Discuss: What is your opinion of LinkedIn? What are the pros & cons? Be sure to include whether or not your currently have a LI profile. Are you a member of a LI group? Are you a regular contributor to the group? Do you post regular status updates and/or send notes to colleagues to keep in touch? What has your experience been? What have you learned about LI? ie. What advice would you give to a user? If you do not currently use LI, do you have plans to start? If yes, what will your focus be? If no, why not?
LinkedIn is a social media platform that I have lots of experience with. I have used it from a marketing perspective for an employer and also, for personal growth and looking for a new job. I would describe LinkedIn as Facebook for professionals. When I utilized LinkedIn for marketing purposes, I was a regular contributor to groups related to the industry my company was part of. I would post relevant articles, monitor group activity and post releases that I wrote for the company. One of posts, in particular, lead to me being the lead contributor for a couple of weeks. My contribution led to meeting other professionals within the industry. Since my job has change, I am no longer actively contributing to any groups.
This summer I went through a job transition. One of the ways I searched for new jobs was connecting with people on LinkedIn and applying for jobs through LinkedIn. I completed my profile, as well as searched thru all of my connections to find more people to connect and reach out to. This process taught me the power behind LinkedIn and the need to maintain my profile. As a result, the second I got my new job, I immediately updated my profile and began reaching out to my new colleagues.
Eventually I would like to be active in groups and connect to people within my profession, however this takes time. I believe it is better to post quality content here versus posting something every day that may or not may not be useful. I would advise someone to build their profile completely, reach out to friends and colleagues to start building connections and join groups related to your profession. Once you join the groups, learn group etiquette and then contribute meaningful material to those groups. When you contribute it establishes credibility and leads to more connections.
The only downside I have with LinkedIn is that it takes time to update statuses, post content and reach out to old colleagues. However this is the case with all Social Media mediums. When I have more time, I would like to spend some it on LinkedIn, because I believe it is a valuable tool in the professional social media world.
Great advice on participating in a group. It does take time to develop relationships, but that is true online or off. If you can find a group on a topic that you are interested in and take the time to contribute content that is interesting, you can make connections that are valuable to you as well.
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