If you think about what social media has given us the capability to do, it’s astounding, at least I think so. Never before have generations of people been able to keep in touch with so many people from their past and present, and with this degree of ease. My parents saw this with the birth of email and bulletin boards in the 90’s. It was a major breakthrough in “keeping in touch.” Nowadays though, practically anyone and everyone is one Google search away. Specifically when I think about being found on LinkedIn, I want to make sure that it is as easy as possible to find me; remember LinkedIn is a business-oriented social network. Whomever is trying to find you on LinkedIn probably has a reason you’d like to at least hear about.
So why complete your LinkedIn profile and divulge as much about yourself as possible? I have a pretty good memory but even still, I don’t remember every single person’s first and last name, in fact chances are, other people are the same way. Sometimes I just remember where they went to school with me, what their major was, or what company they worked for, or even that they liked Golf. Imagine if you met someone and could only remember her name as Diane, she went to Penn State for undergrad, majored in Computer Programming, used to work at GE but she mentioned that she now works at a top SEO company. Unfortunately, you can’t remember the name of the company and your company is in dire need of some high quality SEO. You won’t get far if the only thing she’d filled in on her LinkedIn profile is her first name, last name and company; no summary, no interests, no groups, only 1 school listed and it’s her most recent, no previous experience. All you remember is Diane, Penn State, GE, SEO company. This also wouldn’t work out for Diane by not being easily found she has made it difficult for her to have business drop in her lap. Now, obviously you could just Google: “SEO company” +”my location” and probably find a number of them but social networking has caused a shift in our ability to consult our trusted network, as you would likely do with any big decision.
It’s often been said that in life, “it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts.” I think on LinkedIn it’s often good to connect with virtually anyone you’ve ever encountered in life. You never know, maybe that geek that sat next to you in math class from 9th grade became a CFO and you’re looking for a job in finance.
LinkedIn gives you a checklist but here’s the biggies for me:
-Profile picture (I cannot stress this enough, people remember faces! Go get a nice picture of you taken, no party shots, no full body pictures, just go with shoulders, neck and head)
-Previous employment (as much as possible, no need to put Chili’s waiter if you’re now a C-Level at Coca-Cola)
-Education (ALL of it)
-Contact information (Make it easy for people, put your email address and phone number if you’re comfortable with it. The easier it is for people to contact you the easier it is to do business with you)
-Summary of current position (Seriously, what do you DO? Make it interesting.)
Specialities
ALSO…
-Join a few Alumni groups
-Get recommended from former colleagues, classmates or anyone who you have directly worked with or for.