My Initial Impressions of LinkedIn

One of my New Year's financial resolutions was to get set up on LinkedIn. I have been recommending it for quite some time and tell you all how important it was in developing your network -- and yet I wasn't using it myself (which I freely admitted.) So the guilt finally got to me, I took the plunge, and signed up for the service in early January. Let's start with what I did and the results:

• I set up my profile simply by cutting and pasting sections from an old resume. It needed some updating (I haven't needed a resume in almost nine years), but only for my most recent job.
• I then went through my Outlook contact list and invited people I knew very well to connect with me on LinkedIn. Most did, but many others looked like they had set up a profile but were inactive. Anyway, after I was done I had a good start -- about 75 connections or so.
• At this point, LinkedIn started suggesting people I might know and want to connect with (it had earlier as well, but it started getting better at recommending people once I had a good based of connections it could use for background). I invited those I knew fairly well and quickly got up to 175 connections or so.
• At this point, I was connected to pretty much everyone I knew fairly well (that was on LinkedIn). The suggestions from LinkedIn now were people I had run into infrequently or only had "heard of" (didn't know). However, I wanted to expand my network further, so I started selecting some of these people to invite to connect. This was a person by person decision, but basically I invited people who: 1) had impressive backgrounds who I thought it would be an advantage to know, 2) had a large number of previous connections in common with me, or 3) had similar interests/background as me.
• In addition, I started receiving invitations to connect with others. Most of the people I did not know, and I decided whether or not to connect with them based (loosely) on the criteria above.
• When this was all said and done I had just over 300 connections after about a month worth of "work." From here on out I expect I will add contacts at a much slower pace, but I'm happy with the base I've built at this point.

After this process, here are some of my thoughts on the site/service:

• I was amazed at what some of my peers have accomplished. One of the guys I worked with 15 years ago is the president of a $3 billion division of a Fortune 500 company. An ex-roommate (right out of grad school) of mine is the president of a nationally known clothing company. Some of the connections are in companies/jobs that could help out my present employer. I will be exploring these more closely.
• I have already been asked to help someone through LinkedIn. A friend of mine emailed me and asked if I could help his future son-in-law with a job hunt (the SIL wants a job in my city in my field of expertise). I talked to the young man on the phone and sent his resume to a couple friends I know who may be hiring. I also got his resume to the hiring manager (someone who had once worked for me) at a local firm with a posted job opening. He hasn't been hired yet (this just happened a week ago), but he's certainly gotten exposure to jobs he wouldn't have had otherwise.
• I have re-connected with a few people I previously worked with -- most by email but some even in person (we set up lunch through LinkedIn). Got to keep working that network to keep it alive and growing!
• I have been "endorsed" by a few of my connections. This is basically where those in your network can recommend you in a certain area/skill set based on their past interactions with you. I haven't endorsed anyone myself, but I may in the future.
• LinkedIn provides articles on career-related issues to my profile (as well as posts on LinkedIn by my connections), but I don't spend much time reading them. Perhaps I will in the future, but who knows? I also may post some things there, but I'm not sure exactly how it works (and what's the benefit.) I have a lot more to learn!

So that's it for my initial interaction with LinkedIn. For those of you out there who are already "masters" of the site, what am I missing? What do I need to do to make the most of this service?

Comments

[My Financial Independence Journey]

I'm hardly a master of LinkedIn, but it's becoming really important for finding a job. My company actually trained us on LinkedIn, because they can save tons of money by recruiting people through employee referrals instead of using headhunters.

[JM]

My husband and I BOTH got our current jobs (that we both really like) from recruiters who contacted us on LinkedIn. Without LinkedIn, we wouldn't have heard of these opportunities. Very grateful for the website.

[John S @ Frugal Rules]

I love using LinkedIn as it can be such a great tool for professional networking. I am not an expert on it by any means, but it looks like you're off to a great start! A thing I like to do is when I meet someone at a networking event, or something like that, is to connect with them within two days on the site. That has been somewhat successful for me and can be a good thing to do, especially if you might do business with them in the near future.

[S. B.]

My initial impression of LinkedIn was what a great business model they have going for them. They get everyone to do the work of putting all their information and associations out there, and then they make money from it. Ah, the network effect. :-)

On a more serious note, like you, I was also surprised at how well some of my former colleagues had done. One of my former managers is now the CEO of a medium sized company. Another guy I worked for is an SVP of a really big company. I was also very surprised to learn that a friend of mine with whom I used to do grunt work back in college was now directing a major motion picture!

[Alex]

It depends upon your industry.

To maximize your presence/find a job:
1) Recuiters search by key words, and LinkedIn allows you to see what's trending. You can modify key words in your profile summary to match.
2) In addition to recommending your skills, it can be useful to ask friends to recommend you by job.
3) Add coursework and certifications to demonstrate ongoing learning.
4) Include links to websites, blogs, YouTubes, etc that you've created -- makes a more interesting and interactive resume.

And to maximize interesting engagement:
5) You can mini-blog/comment on current events and "follow" people to see their daily blogs.
6) Consider joining the "groups you may like" recommended based upon your work interests and experience.
7) Take a look at your circle -- are they all from one area/company? Look at ways to expand it/change the composition. Consider tagging and grouping as well.
8) Check out the new "skills and expertise" center -- it's really cool! Track a specific skill (e.g. money management) and see where it's trending, etc.

