Blog Post: Cool Tools: Become a LinkedIn power user

Most job hunters have by now at least heard of LinkedIn, the business-oriented social network that has more than 40 million members. But not everyone understands what a force this site is becoming in the world of careers.
According to a story earlier this month broadcast on NPR, using LinkedIn and related sites are part of the new rules of engagement between job-seekers and recruiting companies. A well-composed LinkedIn profile can do a number of things to boost your image with an employer:

• It can provide a three-dimensional view of your resume, since visitors can click on links to your company’s website, your blog(s), etc.
• It can showcase your work, through links to articles, PowerPoint slide decks of presentations you’ve done, etc.
• It can provide instant credibility, in the form of recommendations from others in your network.
• It can demonstrate your influence in your field, through the size of your network and participation in groups related to your work.

It does take some work, however, to get to the point where LinkedIn is providing these benefits to you. Here are a few tips to help you move your use of the network from perfunctory to perfect.

• Marketing guru Guy Kawasaki, in his now-famous “Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn” post on his How to Change the World blog, suggests selecting a custom URL for the public version of your LinkedIn profile that contains your name to improve your Google PageRank. This makes it more likely that recruiters will find your profile (which is information you want them to have, in a format you control) near the top of their searches for you on the Internet.
• Technology journalist and social media author Paul Gillin notes in a post from earlier this year that participating in LinkedIn’s Answers section, where members can post their questions about nearly anything to a select group of connections or to the entire membership, is a great way to showcase one’s skills to a group that extends beyond one’s personal network. The site enables members to rate the quality of responses and showcases the most prolific contributors in a Hall of Fame section.
• Dawn Jordan, a former VP at Bank of America, noted in a guest post on the official LinkedIn blog last week that her use of LinkedIn had saved her hundreds of dollars as she networked after her job at the bank was eliminated last year.

 

She said, “I use LinkedIn to extend my networking budget through the Groups and Associations (function). I look for local chapters of organizations as well as groups in the functions and industries where I desire to work.

“I join groups and then contact members on an individual basis.  If they are located near me I’ll request to physically meet, otherwise my goal is a phone call.  The shared group connection makes it easy to connect and increases the likelihood they will make time to talk.  Long-term, I retain connections to organizations and peers that can continue to contribute to my professional growth.”

For more information on becoming a LinkedIn expert, try these sites:

 

LinkedIn Learning Center
LinkedIn’s internal library of tips and tricks. Of special interest are its series of user guides, designed to address the specific needs and concerns of new users, job seekers, entrepreneurs, journalists, venture capitalists, etc.

The Official LinkedIn blog
Gives updates on features and lots of success stories from users.

Recruiting with LinkedIn blog
Nice view from the other side of the desk—includes lots of polls and data on how recruiters view the network and how they are finding candidates to fill positions.

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn
The full post mentioned above, originally posted in 2007.

Link up on LinkedIn with us!
If you want to network with more than 6,700 fellow graduates from Arizona State University, you can join the alumni group on LinkedIn set up by the Alumni Association!