Linked In: A Powerful Tool For The Professional and the Job Seeker

Since social media started booming as a popular form of communication, LinkedIn has grown to become of the best business tools available. Seasoned professionals can utilize it to keep in touch with clients, customers, former co-workers and colleagues and job seekers can use the site to look for jobs and network contacts. LinkedIn can help sell your experiences and capabilities with a well written profile and keep in touch with past and present co-workers. LinkedIn does take time but is beneficial in the end.

Even though it does take time to write up and develop, LinkedIn can be a valuable tool for the following reasons:

• it offers the capability to showcase your talents and experiences to a large group of people
• research can be done on companies, which can be beneficial for job seekers
  
• messages and introductions can be sent to contacts all over LinkedIn
  
• it can be used to network and build business relationships
  

LinkedIn is a remarkable and beneficial tool and below are tips on getting the most out of utilizing it:

Only Accept and Request To Be In Networks of People You Actually Know, Have Worked With or Have Done Business With

As a general rule of thumb, if you do not know someone requesting to be in your network, do not accept them as a contact until you have verified who he or she really is. Sometimes you can send a message to a person requesting to be in your network as a way to verify his or her identity but if you do not know the person at all, do not accept them into your network. This will help you manage your contacts and who you are connected with.

If You Are A Job Seeker and Wish To Send an Introduction to Someone, Make Sure the Introduction is Meaningful and Clear


Asking a contact to pass your introduction along to another contact is a great form of communication but take time to proofread what you wrote and make sure it's clear, concise and to the point. If your contact can't understand what you are trying to communicate, neither will the person who he or she will be sending it to! Take the time to write introductions that are meaningful and will help get your foot in the door with another person.

Use Personal Discretion When Putting Up Phone Numbers, E-Mail Addresses or Other Forms of Communication

If you don't want random calls on your cell phone, don't put your cell phone number on your LinkedIn profile. If you don't want e-mails to a personal account, do not put your personal e-mail on your profile. With more and more users utilizing LinkedIn each day, there is a greater chance that someone will take time to call or e-mail you to a personal e-mail address if it is on your profile.

Do Not Use LinkedIn to Bash Former Employers or Companies

LinkedIn messages are sometimes forwarded to other e-mail accounts and with Twitter and Facebook, information can spread very rapidly to a large number of people. Taking the time to openly bash a former employer or supervisor could end up in the wrong hands and might even eliminate you from contention for future positions. Once it is posted or written, that message can be spread like wildfire.

Do Your Homework!

Interviewing for an internship or job can be an exhausting matter but something that will eliminate yourself from contention is lack of preparation and research on the organization you are interviewing with. Nothing turns off a hiring manager more then someone who has never taken time to visit the company's web-site or doesn't know anything about the company.

During my experience as an undergraduate at Otterbein College, there were times I interviewed for various internships. During these interviews and after I got the opportunity to intern at a couple of places, many of the hiring managers I came across typically had more then just a couple of stories of people interviewing for a position or internship and not knowing anything about the company. For example, there was one interview I had at a radio station in which the hiring manager mentioned I was the only candidate all day who actually could name the morning show hosts! These people who interviewed before me could have found out this information simply by going to the station's web-site and it only would have taken them about five minutes to do so! This was not the first or last time I had heard a hiring manager mention stories of candidates not knowing anything about the company to which they were interviewing to be apart of.

Taking time to research the company does take lots of time but will pay off in the end. It will show your interest in the position, the company and drive to learn more about the position or internship you are applying for. Below are some tips on researching a company before you go into that interview:

1) Visit The Company's Web-Site- Taking some time to go through the web-site will help you find information on the history of the company, what they sell, and sometimes even provides information on the people who work there. Take time to visit the web-site, go through it and understand what the company is all about.

2) Use LinkedIn To Find Information On The Company- Not all companies are on LinkedIn but most of them are starting to become more familiar and comfortable with the tool. Sometimes you can look up people who work at the company, get additional information on their products or services or even find information on the hiring manager.

3) If You Can't Find What You Need Online, Don't Be Afraid To Call The Company- As long as you don't take up too much time, the receptionist could help you find the information you need for your interview. Simply be open and honest and mention right away that you are interviewing with the company and would like some additional information before the interview.

4) Type Up The Information Or Write It Down On Notecards- If you can't recall everything you found on the web-site, don't be afraid to write it down or type it up. That way, when the question comes up, you have a reference right in front of you and it shows the hiring manager you took time to go to the web-site to learn more about the company. This is time consuming but it's better to have a reference point in front of you then to have nothing at all.