Facebook and Myspace are often times the only social networks that come to most peoples mind when asked where they can be friended at, but there are many other options. One main alternative is LinkedIn, a professional social networking site. Unlike Facebook or Myspace, LinkedIn feels more like an online resume and focuses on professional contacts, user recommendations, and education, rather photos, updates, and wall posts. LinkedIn is great if you don’t want your boss to see you chugging that beer or with the cheerleaders at a basketball game. So, without further ado, here are 5 reasons you should join LinkedIn.
- Network with industry professionals. With LinkedIn you can send any user a request to be a contact – from a company’s CEO to that lost friend from high school, it doesn’t matter. Add me here.
- Join industry groups. In addition to connecting with industry individuals, you can officially associate yourself with industry groups, which can make connection discovery a breeze. We even have a group for Career Fire here.
Get “recommended” by others. One of the best features, recommendations are public and allow you flaunt them to possible employers. In fact, I copied the top 5 recommendations and included them on a second page in my resume. Lot’s of people can talk about themselves in an interview, but can most job condidates have so many other people talk about them?
- Questions and Answers. Much like Yahoo! Answers, LinkedIn Q&A allows users to answer and post questions to not only their network, but the entire LinkedIn population as well. Be picked as the best answer for a particular question and receive a special badge for your profile.
- Hunt for jobs through your network. The job search engine, powered by SimplyHired, also includes connection information from LinkedIn. This allows searchers to leverage their networks and contacts to facilitate the job search and hiring process. Below you’ll see a some search results for marketing jobs in the Seattle area.
Bonus: Be found in search engines
Having a profile can greatly help your personal SEO and visibility on the ‘net.
Related posts:
- Putting Your LinkedIn Profile To Work
- Write Your LinkedIn Profile For Your Future
- Threading The Social Needle: Networking With Social Media
- SimplyHired Is Simply Awesome
- Using Social Media To Advance Your Career
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Linkedin was added to the About.com Top 10 Employment site list with 2 other sites but linkedin is still the only social netwoking site on the list. The 3 newest job sites are:
http://www.linkedin.com (networking)
http://www.indeed.com (aggregated job listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (matches you to the perfect job)
Good luck to all those searching for jobs.
Thanks for the links, Matthew. I went to realmatch.com, but unfortunately, it wasn’t working properly.