I recently had a chance to meet the younger sister of a high school friend who was in transition for the first time since college graduation. “I used to always have jobs lined up for me and never had a challenge finding work.” Heard that one before, right? How about, “I received all of these LinkedIn invites, but I thought they were such a nuisance!” Indeed, the only positive thing to come out of not digging our wells before we are thirsty is to finally realize the power of LinkedIn in helping us build out our personal brand, professional networking, …
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I recently got asked a great question in my Windmill Networking LinkedIn Group: Neal, what is one of the most recent insights you have learned about LinkedIn that can help us? Since I wrote the book on LinkedIn, although 90% of the functionality of the site is still the same, I am finding the “Follow” features that LinkedIn have introduced to be of value for some. While this “feature” may still be a mystery to many, here is my advice on how you can strategically use it by thinking outside of the box. For instance:
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I will start out this post by letting you know that I am not in any way nor have ever been a recruiter or a headhunter. While I have been a hiring manager for previous companies, my experience in being able to write this post comes from helping out many recruiters looking for candidates on or off LinkedIn. Because I am a Windmill Networker, I see great value in establishing relationships with recruiters and helping them out when I can. In fact, my LinkedIn Profile Contact Settings explicitly state: I also enjoy speaking with recruiters and providing introductions whenever possible …
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As you probably already know, I am very active on LinkedIn as a LinkedIn Open Networker or LION. I accept all invitations, and I respond to each invitation with asking my new connections how I might be able to help them. I often get the following response, which I again received just this week: Hi Neal, I do have a question you may be able to help with. I’m attaching my resume so you can get an idea about my skills and experience, but if you were in my shoes, what would you do in finding an opportunity in the …
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It’s no surprise that jobseekers flocked to LinkedIn with this past recession after realizing that most recruiters were already heavy LinkedIn users and were using the social networking platform to find new talent. So many jobseekers are utilizing LinkedIn that some are calling it less of a professional networking site and more of a jobseeker’s networking site. It is unfortunate that some professionals are turned away from LinkedIn because of this as they miss out on a lot of professional networking opportunities. Windmill Networking on LinkedIn as part of your job search strategy is obviously important. But many jobseekers are …
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Come on, I don’t really want you to write me one, but there has been unprecedented chatter about LinkedIn recommendations in blogging circles these days. And I want to put everything in perspective to confirm whether or not LinkedIn recommendations really have value. It was Jeremiah Owyang who started the debate. Jeremiah is a renowned web strategist, but he is also one of the early adopters and biggest fans of LinkedIn. If you check out the archives of his blog, you will see some gems of articles about utilizing LinkedIn for social networking and tips for job hunting. I consider Jeremiah …
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Today’s blog post has been contributed by Breanne Cooley, the editor of my upcoming book “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn.” “How’s the job search going?” “Network, network, network!” “Hang in there!” Those are the words every frustrated job seeker hears over and over from their friends and family. In fact, those were the words I kept hearing for these past few months during my own job search in San Francisco. Though the support is, of course, much appreciated, I couldn’t help but think to myself: “How the heck do I ‘network’ when everyone else is busy with their …
read moreLinkedIn Branding Tips: Should I Indicate on My LinkedIn Profile Status Update That I am Unemployed?
Before I event start answering this question, I will tell you that I am going out on a limb on this one. I am going against what a lot of people are actually doing. You may think that I am crazy or just wrong, but my intention is only to help those that are unemployed with the best advice possible. You can take my advice or leave it. I welcome all opinions, but I do hope you will continue reading to the very end of this blog post to better understand me. This question came recently from a LinkedIn/Twitter friend, …
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Since I posted about the topic of who owns what in social media from the perspective of an employee’s LinkedIn profile, I have been humbled by both the number of people visiting my blog as well as others that have re-tweeted about my blog on Twitter and elsewhere. Based on the comments I have received and other developments, I wanted to offer additional insight into this topic of who owns our social media profiles. First of all, if you haven’t read my previous blog post on LinkedIn Profiles: Who Owns It, Me or My Employer?, please go ahead and do …
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The following story of LinkedIn Profile ownership is a true one, and as with my other blog posts, I am hoping to get your feedback as to what the “right” answer to this question should be. Imagine that you began a job as a recruiter. Part of your job is, obviously, building out a network. After being hired you sign up to LinkedIn using your personal name. You start inviting your network as well as new contacts to connect with you on the networking platform. In order to better facilitate your sourcing activities on LinkedIn, your company starts reimbursing you …
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