By Katy Caroan:
“Do I have to be on LinkedIn?” This is a question I get quite often from people who want to brainstorm ideas about what they can do to upgrade their professional situation. I tell them they have to. “But not solely because you are looking for a new professional challenge externally. You should be on LinkedIn to position your professional brand and to maintain your professional reputation to attract new opportunities, whether you are looking for a new job or want to excel in your existing job.”
Most professionals understand the benefits attached to having a representative, intriguing profile online which is easy for others to find through key words. This is only to be considered a minimum, to get results you also need to take action and demonstrate your availability, expertise and collaboration skills. “But this seems really time consuming….” Yes, it requires initial investment in getting your profile in shape and exploring which groups, questions and activities to engage in.
When you have defined your LinkedIn arena and use it as a hub with other social media tools such as Twitter and WordPress, you can easily implement a daily or weekly routine to keep updated without too much effort. Then it’s time to start benefiting from building long term relationships via LinkedIn, by taking part of an interesting discussion, sharing your knowledge, pay attention to what happens in the market, take note of what’s happening to your connections and explore new opportunities.
Your professional reputation is what is said about you when you are not present. When using LinkedIn you have the opportunity to maintain your professional reputation and develop it further through your level of engagement on an ongoing basis. That is, if you are looking to become “top of mind” for people looking for somebody with your profile…
