help” books that will hold your hand through the process of creating an effective profile. The “Social Media Marketing Workbook” is an example that provides a lot of step by step advice that, on top of the interactive guidelines already built into LinkedIn, will help an inexperienced user to create a successful profile. Jason McDonald first begins his tutorial on LinkedIn by describing its structure much like I have already done. He goes through the general outline of the site including the influence of personal profiles, business pages and the news and social feed that are all featured on the platform. After this brief introduction of the site, he begins to provide advice on the actual construction of your profile. He provides advice for what to use when filling out the standard questions during profile creations such as your personal summary, your work experience and your education. Once the general setup of the account is outlined, he goes into what I believe is the most important function of LinkedIn. The connections that you make with others.
Connections on LinkedIn are incredibly similar to the friend requests that are received on the Facebook platform. There are two types of connections on Linked in, first level and second level. A first level contact is somebody who accepts a request to connect that has been sent by you. A second level contact is somebody who is a first level contact of one of your first level contacts. The book goes on to state that interacting with your first level connections is one of the best ways to reap the benefits of LinkedIn. Posting material that is not only interesting to you, but also to your connections is a great way to build a professional relationship. LinkedIn also allows for you to tag connections in your posts to ensure that it appears on their feed, and increase the likelihood of them actually reading and commenting on what you have put on your feed. Another effective way that I have personally had a great deal of success with is the messaging capability that is built into the platform. This service allows for discrete communication to either one or a group of individuals without it being broadcast out onto the feed. This is a great way to privately discuss job prospects, information exchanges or even just chit chat in a professional manner with the connections that you have made. I would strongly recommend utilizing this tool as a means of bettering existing relationships that you have already made with connections on LinkedIn. These connections could end up flourishing into a lasting contact in industry, a potential job offer, help with resume and profile building or even something as simple as asking permission to contact them outside of LinkedIn.The book also offers tips on how to interact with second level connections that you have made on the site. The interaction between a profile and a second level connection is very limited. The only real way to interact with a person on the platform is for them to become a first level connection. I personally have just always sent an invitation to connect with people who were second level connections, however the book suggests a different approach. The book recommends first doing a key-word search for the person you wish to connect with. This search will display through which first level connection you and this person are connected. The book then suggests that you request that this first level connection introduce you to the second level connection you are interested in. This consists of a personal message to the person that it essentially sent on your behalf through your first level connection. While this does seem like a more formal way of connecting, I personally think it is a lot of steps for something you could easily do with a personalized connection request. The book continues to outline the other features of LinkedIn in relative detail, but I believe that the most useful section is the outline of how to manage your connections. After all, your connections are your main resource for information and introduction on this platform, and they may be hiring.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI like that you talked a lot about LinkedIn for this post. I believe that LinkedIn is a very helpful resource when entering the workforce. Also, I think it is a great social media platform for people to network and build relationships on as well. I think it is very important that everyone continues to meet as many people as possible because in life you never know where your next step could be. By connecting with others you could set yourself up for a potential job offer or even gain a new customer. great post.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI am really glad we are learning more about LinkedIn with this book. After discussing the platform in class, I made an account and spent a couple hours customizing it! LinkedIn is a very unique form of social media. I find it really interesting. I have also been looking for internships through it! This is definitely a platform people should utilize.
Crystal