LinkedIn is THE place for professional networking. I know, everyone who is anyone with "friends" on Facebook is getting bombarded with "Branch Out" invitations, but let's face it, we use LinkedIn for a reason and we use Facebook for a reason, and for the most part, neither the tween shall meet.
LinkedIn today has more than one hundred and fifty million (150M) professionals signed up with an average of over two new members per second! The majority of professionals use LinkedIn weekly, over 60% of the users if you are curious! But, if you are like most, you've pretty much only put your resume out there, maybe added a picture, and hopefully where you went to school... and then you left it alone. Well fret not tool box lovers, for I have some suggestions for you on how you can pimp your profile to make it extraordinary!
While I normally provide insight and details on a specific tool each week, this week I have three suggested additions to your LinkedIn profile that will help, drive thought and conversation, and more importantly, help you build your brand!
InMaps:
LinkedIn today has more than one hundred and fifty million (150M) professionals signed up with an average of over two new members per second! The majority of professionals use LinkedIn weekly, over 60% of the users if you are curious! But, if you are like most, you've pretty much only put your resume out there, maybe added a picture, and hopefully where you went to school... and then you left it alone. Well fret not tool box lovers, for I have some suggestions for you on how you can pimp your profile to make it extraordinary!
While I normally provide insight and details on a specific tool each week, this week I have three suggested additions to your LinkedIn profile that will help, drive thought and conversation, and more importantly, help you build your brand!
InMaps:
Caveat to us: You must have 50 connections and a profile that is 75 percent completed and this is an "experimental" app, so use at your own risk.
InMaps is a wonderful way to SEE your network! Not just read about it, but SEE it! After logging into InMaps with your LinkedIn account, it will build a marvelous spider web of all your connections. At first glance, you can easily see where and how people are connected or related to each other, but upon further inspection, this tool offers a lot of power.
You can edit labels. You can move people around. You can even see direct connections people have to each other and get to understand how your network lives and breathes, which will put you in a better position when networking with these folks, as well as what actions you need to take, if you see an area not as represented as you may have thought it was.
InMaps is a wonderful way to SEE your network! Not just read about it, but SEE it! After logging into InMaps with your LinkedIn account, it will build a marvelous spider web of all your connections. At first glance, you can easily see where and how people are connected or related to each other, but upon further inspection, this tool offers a lot of power.
You can edit labels. You can move people around. You can even see direct connections people have to each other and get to understand how your network lives and breathes, which will put you in a better position when networking with these folks, as well as what actions you need to take, if you see an area not as represented as you may have thought it was.
Reading an awesome book? Want to share with the world without having the same 15 minute conversation with everyone you know? The Amazon Reading List application is an excellent way to share your professional library, as well as let others see a personal side of you. I have a friend who loves baseball, and is possibly the worlds most infamous walking encyclopedia on the subject, yet until he added the book "The Yogi Book: 'I really didn't say everything I said.'" many of his contacts had no idea of his love of the game, had that not struck up a conversation on sports with him.
This is a great tool to indirectly share your thoughts, insights, and passions, and one that is highly recommended.
SlideShare isn't a LinkedIn App as much as it is a social PowerPoint App that just happens to be massively used on, and well suited for, LinkedIn. SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing Slide Based Power Point presentations and interconnects wonderfully in LinkedIn.
Utilizing this tool not only lets you share your slides with clients, customers, colleagues, and others, but it also lets you highlight slides on your LinkedIn page. Have a presentation that is all about you, your accomplishments, and/or what your business can do? Share away! No more downloading by your connections, they can see it right there on your portfolio!
More importantly, it works with YouTube videos! Go a step beyond and impress people with not just a resume and words, but with moving, living, breathing shots of you, explaining everything you need to let others know why they should be connected to and with you!
Taking your profile to the next level is how you can share and build your personal brand with those in your network as well as those searching for people like you. In today's world, most recruiters hit LinkedIn before any other social networking site, so believe you me, these searches are happening all the time. Apps like these three, and many, many others available on LinkedIn, allow you customized features to set you apart and make you, and your brand, all that more powerful!
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