We are very happy to welcome our first Social Media Monday guest post. We love hearing from other parents that love social media as much as we do!
by Melany
This week on Social Media Monday, we’re going to explore LinkedIn and how it is a great tool for expanding your professional network and creating business opportunities for yourself.
With over 80 million members, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, and according to Wikipedia, approximately every second a new member joins. People in all stages of their career use the site to connect with friends and colleagues, find experts and ideas and to explore career opportunities. It’s like a resume, a networking tool and an online resource all in one.
While you may already have an account with Facebook or Twitter, a LinkedIn account is different. The tools and resources available are designed to support career development and to help you manage your online identity to ensure it reflects the information about yourself you want prospective employers or customers to discover. Companies, recruiters and entrepreneurs all use LinkedIn to promote their business, announce job opportunities and to research prospective employees, vendors and clients. As a result, having a presence on LinkedIn is another way to make yourself or your business discoverable.
Often it is who you know, not what you know, that provides career advancement opportunities. Your next big career move, your next customer, could develop from from a chat you have with another parent on the playground or at a playgroup. LinkedIn can help you solidify those connections online so that you can keep the discussion going, strengthen those shared professional interests and broaden your professional network.
If you are a mompreneur or owner of a small business, LinkedIn can help you to develop partnerships and connections to grow your business. It gives you the capability to evaluate potential business partners and vendors, and to keep in touch with past and present clients/customers.
LinkedIn also offers mobile applications for Blackberry and iPhone so you can access your connections, profiles, and network updates on the go.
Four Steps to Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn
1. Build your profile
Through your LinkedIn account you can customize your profile, choose how your information is displayed, how you want to be contacted, and set your overall privacy preferences. Your profile on LinkedIn enables people to connect and reconnect with you. Use it to:
- provide basic information about yourself
- list your career history, education and accomplishments
- pitch yourself or your business
- promote the URL of your personal and/or company website, including a blog
LinkedIn integrates with several third-party applications to give you even more customization capabilities. You can stream your Twitter feed to your profile, syndicate your blog articles, upload presentations and examples from your portfolio, and lots more.
2. Make connections
LinkedIn uses the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree labels as a way to organize your connections.
Your 1st degree contacts are your direct contacts, the people you have a pre-existing relationship with, either through work, school or another shared interest. Connecting with someone on LinkedIn who isn’t a direct contact requires an introduction by a mutual contact or you inviting that person to connect with you. That person must then accept your invitation in order to become one of your 1st degree contacts.
A great first step is to sync your email contacts so that you can build your network of connections quickly from your real-world network. Then use the “People You May Know” feature to connect with others.
3. Grow your network
To grow your network on LinkedIn, a great habit to get into is to follow-up with people you meet in real-life or through other social sites like Twitter, with a request to connect on LinkedIn. To reach out to others on LinkedIn you can:
- Use Invitations to ask people you already know in the real-world to join your LinkedIn network. You can also use People Search to find and then invite people to connect with you on LinkedIn. Select the “Add [Name] to your Network” feature found on the right side of the user’s profile to send your invitation.
- Ask for an introduction. The Introductions feature is great for reaching out to people you may not know directly. Having a mutual contact make the introduction on your behalf validates the request and can help put it into context.
- If you upgrade your LinkedIn account to a premium account, you can send a message to another member via InMail™. Your message is delivered straight to the member’s LinkedIn inbox to ensure your message and contact information is kept private.
When requesting an introduction or sending an invitation to connect, personalize your message so that the recipient understands why you are contacting them. Doing so provides relevance to the request and elevates its credibility by demonstrating your sincerity in making a connection.
4. Build Relationships
Use the tools and resources available in LinkedIn to develop and sustain relationships with others.
- Write and request Recommendations - Use this feature to reinforce your expertise and credibility as a job candidate or business owner. Invite colleagues, clients and other professional contacts to write recommendations for you that appear in your profile. Then reciprocate! These testimonials reinforce your stated work history, accomplishments and business relationships.
- Join or Create a Group - A great way to build relationships and demonstrate your expertise is to create or join industry or shared interests groups on LinkedIn. Use LinkedIn’s Groups Directory to search for a group by industry or keyword and then submit a request to join. Once your request is accepted join in on the discussions!
- Share your knowledge via Answers - Promote your domain expertise by answering a question posted to the LinkedIn Answers section. You can also pose a question to get fast, accurate answers from your network and other experts worldwide.
- Research Companies - Find and explore potential companies to work for or do business with. The information you see in the company pages comes from two sources— Capital IQ, a LinkedIn partner, and LinkedIn user data. LinkedIn has indicated on its FAQs for Company pages that companies will soon be able to edit certain information on their profile, such as description, headquarters address, website and revenue.
Explore!
The above is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes using LinkedIn to promote your professional expertise and/or your business. Keep your profile updated and regularly explore LinkedIn’s many features and tools to expand your professional network and create business opportunities for yourself.
Melany is the mom of a rambunctious 15-month old girl and is a self-professed social media junkie. She blogs at melgallant.wordpress.com about motherhood, pop culture, social media, and whatever else comes to mind. Connect with Melany via her blog, Twitter or LinkedIn.
