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Education Opportunity & LinkedIn Article
01/28/2010 --
NEWS ITEMS FOR THE DENVER CHAPTER OF IFMA WEB-SITE
January 27, 2010
EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY – AND IT’S FREE!
On April 27, 2010 the Denver Chapter of IFMA will be sponsoring a free
ARE YOU LINKED IN?
Discussions about “Social Media” have come to dominate the airwaves and the Internet. What I hear most often is confusion regarding the number of different services out there; with the familiar ones being Facebook Twitter , LinkedIn , Plaxo , YouTube , and MySpace
If you want to better understand the impact social media is having on Madison Avenue and our way of life, take a look at the cover story in the December 2009 edition of Fast Company entitled “Follow Me ” featuring Ashton Kutcher’s company Katalyst .
For the purposes of this article, let’s just say that services like Facebook and Twitter tend to be focused on casual or social interactions, whereas LinkedIn is more oriented towards the business professional. As members of IFMA, it should come as no surprise that the most cited reason for being a member is for the networking opportunities. Think of LinkedIn as a networking tool on steroids. With over 50,000,000 users worldwide, and growing every day, it has gained prominence as the premier means to develop and maintain your network of professional contacts. Suffice to say; if you’re not already on LinkedIn – you need to be .
How to Join
Simply go to www.LinkedIn.com and register yourself as a member. The basic service is free. While there are paid upgrades, these are mostly of benefit to sales and marketing professionals. One thing to note; some people prefer to register their account with the personal vs. their work e-mail address. Either way should be fine as this is something you can update at any time. Just remember to keep track of your login ID and Password.
You’ll want to provide a profile of yourself so that others can see where you are and what you do. The profile includes items such as summary, specialties, current employers, past work experience, education, and personal information. You can fill out as much or as little as you like. If you are a job seeker, you’ll want to have a complete profile, but more on that later. If you’re not sure what to include, try looking at other members profiles. Just search for names, job titles, companies, etc… You’ll find more than enough to give you some ideas. There is quite a bit of on-line help available, both from within LinkedIn and by going to Google and searching on “LinkedIn Tips and Tricks ”. I also recommend a good book published by Sams entitled “Teach Yourself LinkedIn in 10 Minutes ” by Patrice-Anne Rutledge.
Building your Network
Before you get started; you should consider what your strategy is for LinkedIn. In other words; are you using it to maintain business contacts, build a marketing network, professional resources, etc… It’s not just a numbers game to “connect” with as many people as possible. You should have a plan regarding who you invite, as well as who you accept invitations from. Once in LinkedIn you can search for individuals by name, by company, by job title, etc… (you get the picture). However, if you already have an address book in Microsoft Outlook, Google Gmail, Yahoo mail or any others; you can import the address book and LinkedIn will look for member names that match your existing contacts. This way you can choose to send out a batch of “invitations” (LinkedIn terminology) at one time to start building your network. LinkedIn does provide protections so that members are not “spammed” by individuals they do not know. When sending an invitation to connect to someone, you have to identify how you know them (i.e., are they a colleague, classmate, business partner, friend or other). For “other”, you must be able to supply their e-mail address or LinkedIn will not send the invite. While this may sound a bit complicated, you’ll get the hang of it quick enough. Once you start making connections, LinkedIn tracks the number of connections you have at the 1st , 2nd and 3rd degrees of your network . The people you are connected to directly are your 1st degree. The people they are connected to make up the 2nd degree, and finally the people connected to them represent the 3rd degree of your network. For example; as I’m drafting this article – I have 217 1st degree connections, 21,500 2nd degree connections, and 1,798,100 3rd degree connections for a total of 1,819,800 people within reach of my network.
Wow! Now, you might ask why does this matter? Good question. Say you are looking to reach out to someone in a specific company, but you don’t know anyone there. By searching your connections, you may find that someone in your 2nd degree happens to work there. Using your 1st degree contact, you can “request an introduction” to the individual and in all likelihood it will be accepted. I’ve used this on several occasions with great success. This is but one example of how you can utilize your extended network – there are many more…
Another nice feature in LinkedIn is the ability to write a recommendation for someone that shows up in their profile. This is particularly useful for job seekers as recruiters are increasingly using LinkedIn as a candidate search and pre-screening tool. This is another area to put some thought into. I don’t recommend “trading” recommendations with friends & peers. It is much better to have recommendations from leaders or business partners who can cite specific accomplishments, strengths or skills you possess. Also, for your profile to be considered “complete” by LinkedIn, you’ll need at least three recommendations.
LinkedIn has a wealth of Groups organized around about any topic you can imagine. IFMA headquarters has a LinkedIn group. In fact, there are 58 groups around IFMA including councils, chapters, and specific FM topics. There are company groups, company alumni groups, university alumni groups, professions, and the list goes on – 461,822 groups at last count. Go to the Groups page and just start searching for anything you find of interest. Most groups have a discussion board, news items, and many also post jobs. I mention this as the IFMA Denver Chapter will soon have a group on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is also a great source to search for jobs. Many are posted on LinkedIn at the same time they are posted on job boards such as Monster or CareerBuilder. The nice thing about looking for jobs on LinkedIn is that it will tell you if you have any connections in your network that might be a resource for you in pursuing the opportunity. Another interesting item on your LinkedIn is the number of times your profile has been viewed, and the number of times it has shown up in a search. Again, a good, complete profile will increase your chances of being found in a search and it will give you a more professional appearance when someone views your profile.
But Wait, There’s More…
LinkedIn also has a few applications you can add to your profile to make it more useful. For example; there’s the Amazon reading list where you can share the books you’ve read along with your rating and comments. There’s SlideShare Presentations where you can upload PowerPoint files, PDF’s and others to view and make available for download (should you choose). Be sure to check out the Events application; where anyone can publish information about upcoming events and individuals can indicate if they are attending (it shows up on your profile). There’s also Company Buzz that will show you twitter activity about your company. All these are found under the “More” menu item at the top of the page; simply select “Application Directory”.
At the bottom of each page are additional links, including one for Tools . This includes items such as Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer Toolbars, enabling you to jump to common LinkedIn features from either of these applications. If you’re a job seeker, the Internet Explorer toolbar contains a feature called “JobsInsider” that will assist in your job search. When viewing a job posting, it will let you know about LinkedIn members in your network who work at that company and could be an inside connection for you. There is also an E-mail signature tool that will generate a customized e-mail signature for Outlook or other e-mail clients.
Want to control what people see or don’t see on your profile, go to the item at the top right of the screen entitled “Settings ”. From here you can control every aspect of your account, including deleting it if you so choose.
There’s An App for That
Have an iTunes App Store and download the free LinkedIn application. You can check updates, check status messages, and send messages to contacts.
Want to have a connection to your LinkedIn profile on your Facebook page? There’s an application for that too. While in your Facebook account, search on “My LinkedIn Profile ” and complete the requested information. It will put a button on your Facebook profile page connecting to your LinkedIn profile.
As a final point; put the web address to your LinkedIn profile on your business card, your resume, and your e-mail signature. This makes it easier for people you communicate with to connect with.
Feel free to check out my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/deanstanberry and send me an invitation to connect. If you are reading a printed version of this article, you will find an electronic copy posted on my LinkedIn profile with all of the embedded hyperlinks to LinkedIn help pages and other resources.
Dean Stanberry
Workplace Strategy & Facility Management
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