Welcome . . . to all my newest LinkedIn students, who are about to discover why LinkedIn is the key social media platform to establish their professional reputations.
LinkedIn is the world’s LARGEST online professional network that can help you gather business intelligence, connect with trusted contacts, and pinpoint individuals who can help build businesses and careers.
Here are a half dozen questions to get you thinking . . . and Linking:
1) Why should I consider being a LinkedIn member?
2) Is there a “typical” LinkedIn member? i.e., an average age? Income? Occupation?
3) How is LinkedIn different than other social media sites?
4) How much time do I have to spend on LinkedIn?
5) What exactly can I gain from a profile on LinkedIn?
6) How important are LinkedIn recommendations?
Now even if you aren’t scheduled for a class, you, too, can get yourself going on LinkedIn.
6 LinkedIn Answers to help establish your professional self online
1) Why should I consider being a LinkedIn member?
On average, a new member joins every second of every day, or approximately one million every 12 days. Operating in more than 200 countries, as of Jan 2011, LinkedIn has 101 million members. LinkedIn can help you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities. LinkedIn lets you demonstrate your expertise to establish the trust upon which most business relationships depend.
2) Is there a “typical” LinkedIn member? i.e., an average age? Income? Occupation? 
The average age is 41 years. The average salary is $110,000. Twelve percent of all users say they are in sales. And here are more stats:
- 10% are either in academia, administration or operations
- 9% engineering
- 8% information technology
3) How is LinkedIn different than other social media sites?
Here is an often used analogy: Consider the formerly popular site MySpace like a bar. What would you do and say there? How would you interact with people you knew and people you wanted to meet . . . at a bar. That was MySpace.
Now there is the giant Facebook with its 600 million users. Think of your Facebook Friends coming to your home for an outdoor BarBQ. What stories would you tell? How would you engage with the guests?
Finally, there is LinkedIn. This is like your Virtual Office. You wouldn’t say the same things in a business setting as you would at home or in the bar, right? Furthermore, you wouldn’t expect the same business value either. LinkedIn is where you can present your professional self, demonstrate your expertise, and build solid professional relationships.
4) How much time do I have to spend on LinkedIn?
Of course, like all of social media, the time management issue is entirely up to you — and what you hope to accomplish.
That being said, if “all” you do is take some time to set up a professional profile AND post an update once or twice a week, you are way ahead of the game. Your professional online resume will be highly findable, and that in and of itself is powerful.
However, if you would like to take the next steps, and really “use” all the functionality of LinkedIn, then you can plan a host of strategies that could take as much time as you wished to schedule. There are some people who actually plan one hour of Every Day answering LinkedIn questions. This strategy works for them, i.e. establishing their authority and bringing in loads of new business.
5) What exactly can I gain from a profile on LinkedIn?
How about job/client opportunities that you would have had no other way to get?
The ultimate goal of a maximized LinkedIn profile is for people to find YOU when they search for someone/something they need.
6) How important are LinkedIn recommendations?
Recommendations are huge. After all, a good part of the New Normal way of doing business is to understand that People Do Business with People — so often based on positive word of mouth [rather than outside advertising or other promotion].
The “art” of recommendations requires its own separate article, but suffice it to say that one of your initial strategies needs to be finding happy customers and clients, who are LinkedIn members and will write something glowing AND TRUE about you and your services.
So let’s get started . . . and that includes asking more questions and adding your own LinkedIn experiences and tips below.
Sources: LinkedIn site, Jan 2011 slideshow,
FURTHER RESOURCES:
Check out all my blog articles labeled LinkedIn Basics for articles on Maximizing your Profile and Creating your own Success on LinkedIn.