Let’s time travel back to the year of 2003
when the global professional networking site was first launched. Member signup
was slow, but by 2004 the site had reached 500,000 users. Over the next few
years LinkedIn continued to grow with the launch of public profiles and new
features such as recommendations and people you may
know. In 2008 the company decided to go global, establishing its first
international office in London while also adding two new language versions,
Spanish and French. By 2010, LinkedIn had reached 90 million members and nearly
1000 employees in 10 offices around the world. This year, LinkedIn celebrates
its tenth year anniversary and is currently growing at more than 2 members per
second appealing to a variety of users by offering 19 different languages.
In today’s society, social media has
enabled people from all around the world to connect online with one another. It
allows complete strangers the chance to meet in the simplest way. Our
fast-paced society seems to be turning online communication into the new
face-to-face communication. Giving that it is a lot faster then flying half way
across the country to meet a new potential employee? If you are a recent
college graduate, joining LinkedIn if you haven’t already, would be a smart
idea in order to create your own personal online presence. Living in the
digital era having an online presence is becoming a must and it’s a good way to
get ahead in today’s competitive job industry by getting yourself out there.
Oddly enough, almost half of all
current college students have never used LinkedIn. A recent study
conducted by Millennial Branding and AfterCollege found that college students
are avoiding using LinkedIn with a whopping 46% of students that have never
once used the site (TheDailyPress). Even for those students use LinkedIn report
that it is still not a priority when it comes to searching for a job. Students
are experienced with social media, just not with LinkedIn. According to ReadWrite.com,
widely respected tech blog, when searching for a job, current students focus
their efforts, in order, on:
1. Employer's Web site
(70%),
2. Contact within the company (65%)
3. School career fair (61%)
4. Online job listings site (58%)
5. Social networking - including LinkedIn (26%)
LinkedIn can help you find jobs
as soon as you graduate from college. However, college students continue to spend
very little time on this professional social networking website compared to the
amount of time on Facebook and Twitter. A statistic generated by Bullhorn Reach, social recruiting software, revealed
that 48% of job recruiters are using LinkedIn exclusively. Although 21% are
apart of all three major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) only 1% are
using the other two social media sites exclusively (International Business
Times). Now is the time for college students to create their profiles on
LinkedIn and begin networking. The earlier you prepare yourself, the better the
chances are at staying ahead of your competition when it comes to landing a
job.
What are the features of LinkedIn? One new addition that LinkedIn
recently added within the last week consists of a “who viewed your profile”
feature, which most social networks stray away from. This feature enables users
the ability to expand their network connections by knowing who is looking at
their profile information. It’s a way to see who is interested in what you have
to offer, and the more views your page is receiving, the more reason to believe
that you must be doing something right. LinkedIn also recently added new visual
portfolios, which allows users the ability to showcase their unique story using
compelling images, videos, presentations and so forth. A photographer may put
forth their most stunning image ever captured. A film director may post their
greatest film ever produced. LinkedIn gives users the ability to put together
different aspects of their life into different formats and mold it together
portraying their strengths and achievements.
To access the endless amount of
features of LinkedIn, one must first sign up. It is completely free unless you
choose the paid upgraded account that offers a few extra features. After a new
membership is obtained you are now free to create your professional profile,
“professional” being the key word. LinkedIn is not to be confused with Facebook
or your professional profile might as well be deemed unprofessional. LinkedIn
is mainly designed for business and professional networking and offers a
profile and options that enable you to network in a business sense. Facebook,
alternatively, is designed more in a way that enables the user to connect with
family and friends. LinkedIn actually prefers to be called ‘professional
network’ as opposed to a ‘social network’ such as Facebook or Twitter. Your
LinkedIn can be understood as your online business card, resume, and letters of
recommendation all in one profile click. It reads like a professional resume
with the focus on employment and education as opposed to your favorite movie to
watch or book to read.
Why should you use LinkedIn? First, LinkedIn is easy to find on Google, and when potential job employers search
your name it will likely be the first site to pop up. Secondly, it makes connecting
with people easy. What is easier than making connections with potential
employers while simply sitting at your home behind a computer screen? Third, it
offers detailed information into businesses that you may be interested in
working for. The great thing is that while you can learn about a variety of
businesses, LinkedIn returns the favor allowing businesses the ability learn
about you and your unique abilities.
