Social networking is the rock 'n' roll of this generation, and Facebook is the Beatles: Everyone's darlings. Facebook just topped 250 million global users -- 50 million in the past three months. Twitter is even hipper, the favorite of Ashton Kutcher and Shaq and astronauts -- and truly annoying to many older people. Think of them as the edgy band The White Stripes.
And then there's LinkedIn. Think Perry Como. Staid, predictable, unsexy. Why bother? Because LinkedIn might just get you a job.
"The great thing about Linkedin is that it is a professional network opening business relationships without the clutter of other social media sites like Facebook," says Lou Amico. The Lake Norman search-engine-optimization specialist uses LinkedIn to build connections for his company, L.A. Management.
He's right: Your business might use Facebook quite effectively, but you can also easily get tangled up in the goofy quizzes and virtual gift apps. (When I was at Stanford University studying social networking last year I heard a podcast of a talk by LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman. It's available free on iTunes.)
Ira Bass, a marketing consultant who runs IB Media LLC in the Ballantyne area, teaches free workshops on using LinkedIn effectively for business. His suggestion? Be thorough. He sums up his tips as:
1. Build a comprehensively complete profile. Don't just slap something up there.
2. Join as many local groups and industry-related groups as possible. This builds connections.
3. Understand the advanced search function, which can help people find you via the expertise topics you list for yourself.
Web guru Guy Kawasaki gives other LinkedIn tips, including making your profile more visible on Google, here:
Contact Bass, pictured above, along with Perry Como, at (704) 989-3790 or IBMedia@carolina.rr.com
Connect to Jeff on LinkedIn:
Hey Jeff,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your degree from Stanford - what is that? an MBA? Masters in Communication?
Awful.
ReplyDeleteIf being told to build a thoughtful online profile rather than just slapping something online is advice you're hearing for the first time in the past, oh, 10 years, then this column will continue to be relevant to you.
crickets
ReplyDeleteHarsh, anon.....really, so when is it relevant to be rude?
ReplyDeleteMany "boomers" are back in the job market for the first time since, oh 1979....many have never had any experience with online anything....let's remember that one of the first rules in dealing with people is "Don't be arrogant". Good luck to you.
Smiles, Mr. Elder.
So Jeff?
ReplyDeleteAbout that Stanford degree? Are you embellishing on your Linkedin profile or is that perfectly legit? I just thought I'd ask since you're an expert on these matters.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI do not have a degree from Stanford University, and it says that on my LinkedIn profile. I was paid by the Knight Fellowships to attend Stanford for one year, and I am a graduate of that program. That is not a graduate degree per se, which is why it says on my LinkedIn profile "no" under the degree category.
Best,
Jeff
Jeff - you are dead on about boomers being new at the "online" networking for a job thing (and there's a ton of 20 and 30 somethings that could use this advice too - but don't want to appear as if they don't know.)
ReplyDeleteAnon must not have realized that the LinkedIn advice Ira Bass provides is taken from a short-seminar he developed to share with newbies (and it's 100% free - in the spirit of community service).
Bass knows a great deal MORE than is presented in that seminar -- but I'm sure Anon is not interested in knowing that.