I received this notification from LinkedIn the other day—
Thank you, friends and clients, for trusting me with your projects and for endorsing my work! If you are on LinkedIn, and we haven’t yet connected, please click the image to visit my profile and reach out.
Thinking about Linking
This endorsement from LinkedIn comes at an interesting time. I’ve noticed an uptick in activity in my LinkedIn network of late—particularly, it seems, among people who have had a LinkedIn profile for a long time, but have never done much with it. (Some of them still have the “gray man” profile photo!) My first thought was that they were all looking for jobs. That’s kind of a stereotype about how people use LinkedIn.
But your LinkedIn profile can be much more than an online resumé that gets dusted off only when you get laid off. It should be an online Chamber of Commerce, a network of fellow professionals.
So I’m curious, How do you use LinkedIn? Have you used it for research? Do you belong to any LinkedIn Groups? What’s your policy about accepting invitations to connect? Do you have a policy about how you give endorsements? Have you ever written a LinkedIn recommendation? What things do you notice when you visit someone else’s LinkedIn profile?
Linking and learning
There’s nothing wrong with using LinkedIn as an online resumé—but that’s just the beginning. If you post your ideas (or questions) in the comments, maybe we can all learn how to make the most of all LinkedIn has to offer—no matter what our current job situation is.
Congratulations Melanie! So proud of you and the award is so well-deserved!
I would love to learn more from you about how you are using it.
Whatever you are doing. . .it’s working!
Thank you, Ann! The LinkedIn feature I use most is probably Groups. I belong to a number of writing groups and marketing groups, and I’ve learned a lot from my fellow group members. A LinkedIn Group is a place where you can post questions and get answers from people who have dealt with the same issues. And it’s a place where you can give back to the community by posting answers to other people’s questions. Groups exist for just about every topic you can think of, so there might be a Shaklee group, or a home-based business group, or something similar that might be worthwhile for you. And I would think, with as much experience as you have, you would be a valuable contributor to such a group!
Hi, Melanie! Kudos! While I am trying to pry off the choke-hold of both a financial and time famine, you are making great tracks to success!
I know I need to do more with the phenomenal possibilities of LinkedIn. The only two basics I have tried to follow is that I don’t recommend people I am not convinced are quality individuals and that I try to be there, as a positive influence, and encourager. The one thing we can all do, always, is encourage each other!
Hi Peggy! I love the vivid description of your situation—”pry off the choke-hold of both a financial and time famine”! Although I know that’s a difficult situation to be in, remember that everything ebbs and flows, and famine can suddenly turn to feasting.
It sounds like you have some good basics in place in terms of LinkedIn usage. LinkedIn makes it exceptionally easy to “endorse” someone—just the click of a button! But, like you, I like to make sure the endorsements I give are ones I can stand behind. I still prefer recommendations to endorsements. A recommendation is something the giver has to put some thought into, and usually the receiver has to be proactive about requesting them. So recommendations carry quite a bit of weight with me.
Your commitment to being positive and encouraging is a good one too. Like all social media, LinkedIn is best when people remember that it’s a community—we all have something to contribute; when we give what we can, we’ll receive what we need.
Melanie, congratulations! That’s quite a coup.
Thank you for the ideas. I’ve not been nearly so active on LinkedIn as I need to be. I’ll be eager to see the other reactions to this post.
Thank you, Judith! And thanks for the LinkedIn invitation! Yes, there is a lot you can do with LinkedIn, but it does require a time investment, and only you can determine how much time is worth investing. I tend to go in cycles, sometimes spending a lot of time, and other times backing off.
My basic problem seems to be finding the right groups. At the moment I’m too scattered to participate in many discussions. Thank you for connecting.
Try LinkEds & Writers. I haven’t been participating very actively in that group lately, but there are a lot of good people and good discussions. I particularly appreciate Randy Hecht and Carol Tice.