LinkedIn – The Online Resume

By Doug Hafford

My recent article on Social Networking covered a lot of ground with respect to the new ways you can put yourself or your firm out there on the web. In this article we will focus on the professional side of Social Networking sites; LinkedIn.

LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and launched in May of 2003 as a professional networking site. As of today, Linkedin has more than 60 million users in over 200 countries worldwide. Looking at those statistics alone tells you how valuable the service is if you want to get noticed, or connect with other professionals.

You start by setting up your own LinkedIn page. The process is very simple and free of charge. As you are entering your business information and even a picture or two, you quickly see that you are building a resume’. You can fill in as much or as little of your professional life as you wish including things like current position, past positions, education, your connections and other information. One of the very nice features of LinkedIn is that you can then publish some or all of your information to people outside LinkedIn by using their “public profile” feature. When a web search is done on your name, this will generally be one of the first things that come up. Thus you can have control over the initial impression people have of you when they want to find out more about you.

When you have your profile setup, the next step is to begin the process of creating your network of connections. You can easily invite a colleague or contact to connect and if they accept, they become part of your network. This is known as the "gated-access approach" where some sort of pre-existing relationship is required for contact to occur. Thus, you can be assured of your privacy and trust the connections you might make on LinkedIn much more than other broader purposed Social Networking sites.

Now that you have your profile and have begun accumulating contacts, you can start looking for recommendations and can also recommend others. If you recommend someone, you generally fill out a section that described why you liked working with them and then post it to the site. This generates emails to connected individuals announcing your recommendation (or others who have recommended you) and thus you have your own personal marketing engine.

You can also forward a connection to one of your connections. For example, you might want to help a colleague find a good leasing company. You could do this by sending the leasing company rep’s Linkedin profile to one of your connections and “introduce” them. Thus you create network of connections, second-degree connections (connections of your connections) and third-degree connections (connections of second-degree connections). As you can see, you can thus receive an introduction to someone you might want to know through a trusted friend or colleague.

As you become more active on the site, LinkedIn provides some statistics for you as well as suggestions for other connections. LinkedIn keeps track of a number of items for you such as:

• Activity – adding connections, recommendations etc.
• Connections list
• How you are connected to others
• Who you have recommended
• Who has recommended you and more

Employers and companies can also join LinkedIn providing statistics, job openings and other important information to professionals who may want to seek a job, or just find out more about the company. So not only does it provide the ability to create a personal online resume, but also provides employers the ability to attract candidates as well. A job seeker can then examine opportunities, and see who the hiring manager is – perhaps utilizing mutual connections to reach this person and receive an introduction or recommendation.

LinkedIn Answers provides a way for you to ask a question of the LinkedIn community, much like Yahoo Answers. The difference is that you already know the people you are asking and so you may have a higher level of trust in the replies. Generally the questions are more business oriented as well, so you get a more focused set of answers.

LinkedIn Groups allows you to establish new relationships by joining with others who share a common interest or background. Examples of this might be alumni associations, industry groups or highly focused niche professional organizations. This allows you to make connections on a much more personal basis, with others who may have a higher level of trust in the connection.

There are many other features and new ones coming as time goes on at LinkedIn, but the best feature is the professional focus of the site. It is a great way to form your own business networks that may have value today in a job search, or in the future when you are seeking to hire, or simply connect with others who have similar professional interests. By removing the “Facebook/Myspace” playground effect, you can truly and professionally advance your career.

LinkedIn is free to join and simple to setup. It should be part of your professional world even if you only wish to see what is out there. You will be surprised by the number of connections and requests even in the first week.