We’re doing lots of activities online that we once did in person. Shopping? Sure.
Paying bills? Of course.
But professional networking? You bet — and with some great advantages. Finding a job is still all about who you know. After making a few online connections, you can multiply your network a lot faster than at a local business meeting.
Last year, I joined LinkedIn, but I didn’t really become active until a few e-mails hit my inbox – requests from colleagues asking me to link to their profile, which is a sort of on-screen résumé. After linking to only 12 people, I gained about 238,000 people in my network.
Sure, they don’t actually know me. But I can easily search information about them and ask to virtually meet them through my 12 contacts, much like I would call “a friend who has a friend” to help me land a job.
I didn’t have to work hard to add 12 people; in fact, I’m only getting started.
Lindsey Pollak, speaker and author of “Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World” (HarperCollins, 2007), says the real benefit kicks in at about 50 contacts. LinkedIn stops counting at 500, says Krista Canfield, the company’s public relations manager. “It’s not a popularity contest.”
But the site is popular. About 25 people join every minute, according to Canfield. As the business world’s answer to social-networking sites, LinkedIn offers professional profiles, the networking component, an answers section and company profiles. These features can help jobseekers find jobs or perhaps meet someone at a company they have targeted in a job search.
Networking is about building relationships, and online networking can make strengthening connections surprisingly easy.
Pollak, whose husband found his job through LinkedIn and who co-authored a book about online networking, tells college students that online networking is similar to traditional networking, but somewhat less intimidating.
“If someone is on LinkedIn, they’ve put it out there that they’re willing to network,” Pollak said.
The site is set up so that you can’t link to just anyone. You have to ask first – and as Pollak points out, the same rules of networking apply online. “My No. 1 networking rule is that it has to be mutually beneficial,” she said. “You have to offer to help; you can’t just ask.” Pollak has been known to “unlink” from people who have sought to join the same online groups and link to the same connections.
Canfield likens online-networking etiquette to your behavior at a professional cocktail party.
“You wouldn’t necessarily go running around the room asking, ‘Is anyone hiring marketing people today?’” she said. Use discretion. Canfield adds that you can search for questions being asked about marketing on the site’s “Answers” section.
They might give you a clue to a company’s needs. And Pollak says it’s best to answer a question before asking for help from the online community. Again, you’re giving as well as taking. Online members can see right through someone who is only out for personal gain.
But you can gain if you use online networking correctly. Canfield walked me through a series of features that made my profile and connections work better for me. An advanced-search feature can find people by company, title, industry, geographic region, and so on. Making sure you use certain keywords in your profile can help connections and potential employers find you.
“I tell people to fill out their profile completely,” Pollack said. She says to look at other people in your field with great profiles; use the same sorts of keywords and methods.
“It’s like having tons of great research and free résumés to look at how other people promote themselves,” she said.
LinkedIn’s 160,000 company profiles not only list information about the companies but also show you education and career paths that LinkedIn members took before and after working there.
“If you’re a high-school student, look to see what schools to go to that they hire from,” Canfield said. And look to see if you have any second- or third-degree connections to someone who works there; it might just be a great source of information or a potential recommendation.
There are other online networking sites, such as Plaxo and ZoomInfo. Pollak says a lot of corporations even have pages on social sites, such as Facebook. She even has heard of some people promoting their job searches on Twitter and landing jobs.
“LinkedIn seems to be emerging as the place to be for professional networking and job hunting,” Pollak said. “I use it all of the time. I really enjoy it and feel like it’s sort of a fun way to network,” she said.
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