Are You LinkedIn?

A friend recently asked me why I was on Linkedin, I politely replied to him that the future of Online recruitment is online, and if you aren't Online you are not utilising your networking abilities. As the Social Networking site, reached its 100 million members last month this article will be dedicated to provide an overview of what it is and why you should be on there. 

LinkedIn has been touted as breaking the networking revolution. Its a social networking platform for professionals but its more than an opportunity to just network. There are opportunities if you are looking for employment for example where recruiters will only post job advertisements through LinkedIn. So without this notification, you may miss out on a once in a lifetime career opportunity. 

Its a common norm for professionals for all the major firms to be on LinkedIn, yet students looking for work should be seeking to use LinkedIn to the best of their abilities. Its rich information provides not only details about people but also about the companies you may want to work for in the future. The opportunity to follow companies, not only shows you are interested in what they do, but shows the employer you are interested in what they do and maybe sometime in the future find a suitable vacancy for you.

But there is so much more.

Groups gives professionals opportunities to pitch ideas, share contact information and even gain new clients. This rich source of information is highly valued in a fast moving pace of life where people are time poor and money rich. Just one short paragraph about who you are, what  you do and why you on LinkedIn on a number of LinkedIn groups will allow you to get recognised not only for new clients but maybe even for future job opportunities. 

Not only this but students, often get misrepresented in this hyper dependent market. You may have a Facebook profile, with your recent 'drunken antics' or share some really funny posts. LinkedIn is so much more than Facebook, its an opportunity to be professional, an opportunity to promote yourself to employers, an opportunity to be noticed. 

Yet, you need to be careful, if you are on LinkedIn already, great, but you need to listen, respond and engage with other professionals wisely. Its also difficult to know who to believe on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There could be people out there pretending to be people who are not who they say they are. More importantly students and soon to be graduates are prime targets for these 'scams' just because something is genuine on-line doesn't mean it is genuine in real life.

If you haven't heard of LinkedIn or just want to get yourself out there then check out this helpful article 'Facebook, Linkedin and Recruitment'


Update: 05 April 2011


An amazing info-graphic that shows just what people are doing on LinkedIn and some truly amazing insights into the world of professional networking. 

http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/03/22/linkedin-100-million/