Session Recap: Are You Linked In?

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We’ve all heard of LinkedIn. To some, the tool is just another social networking platform. But the reality is LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with 101 million members around the world. Rather than being another network to tell your friends and followers what you’re doing or thinking at a single point in time, LinkedIn helps you build valuable relationships with those business contacts that you met at NIWeek and other business gatherings.

So, how do you start networking with the nearly 9 million engineers who are already on LinkedIn? Presenters Rod Siebels from the NI Regional Marketing Communications group, Deirdre Walsh from Jive Software, and Terry Stratoudakis from Wall Street FPGA provided great insight into using LinkedIn to build your professional reputation during Wednesday’s Community Exchange session titled “The Missing Link.”

As Rod described, LinkedIn is like a 24/7/365 networking event. He also showed great examples of quality LinkedIn profiles in which the members included detailed and thought-out summaries of their professional backgrounds. Rather than looking like a resume, Rod said, a good basic profile summary will include keywords about your job position, skills, and goals.

Terry Stratadoukis, Executive Director of Wall Street FPGA, began using LinkedIn a few years ago. He quickly saw the business value of being an active participant on the platform and provided good tips for joining groups, maintaining a personal brand, and networking on LinkedIn.

Deirdre also provided some good tips for those thinking about creating their own LinkedIn group. She recommended that one start by participating in existing LinkedIn groups with similar goals, and then start contributing content, discussions, or comments. Once you’ve earned credibility as an expert within that group, that may be the time to start your own group that serves your specific purpose. Invite others to join and keep the group updated with timely, valuable content. She also added that it’s important to recognize top participants in a group so they know you value their feedback and conversations.

After listening to all the great advice from these experts, I’m really looking forward to expanding my network on LinkedIn by joining more groups, working on my profile, and adding new connections. If you haven’t joined already, NIWeek is the perfect opportunity to get your LinkedIn profile up and running.