Professional Social Interaction

LinkedIn has become a major player in social media. You can leverage social media to build a brand image, land a job or recruit for a job.

LinkedIn is a professional social network with over 255 million users. It allows you to build your professional identity online and stay in touch with colleagues and classmates. LinkedIn also allows its users to discover professional opportunities, business deals, and new ventures. Recently LinkedIn has brought in a news feature to get inspiration and insights in your network.

I’ve had an account with LinkedIn since 2008, when my professors told me it would be necessary for me to have one. I set it up and abandoned it because I did not directly benefit from it. However LinkedIn allowed me to have an online resume show up when anyone would Google my name.

After reading LinkedIN: The Ugly Duckling by The Wall Street Journal, I was surprised to see that LinkedIn stock has been soaring.  Looking at the poll that was taken with the article, I understood why stock was soaring. More than 50 percent of those who voted in the poll said they logged in to LinkedIn everyday. I wasn’t aware that big corporations where investing a lot of money to recruit on LinkedIn. Knowing this, I will begin to take more care of my profile.

Having an updated profile, Social Media Examiner says it is like having a keyword-optimized website for search engines. The more keywords you have on your profile, the more likely you will be discovered.  It is very tough to stay current with LinkedIn because every time I log on, I find something new. I agree that it is important to keep it updated but it is important to keep focused on group discussions.

In the article 8 Mistakes You Should Never Make on LinkedIn by Forbes, they recommend to have an image on your profile.  It is true that you are more likely to view and add a profile that has a profile photo and an updated resume. LinkedIn should serve its purpose of being a professional social network and people should avoid putting ridiculous photos of their dogs or children. They should also not post status updates about things not related to their career. There is fine line between a professional and personal network and LinkedIn should never be used for the latter.

But it is also important to remember to protect your LinkedIn.  I didn’t know that there was an option to turn off the broadcast feed. Linked Into Business says that you can also change your settings to make yourself anonymous. One big reason I didn’t like using LinkedIn was because other people could see if I was looking at their profile. I will use this setting next time I log into LinkedIn.