Have fun!

[FMF]

Alex --

Those are some great tips. Thanks for sharing them!

[JTS]

Alex definitely nailed the features you can take advantage of. I'll highlight the fact that recruiters contact you a lot based on keyword searches, so be careful on the wording you choose.

-Jon

[Lance at Money Life and More]

I should probably work on connecting more on linked in. I definitely don't utilize it as it as much as I should.

[spivey]

As a current full-time Business School student, I'm getting a ton of mileage out of LinkedIn. Combined with my school's Alumni Database, I have been able to identify people in my target industry and engage them to help with my internship search.

A great benefit of LinkedIn is that it helps me prioritize which people to contact within a company based on common backgrounds or connections. This makes it feel less like spamming when I reach out to people I don't know.

[Caesar F]

Get people to write a recommendation for you. There are groups on there that have discussions and job postings and whatnot and they have ones that are in the industry you're in. Join those as well as connect with the people in those groups.

[Ron]

Linkedin has been great for me so far.

My wife has received mutlipe interviews via site including her most recent job.

I have used it for keeping up with former co-workers, and got a few interviews as well. Biggest thing for me so far is just keeping up with contacts and seeing who is looking at my profile.

[Roger @ The Chicago Financial Planner]

I think Linkedin is a great tool for me professionally and as a blogger. Several of my posts have generated a lot of traffic via Linked (from adding the post to the discussion in several groups). Time will tell if this also leads to any business for my financial advisory business.

If a prospective client contacts me I generally check them out on Linkedin. I've also formed a few strategic alliances in Linkedin as well. Lastly I'm thankful that my kids have their profiles on LI as well (one is working, two in school).

[CoolMouseLuke]

I got my current job from LinkedIn, more money and better benefits than the last job, and 100% work from home. Recruiter found me, and waited till she had the right slot for me. I now have another company doing the same thing, about a year later. I get inquiries with decent opportunities every few days.

A few suggestions:
* Find one of the many articles on "personal branding". I know FMF is a fan of this. Make your profile reflect this with keywords, skills, etc...
* Add skills, type in the first part of one, and it will suggest the most used keywords related to it. It gave me some great suggestions that were more "industry standard" terms for my skills.
* Endorse the skills for some of your connections. It doesn't show to other people how many you have done for others. They will get a notification that you did it for them, and then most likely do it back. You mentioned it, play around with it, it looks really good to have a bunch of these on your profile for the top skills of your personal brand.
* Use your real estate connections also. I put mine on the same LinkedIn profile. That way, I have agents, lawyers, cpa, bankers, other investors, and it broadens your pool of connections. You can do a different profile for real estate, but I have kept mine combined. You can also add your real estate LLC as a company. I haven't had much luck with that part though.
* Add a few LION's, with thousands of connections.
You will be able to see all their connections, and it helps you find others you knew, but couldn't see because no on in your network could see them. I like to add some out of my general skill area also for breadth of network, like one that has thousands of lawyer connections, another with doctors, etc...
* You can add up to 50 groups. These add to your personal brand. Peaple will find you in the groups. I don't do anything active in them, but have found great benefits with them. You can request to connect with someone that you have a group in common with. Without it, you risk having them check " I don't know them", and you can get blacklisted.
* Certifications are great, join the groups for that cert, and you can connect to anyone else in that group.

[FMF]

CoolMouseLuke --

GREAT ideas!!!! It will take me some time to get to these, but I'll be working on many of them over the next few months.

[CoolMouseLuke]

FMF - Yeah, it takes time, just stay at it log in every few days and spend 30 min. Then a burst on a weekend once in a while. When I get a new connection, the first thing I do is look at all their connections, and usually find a few to send invites to. Then they trickle in over a week or two, and go through those. It keeps building over time. Steady adds/changes bring you SEO up for recruiters to find! If you let it sit for a couple weeks, you will see the stats on the right go down, showing how many times people looked at our profile, and how many times you came up in searches. Very similar to SEO on blog or web site.

One other I just thought of: You can get a daily email with articles built on data in your profile. Mine has ones for my day job, and real estate oncs because I have both on my profile. It usually sends 7-8 articles in an archive each day, and I always end up reading one or two, and usually getting something good out of it that I use. No other "junk mail" I get is as useful, it must be something to do with all the info they have from your profile, and they customize it.

[Nick @ CreditRanker]

I am a fan of LinkedIn. I have made several connections in the area that I want to, and will continue to do so. If you are wondering about how to use it, try seeing if there is a book at your local library about getting the most out of it. I think LinkedIn is better than CareerBuilder or Monster....although I'm not sure how many people even use that anyways.

[Money Beagle]

I've been on LinkedIn for a number of years. Looking at this, I realize that I probably haven't been doing anywhere near what I actually could. Thanks for getting me motivated :)

[KC]

I find the endorsement feature to be completely useless. I have a lot of social-only connections on LinkedIn (in other words, people who've never worked with me), who are endorsing my skills. Knowing that this is happening to me makes me discount the value of this new "feature" since the endorsements may be coming from someone with no real knowledge of the person's professional skill set.

That said, I find it a valuable tool overall, and I've used it to search for jobs as well as to make connections at target companies.

[Long @ Budget For Wealth]

I set up a profile last year but haven't really done much with it. Based on your network success, I think I might spend a little time and effort beefing up my resume/profile so recruiters can find me for potential job offers.