site? Does this person really value their networking
relationships? Could they be hiding something?
Here are some quick tips for completing a profile that
will get you noticed:
- Enter all of your employment history with a brief
explanation of your responsibilities and
accomplishments at each employer. Be detailed in
areas you want people to notice.
- Make each word count. All words are keyword
searchable using LinkedIn's search page.
- Add your education details to make it easier for
you to connect to your school's alumni. This is great
for job searching and finding old friends.
- Leverage the tool to promote your business. If
your business has a website, you should add your
URL to your profile. That way, someone who looks at
your profile can quickly navigate straight to your
business and you'll get more page views.
- Select to make your LinkedIn profile public and it
can be found with a Google Search. The more
information it has, the higher it will appear when
someone "Googles" you.
Critical mass is 20
People with more
than
twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to
be approached with a job opportunity than people with
less than five.
This handy statistic from LinkedIn is the number one
reason that people either leverage the power of
LinkedIn or give up after logging in a few times.
Getting started can be slow and you might start
wondering what all the fuss is about. Make it a goal to
link to at least 20 people you know and watch your
network grow quickly from there. If you have a service
or area of expertise that interests people, you'll soon
have people requesting to connect.
What's your networking objective?
After reaching 20 connections you'll quickly see the
power of the network - this is exciting for some and
scary for others. If you're like me, your reasons for
networking can vary week to week. Sometimes I'm
looking to meet new people in a field of interest and I
leverage my existing network to seek new people I've
never met. Other times I'd rather lean on old friends
and colleagues (my first degree connections on
LinkedIn) to accomplish my networking objectives.
The good news is neither approach is better than the
other. In fact, most people use both approaches on
LinkedIn.
For example, you can connect with only the people
you know best, but unless you have a very diverse
group of close friends that vary widely by age, field of
expertise, and geographic location, it will be hard to
get access to a broader network. On the other hand, if
you connect with the Gen Y new hire down the hall
that you just met, you now have access to a whole
new group of people on LinkedIn that you wouldn't
normally run into at a cocktail party. Try responding to
that person requesting to connect from Europe that
you may not know very well. Why? Because you
would then be able to view not only their primary
connections, but more importantly, you'll have access
to search three degrees of their connections (which
could be tens of thousands of people), vastly
diversifying your searchable LinkedIn network. The
more connections you add, the more people you can
search for, and the more likely you will find that one
person who can help you achieve your networking
goals, whatever they may be. This comes in really
handy when you're looking for a business partner,
new job, or referral.
Give LinkedIn a try. With a small initial time
investment, you'll quickly grasp the power of this
unique networking tool.
Boyd Christian is a Talent Development Consultant
for The Coca-Cola Company.
