Is LinkedIn worth your time?

Vicki Lind, MS
www.vlind.com
vlind@teleport.com
503-284-1115
Vicki helps clients develop vibrant careers in Portland’s creative, sustainable, non-profit, and health-care communities. As a career counselor, she assists with tailoring resumes, practicing interviewing, and honing job-search strategies. As a marketing coach, she facilitates identification of a marketing plan that matches the individual.

Is LinkedIn worth your time?

If you’re seeking clients or looking for new employment, my answer is an unequivocal yes. While LinkedIn is a counterpart to its playful, social cousin, Facebook, it’s a directory of professional profiles that makes it a more serious business tool. You can always do “LinkedIn light” and see if you’re getting useful results before deciding if it will become a mainstay in your job search.

You don’t need to make a major time commitment. I coined the term “LinkedIn light” to describe a two-part process that gets you up and going, then you can decide if it’s worth it to go further. First, create a fully developed profile including a photo and wording that capture your strengths succinctly and memorably. Second, invite people in your professional life to be contacts so that you can tap each other for assistance, immediately or in the future. An estimated four to six hours is all it will take to have a quality basic presence. My workshop LinkedIn: Writing a Compelling Message on the second Saturday of each month will get you started with two of these hours. http://vlind.com/linkedinworkshops.html

The case for LinkedIn

If you’re applying for jobs, assume that future employers will Google your name. Since LinkedIn has a close connection with Google; your LinkedIn profile will usually appear in the first or second position at the top of the first page. When a perspective employer is seriously considering you, he or she will enter your name on LinkedIn. You want them to see a well-crafted profile, and you’d also like them to smile back at your friendly photo. It’s a bonus if they also see well-articulated references from former bosses, colleagues and/or clients. If you’re looking for a senior-level position, assume that recruiters will look for you on LinkedIn.

If you’re self-employed, you’ll benefit from the growing trend of people seeking a practitioner who start with a LinkedIn keyword search over Google. This popularity is largely because LinkedIn can provide recommendations or endorsements from past colleagues, employers or clients. People trust recommendations by people that they know. For example, if you are looking for a massage therapist with a firm touch, using LinkedIn will show you if anyone you know is connected to a massage therapist. You can then easily ask your contact for a first hand evaluation.

Once you like your profile and have captured the connections you value, you’re in a better position to decide if you want to take the time to expand your LinkedIn presence and build new relationships for networking. If so, check out the following workshops and join Jeff Barnes Executive Director of Learning for Leverage, and myself for “Building Connections that Count” on Saturday morning, February 23rd from noon until two p.m. http://vlind.com/linkedinworkshops.html

Conclusion

While the number of Facebook users is stagnant, the number of LinkedIn users continues to climb. I just looked at the company page for the local energy efficiency non-profit, PECI (Portland Energy Corporation Inc.), which currently has just over 300 employees. The company page shows that 296 people who have or do work at PECI have a profile on LinkedIn. This speaks volumes about the vitality of LinkedIn in many Portland professional settings.