What is LinkedIn and Why Should You Join?

LinkedIn Advanced People Search Functionality

LinkedIn's Awesome Advanced Search Functionality

I attended a great local Tweetup last night in Orange County. There were many people who I had communicated with on Twitter and finally had the chance to meet…the feeling was almost like seeing long lost friends! I will save Tweetups for another blog post, because what interested me last night were how many people I met last night that were active on Twitter but not at all on LinkedIn. Many saw LinkedIn as just being a site for “professionals” or really didn’t know what to do with it. The good news is that my upcoming Windmill Networking book on LinkedIn will help both those just learning about LinkedIn embrace the platform as well as assist advanced users in finding value they didn’t even know existed on the platform through the lens of Windmill Networking. In order to really explain LinkedIn to those that are new to it or do not fully understand it, I think it is best to ask what it is in the first place and elaborate some reasons why everyone (and I mean everyone from Gen Y and Millenial college students to Baby Boomers) should be utilizing it.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is really a huge database of professionals. Twitter lacks profile depth, Facebook is all over the place demographically and is also hard to find people. LinkedIn standardizes information entered by users into predefined “Profile Headline”, “Summary”, “Education”, “Company”, etc. categories. In addition to this huge database of information, LinkedIn provides an awesome search tool to allow you to pinpoint the person you are looking for depending on a number of very specific factors.

On the other hand, the more LinkedIn connections you have, the more you will be found.

So What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is the place to find and be found.

Why Should You Join LinkedIn?

I actually wrote a guest blog post on this sometime ago on Trender Research, but I wanted to follow up with an updated recap of the 3 biggest reasons for those who are still not sure as to how much time they want to spend on LinkedIn.

1) Getting Back in Touch (Finding & Being Found) —> Yes, Classmates.com and Facebook also allow you to get back in touch. But because of the search functionality that LinkedIn has, I am finding people on LinkedIn that I can’t find on the other social networking sites. And because it is easier to be found on LinkedIn, many are finding me too!

2) Acquire & Share Expertise —> LinkedIn has over 300,000 LinkedIn Groups that you can join. Each group has its own Discussions Board, News Board, and Jobs postings. Furthermore, the LinkedIn Answers boards has more than 2,000,000 answers to a variety of questions for you to peruse. The subject matter in both Groups and Answers covers a wide enough of topics that there is value for everyone to be participating.

3) Career Management —> I mentioned the following in my previous post on Social Networking Tips for the Unemployed: Social Networking is a Career Insurance that you can never have enough of. The advice is the same whether you are looking for a job or are happily employed: a network should be your insurance for your future career growth. Companies are organic entities whose needs change and do not and cannot promise you a guarantee that your job will be there 10 years from now, next year, or even next month. That is why you need to be on LinkedIn so that you can both find potential companies and recruiters as well as be found by them. Even if you are happy in your job, it can’t hurt to have a minimal profile on LinkedIn and receive contacts from recruiters in your industry or specialty who may be able to help you out in the future, can it? LinkedIn is free career insurance! BUY INTO IT!

You will notice that I didn’t even mention the reasons you should join LinkedIn if you are looking for business benefits from social networking. Of course there is lots of business and other advantages to being on LinkedIn. Wait for my book for all the details!

If you still don’t understand what LinkedIn is and why you should join and leverage it, I have not done my job as a blogger and LinkedIn advocate. If you are still confused please comment and let me know how I can help you see the light!

George

In your article 10 LinkedIn Mistakes You Shouldn't Make --2. LinkedIn Profile Headline is Not Branded Enough.
Could you please explain what to put in your profile headline? Underneath my name is the name of my company, is that correct? Could you also explain "brand" as you use it quite a bit. Oreo, Clorox, IBM are my examples of a brand. How does brand refer to me?

nealschaffer

Hi George -

Well my LinkedIn Book goes into details about your personal brand on LinkedIn, which I call your "LinkedIn Brand." A brand is how people perceive you. Whether you like it or not, you are being googled and people are looking at your profile without having personally met you. They are already perceiving you in a certain way based on what you have (or don't have) on your LinkedIn Profile, for instance. Your Professional Headline, the area below your name, is the most powerful part of your profile and should be heavily branded, or seeded with content proactively that 1) shows off your strengths and 2) differentiates you. Hope this makes sense...for a further detailed read, I really do recommend you invest in my book. I think it will be a convincing and informative read for you.