LinkedIn offers an innovative networking approach and a whole new
meaning of the word “connection.” In the world of LinkedIn a connection is a
person that you already know or are interested in knowing more about. One must
understand that a connection on LinkedIn is different than a friend on Facebook
or a follower on Twitter. Connections show that you know the person well or
that they are a trusted business contact. Gaining access to your connections’
connections is when the real networking power of LinkedIn begins to be
unleashed. One of the misconceptions surrounding LinkedIn is that it’s only for
individuals looking for a job opportunity. Graduating students are encouraged
to create accounts, but students often have not heard of LinkedIn or they
assume that it is designed for people in their mid-career (Skeels & Grudin,
2009). However, LinkedIn is not just beneficial for job seekers or mid-career
individuals, it is also useful for recruiters, consultants and vendors. Some
older employees use LinkedIn for recruiting or finding vendors,
or to learn more about people they have already met or plan to
meet. Many Fortune 500 companies find LinkedIn very useful. In fact, according
to LinkedIn’s website, there are 2.8 million companies that have a LinkedIn
page.
With that being said, those who
spend a lot of time updating and revamping their Facebook profile to showcase
their desired self to their friends should look into putting the same effort
towards their LinkedIn profile. The importance of networking is drilled into
the heads of all college students. LinkedIn makes the word networking sound
more approachable. Think of LinkedIn as a lifelong journey into the world of
new connections and endless opportunities at the click of a mouse and a scroll
down a page.
Skeels, M. M., & Grudin, J. (2009). When Social Networks
Cross Boundaries: A Case
Study of Workplace Use of Facebook and
LinkedIn. Associations for Computing
Machinery.
Retrieved from http://http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/UM/People/jgrudin/publications/newwave/SocialNetworking2009.pdf
Choi, G. (2013, April 30). The daily free press. Retrieved from
linkedin-survey-finds
Eadicicco, L. (2012, February 13). LinkedIn vs. Facebook:
Which Attracts More Job
Recruiters? . International Business Times. Retrieved
June 4, 2013, from
www.ibtimes.com/linkedin-vs-facebook-which-attracts-more-job-
recruiters-
409938
Hall, B. (2013, April 23). Why Aren't College Students Using
LinkedIn To Find Jobs?
ReadWrite.
Retrieved June 4, 2013, from readwrite.com/2013/04/23/why-
arent-college-students-using-
linkedin-to-find-jobs
About Us | LinkedIn. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2013,
from
http://www.linkedin.com/about-us
Response to LinkedIn: The Professional Networking Site
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to begin by saying that this blog was very informative and can be very useful to the college student who is almost a graduate. With LinkedIn being a professional webpage, it is geared towards that work environment and not the social environment. Like Ashley touched on, not many college students are using LinkedIn. This could be because of a variety of reasons. One could be because they are not informed on LinkedIn and how it works. I personally do not have a LinkedIn page because I do not know anyone that has one, and I do not know how it works. I will say that after reading this blog, I am going to strongly consider getting one.
For college students or recent graduates, more than half of recent graduates are either unemployed or underemployed (Hall). I often hear about college graduates who cannot find jobs within their major. Is it because they are not making themselves known in the right ways, such as creating professional webpage that shows off their talents? Despite these figures, according to a recent survey, nearly half of current college students have never used LinkedIn (Hall). Could this be because LinkedIn was never proposed to them in the undergraduate world? Personally, I am not sure if I was ever told that getting a LinkedIn webpage would be a good idea for me as an undergrad student until recently.
We all know that social media sites are very popular among all ages of students. I could probably conclude that the majority of college students and recent graduates are on Facebook or Twitter. Between 85 and 99 percent of college students use Facebook (Chapman). Despite the fact that most students are extremely social-media savvy, often heavy users of Facebook and Twitter, for example, are avoiding LinkedIn (Hall). Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, stated that “I believe that the LinkedIn numbers are low because students aren’t talking about networking until after they graduate and don’t feel like they have enough contacts to add to their profiles since many don’t have real work experience yet. The students who focus on networking starting freshman year are at a great advantage because everyone knows that relationships lead to jobs” (Hall).
So what is the way to make LinkedIn more popular among college students? I think that LinkedIn should be shown more to the upcoming freshman at the universities and colleges. It would be a good idea for there to be a class offered with what information you should present on your LinkedIn website that shows what companies are looking for that gives freshman something to work towards. Students could learn how to look professional over the internet as well as how to write a resume. Most students believe their college is failing to offer adequate networking opportunities (Hall). For example, 46% of the students wanted their school to offer more instruction on “how to get jobs” (Hall). It would be great for students of all undergrad majors to be familiar with LinkedIn and know how to work it by the time they graduate. I think that this could boost their chances of getting a job by making connections of people during college. In conclusion, I believe this blog was very beneficial and can be very helpful when explaining what a professional website is to college students.
