LinkedIn - An efficient way to stay connected with your professional network
You may have heard that everyone on Earth is separated from anyone else by no more than six degrees of separation, or six friends of friends of friends.
But how do you leverage this? How do you locate the types of people that you want, and how do you allow yourself to be available to those that you would want to contact you, without being annoyed with a bunch of spam mail or phone calls every day?
It looks like LinkedIn.com, may have the solution you are looking for.
LinkedIn is a networking tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. Through LinkedIn, you can accelerate your business effectiveness and career success by leveraging the network you already have. LinkedIn makes it easy to receive and seek out opportunities through your extended network while protecting your privacy, your inbox and your existing professional relationships.
Professionals also get access to LinkedIn Jobs, a relationship-powered job network that allows professionals to search job listings and discover inside connections to hiring managers, HR professionals and recruiters. Employers and recruiters can post positions on LinkedIn Jobs and get great candidates recommended by their trusted contacts.
LinkedIn is currently used by over 3.3 million professionals across the globe. This makes LinkedIn’s base of registered users four times larger than those of all other online business networks combined. LinkedIn has over 1,000,000 users in Europe and over 300,000 in Asia.
When I first heard about this system I though to myself "I am way too busy to be entering in contact information in yet another system." But the beauty behind this system is that it is very easy to add people to your network. All you have to do is add in their first name, last name, and their email list and it sends a generic invite to the people you want. Additionally you can upload a list of contacts from your current contact management system and it will generate the invitations automatically.
In addition, it can automatically create your own email signature to help get more people onto your network with your own personalized touch. For an example click here to see my email signature.
Another fear I had was if I joined someone's network would I then have to face a multitude of intros from people I did not know, or perhaps did not care to know?
But as you can see from their website:
"On LinkedIn, everyone’s Rolodex is protected since only people they trust can see who they know.
LinkedIn’s referral-only approach has attracted an elite group of business people not matched by any other network. And LinkedIn works: users accept 84% of all referrals because the only way users can be approached is if one of their trusted contacts forwards a contact request to them because they believe it is an opportunity their contact will appreciate.
This gated access approach has made the LinkedIn network a web of trust where users strengthen existing professional ties and enhance their reputation by helping their business contacts with introductions.
Professionals in over 130 industries are actively searching the extended networks of their trusted business contacts on LinkedIn to discover inside connections to potential business partners, to get in touch with industry experts for advice, or to find recommended professionals to fill open job positions. On average, users search LinkedIn once per second for people and opportunities, and LinkedIn has already facilitated over 1 million business introductions. Over 850 alumni and professional organizations have selected LinkedIn for Groups to set up member-only groups on LinkedIn that facilitate networking among their members.
LinkedIn is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union. All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and nobody is represented to be in the LinkedIn network without their knowledge and explicit consent."
LinkedIn has a wealth of features that you can choose to use or not use. Like most things it is what you make out of it. Try it out and see how well your network expands with LinkedIn.
But how do you leverage this? How do you locate the types of people that you want, and how do you allow yourself to be available to those that you would want to contact you, without being annoyed with a bunch of spam mail or phone calls every day?
It looks like LinkedIn.com, may have the solution you are looking for.
LinkedIn is a networking tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. Through LinkedIn, you can accelerate your business effectiveness and career success by leveraging the network you already have. LinkedIn makes it easy to receive and seek out opportunities through your extended network while protecting your privacy, your inbox and your existing professional relationships.
Professionals also get access to LinkedIn Jobs, a relationship-powered job network that allows professionals to search job listings and discover inside connections to hiring managers, HR professionals and recruiters. Employers and recruiters can post positions on LinkedIn Jobs and get great candidates recommended by their trusted contacts.
LinkedIn is currently used by over 3.3 million professionals across the globe. This makes LinkedIn’s base of registered users four times larger than those of all other online business networks combined. LinkedIn has over 1,000,000 users in Europe and over 300,000 in Asia.
When I first heard about this system I though to myself "I am way too busy to be entering in contact information in yet another system." But the beauty behind this system is that it is very easy to add people to your network. All you have to do is add in their first name, last name, and their email list and it sends a generic invite to the people you want. Additionally you can upload a list of contacts from your current contact management system and it will generate the invitations automatically.
In addition, it can automatically create your own email signature to help get more people onto your network with your own personalized touch. For an example click here to see my email signature.
Another fear I had was if I joined someone's network would I then have to face a multitude of intros from people I did not know, or perhaps did not care to know?
But as you can see from their website:
"On LinkedIn, everyone’s Rolodex is protected since only people they trust can see who they know.
LinkedIn’s referral-only approach has attracted an elite group of business people not matched by any other network. And LinkedIn works: users accept 84% of all referrals because the only way users can be approached is if one of their trusted contacts forwards a contact request to them because they believe it is an opportunity their contact will appreciate.
This gated access approach has made the LinkedIn network a web of trust where users strengthen existing professional ties and enhance their reputation by helping their business contacts with introductions.
Professionals in over 130 industries are actively searching the extended networks of their trusted business contacts on LinkedIn to discover inside connections to potential business partners, to get in touch with industry experts for advice, or to find recommended professionals to fill open job positions. On average, users search LinkedIn once per second for people and opportunities, and LinkedIn has already facilitated over 1 million business introductions. Over 850 alumni and professional organizations have selected LinkedIn for Groups to set up member-only groups on LinkedIn that facilitate networking among their members.
LinkedIn is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union. All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and nobody is represented to be in the LinkedIn network without their knowledge and explicit consent."
LinkedIn has a wealth of features that you can choose to use or not use. Like most things it is what you make out of it. Try it out and see how well your network expands with LinkedIn.
posted by Soren Burkhart at 12:47 AM
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