Keep that Business Card in Your Pocket – I’m on LinkedIn

Among the many questions I get asked by people who think I’m a little too involved in online activities one is, “what I use LinkedIn for?” It seems LinkedIn is the safest social network for corporate America or understandable, so that’s the one I get most.

One of the beautiful things about LinkedIn, and the way I use LinkedIn, is it’s like a living Rolodex. Some people have stacks and stacks of business cards on their desk—which I do as well—and I use LinkedIn to supplement or extend the value of those cards.

And the reason why that’s really cool is you don’t have to physically change their business card if they relocate or change positions in a company or request a new card if they leave that company—and that’s if you know they’ve moved. Using LinkedIn as your digital Rolodex allows your connections to manage their information, so you don’t have to.

Maybe sales or recruitment people know this already, but for marketing folks this is a powerful tool. It provides an easy way to revisit a relationship once a career change has happened. It provides a way to engage them once you see they’ve connected with someone you know that you have or have not already connected with.

Personally, I’ve re-connected with good friends, lost friends, friends that I did not know we’re on LinkedIn. Of course, it’s limited in that your contacts need to be on LinkedIn which only makes it more fun at that when they do get on because when they see what they’re missing and that has helped too. I hardly carry business cards anymore, instead I just tell people I meet, I’ll find you on LinkedIn. It’s almost a shocker when they say there aren’t on.

Tips for Using LinkedIn

This should be nothing new, but these are my thoughts:

• Update your profile often. It provides people you’re connected with an opportunity or prompt to email you and start talking again.
• Be a connection lurker. Look at who your connections are connected to. After all, it’s a social networking network, not just a recruitment/headhunter back alley. Hopefully, LinkedIn explores ways to flex its power and not just look to replace monster.com as a recruitment tool.
• Take a peek at the LinkedIn answers section on topics that interest you. I’ve answered a few and in the process connected with people I wouldn’t have normally known. There’s something powerful about sharing knowledge and experience with a group of people. And it’s a professional setting so, hopefully and usually, you get some pretty intelligent responses to your response.
• Don’t get too creeped out if someone who fired you or you’ve fired or hated at a previous job tries to connect to you. This is awkward, yes. But, there’s opportunity in this. It’s like a second chance to either start back on the right foot or confirm the reasons why you hated them and then hopefully you’ll feel better because you’re connected to more people than they are.

Curious to hear if you’ve had any LinkedIn successes or scares. Please share. Oh! Find Me on LinkedIn! http://linkedin.com/mattceni

MC

BTW–This post was pieced together by using Jott.com.