Best regards,
Neal Schaffer

George

Hi Neal, Thanks for your response. This is the first I have hear about your book so I plan on looking for it. You wrote,

Your Professional Headline, the area below your name,
> is the most powerful part of your profile and should be heavily branded, or
> seeded with content proactively that 1) shows off your strengths and 2)
> differentiates you.

To be quite honest what you wrote makes no sense to me. Sorry, there are just no specifics to what you write.

Thanks for your help,
George

nealschaffer

George,

Sorry if my comment made no sense to me. What I am talking about is the wording in your resume headline or professional headline on LinkedIn, which appears just before your name. The keywords or language that you you use here will decide how others perceive you. I could write "Social Media Book Author", "President, Windmills Marketing", or "Social Media Strategist", and depending on which I choose that is how people will form opinions about me. That is why you want to try to find language that showcases your strengths and that differentiates you. If you just put a company name there, that is not a personal brand but a company brand. What did you do at that company which would give someone a reason to hire you? That's what you want to try to hint at in your Professional Headline.

I am trying to be as clear as I can in my explanation...hope this makes sense.

- Neal

Michael Wilson

Good analogy about career insurance. LinkedIn sits on the professional end of the social media spectrum, so many people write it off. You do a good job of describing the benefits of joining.

Michael

nealschaffer

Thanks for the compliment Michael!

Neema Mwinamo

Can you crarify me if someone wants me to sign for the linkedIN WHAT IS THE BENEFIT TO BE ON IT. One of my brother ask me to add with his professional network. I DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Please answer my question before I agree.

nealschaffer

LinkedIn is a professional network. By signing up for it, you can now search for and be found by other professionals. You can join groups with other like-minded professionals, search for long-lost colleagues, and even find Answers to business problems. It is not what the benefit of LinkedIn is to you: it is more like what is your objective in using social media? If you have an objective with a professional-related reason, I am sure there is a LinkedIn benefit for you!

- Neal

Rita

What does it cost to join Linkedin? I was invited to join as a contact from someone I know but they didn't mention the fee

nealschaffer

LinkedIn is free Rita! I wrote my LinkedIn book based on the free version so no need to pay any money unless you start using it and want to get additional value out of it!

Don

OK, I get what you are saying ... but how do I keep from getting bogged down with "constant contacting". I'd like to join LinkedIn as a professional, but I already spend enough time with email and I don't want to be chatting and having mundane interactions with people just because they want to boost their LinkedIn profile, or whatever. I also don't want to get so inundated with contacts that it takes up the better part of a day better spent getting real work done.

I've already received more Facebook invites than I can think about ... and I don't even belong to Facebook!
It seems like it can get out of hand, can LinkedIn be tightly managed and how do you keep it under control?

nealschaffer

If you go to Accounts & Settings, there are actually a lot of emails that you can control. Please see my blog post on how to make a private LinkedIn profile for more information: http://windmillnetworking.com/2009/03/31/how-do...

stevenburda

Great read!

I agree 100%.

Another good read:
http://tinyurl.com/WhyLinkedin

stevenburda

Well said, and I agree 100%...

Another good read:

http://www.amplify-interactive.com/blog/2008/09...

TRAV-TOWN

why dont you all get a REAL LIFE and get off the internet and go meet people in real life like everyone used to do!! dont rely on Social Networking just on the internet!! my god people have we lost touch with reality??!!

nealschaffer

Hey Travis,

Well, since you're commenting on my blog, you're now one of us ;-) That being said, I agree that online networking is only one type of networking and that meeting people in real life should be the most valuable type of networking.

- Neal

CAdiver

You hit it right on the nail again Neal, I have myself used the insurance image many times to illustrate social networking, networking in general and LinkedIN. When I am told it takes too much time, my answer is "like insurance, it's always too expensive....until you need it" and you do not buy a policy after you have an accident. Networking is all the time, not just when you have lost your job or are looking for new business opportunities. Networking is the work you do now to shorten or eliminate transition time.

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