Works Cited
Hall, Brian S. (2013). Why aren’t college students using LinkedIn to find jobs? Readwrite. Retrieved from: http://readwrite.com/2013/04/23/why-arent-college-students-using-linkedin-to-find-jobs#awesm=~obC6OQOiZpST2m
Chapman, Eric. (2011). Facebook Facts Revealed. Collegiate Time. Retrieved from: http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/18784/facebook-facts-revealed
After learning why it is important to create a LinkedIn account, and seeing the benefits of being involved in the LinkedIn community, I think it is important to know what to include on your LinkedIn profile, due to the fact that it is one of the most important parts of the site. It is what you use to connect with people in your network, and your profile is also how you get found on LinkedIn, because it contains information about your skills and experience (Doyle, 2013).
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you need to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is completely filled out, and as detailed as you can make it. This is, in short, your online resume. It should include any and all information that is already on your resume, including important items like your qualifications, experience and skills (Doyle, 2013).
You are also going to want to make sure your profile is public. This is one of the easiest ways to be found. When you customize your URL, you will be given a link that can easily be shared. If you are able to use your name for this URL, do that because that will be the most professional and quick route to the perfect URL. Next you are going to want to add a photo, preferably a headshot (Doyle, 2013). This needs to be a professional photo, stay away from those photos that may be too casual, like a picture from a night out with your girlfriends.
The “Summary” section of your LinkedIn profile is where you are going to highlight your experience. Don't forget to include a headline, because that's right at the top of the page when someone views your profile (Doyle, 2013). Also include certifications, languages, and other skills you may have. There will be an option to select an industry that you are most interested in, which you will want to include in the event that recruiters use that field to search for perspective candidates.
After the summary is completed, one will want to complete the “Experience” section, which is technically more of the “online resume” section. This is where you will want to include current and past employment, education, and volunteer and community service. A LinkedIn survey reports that volunteer experience can give job candidates an edge with hiring managers. 41% of the professionals surveyed stated that when they are evaluating candidates, they consider volunteer work equally as valuable as paid work experience (Doyle, 2013). 20% of the hiring managers surveyed have made a hiring decision based on a candidate's volunteer experience (Doyle, 2013).
Use the “Additional Information” section of your LinkedIn profile to include links to your company, your website, your blog, your Twitter account, and/or to other sites that provide professional information about you.
Take time to request LinkedIn recommendations. Recommendations from people you have worked with can be extremely beneficial. To a potential employer, a LinkedIn recommendation is a quick way to see a reference. When you're job searching and don't want your employer to know that you're updating your LinkedIn profile, it's a good idea to turn off your activity broadcasts.
Following these simply steps will help you create the most efficient LinkedIn profile. Now that you know why it is important to create and maintain your LinkedIn account, and the benefits it could have for you, there is no reason not to create an account and see where Linked In can take you.
Source
Doyle, A. (2013). What to Include in your LinkedIn Profile. In LinkedIn Profile Tips. Retrieved July 19, 2013, from http://jobsearch.about.com/od/linkedin/ss/linkedin-profile-tips.htm
Zack Crawford
ReplyDeleteLinkedIn, as Ashley Ward’s well-written article explains, is a useful tool for not only employers but also job seekers. It is a social networking site focused and dedicated to promoting oneself or business. But how do you know that your information is being read? What can you do to ensure that your profile is attractive and appealing to employers? I will discuss two crucial tips to enhance your LinkedIn profile so that you obtain the job of your dreams.
First, you must take advantage of the Professional Portfolio feature that LinkedIn offers. This feature helps job seekers, like yourself, improve he visual appeal of their profile with presentations, photos, and videos. These are essential to maximizing your professional advertisement. Employers want to see examples of your work and Professional Portfolio gives you the freedom and ease of displaying that information. Nicole Williams, a LinkedIn career’s experts, states, “Customizing your profile on LinkedIn will make it much more compelling to view by your community as well as by hiring managers, clients and colleagues. This feature truly lets your work speak for itself.” Professional Portfolio also allows other users comment on your video or presentation postings, which can open conversation about future business endeavors.
The second and final tip for creating a more attractive LinkedIn profile is to list ALL of your experiences. Too many times job seekers neglect to list volunteer work or certifications that they feel will not be necessary to the job they desire. Many time employers are looking for well diverse and multi-faceted employees. Your work experiences and volunteer jobs have made you the employee you are today. Keep that in mind when completing your profile. Leave no stone unturned when it comes to your experiences. The more you list, the better your chances of getting an interview.
Job hunting can be tedious work. It is nauseating yet rewarding. LinkedIn gives you the tools to display your work and experience that will be pleasing to your next employer’s eye. If you take the tips I have listed above, your dream job is just a phone call away.
Works Cited:
Levin-Epstein, A. (2013, May 20). Linkedin: 3 tips for building a better profile. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57585077/linkedin-3-tips-for-building-a-better-profile/