3FE: Lock The Job - Is LinkedIn Really That Important?

There is a question more and more people are starting to ask … is LinkedIn really that important?  Is the answer yes?  Is the answer no?  Is the answer a little bit of both? 

There are multiple perspectives with this question, no different from any other question.  However, if we would seek to fully understand what we are asking and thereby clarify an appropriate answer, perhaps we should ask the question differently.  Maybe we should ask the following:

Does LinkedIn add value for me personally?

Yes, that’s a much better question, one we can readily answer with value and certainty.  We can break the exercise down by looking at the aspects of a LinkedIn profile, what that profile can do for you, and how exposing that profile to others in a network can generate opportunity.

In the 3FE: Lock The Job process we specifically call out creating your presence on the web.  Creating your presence on the web is much more than creating a LinkedIn profile.  However, a LinkedIn profile is a very important and integral part of your overall web strategy.

Yes, I said strategy.  Understand, part of your job in locking the job or building a career is grabbing hold of all your potential and putting out there in the most effective manner possible.  This creation and elevation of your personal brand means you must have a plan both tactical and strategic.  You must detail the things you’re going to do now as well as the eventual objective you wish to achieve.

LinkedIn allows you to do a number of things critical to crafting a strong brand and presenting it in a manner that counts.  With this understanding it becomes quite clear that a LinkedIn profile adds value in general by adding value to your web presence in particular.  Let’s break down exactly how it does this: 

1. Your Name and What you do is highlighted at the top of the page.  As with any social network profile it announces quite specifically who you are and what you are doing.  In this sense it’s geared towards the professional social, as opposed to just the fun social.
2. There’s a section for your Summary, a place to tell your story and provide the maximum amount of impact in saying who you are and what you do.
3. You can highlight your Experiences, detailing what you have done over the course of your career.  This is where you get to add specific details about what you’ve done for a given organization.
4. In the Skills and Expertise section people get to attest to what you can do by virtue of a LinkedIn function, which may or may not provide critical information in terms of your potential.  There is an argument in terms of the efficacy of this section of the profile, as people can recommend you for skills and not really know you at all.  We’ll discuss this in another article.
5. There is a section where you can highlight what projects you’ve worked on over the course of your career that show your strengths and can prove your distinctiveness.
6. There’s a section for you to detail your education.
7. There’s also a section for others to write recommendations for you.  This is the area of testimonials, and just like with any good product you want to show here what good things people have to say about you, about your brand. 

The seven points I’ve listed here are just the tip of the LinkedIn iceberg.  LinkedIn has provided additional functionality that allows you to showcase what makes you great, as well as allowing you to leverage the power of social networking in order to share your brand with the LinkedIn world. 

Can this lead to opportunities?  Absolutely!  Does this add value?  Go back and read over the seven points.  This is more than just a resume. It’s interactive.  It’s asynchronous communication.  It’s call and response.  It’s you being able to put yourself out into the datasphere for consideration by those who can open doors.

Remember, build a network, leverage a network, create an opportunity. 

The effective utilization of LinkedIn can most certainly create an opportunity for you.  In this, it has incredible value.  However, the effectiveness of that value-adding proposition is only as strong as the work you put into it.  A poor profile and poor engagement produces poor results.  A strong profile, leveraging the additional functionality LinkedIn has to offer can produce excellent results. 

Understand, today’s organizations are using LinkedIn just as much as you are. During a job search many employers consider LinkedIn to be their first stop.  If it’s not the first stop you can be absolutely certain it will be one of their stops on the road to evaluating you for a position.  As such, your entire web presence must be branded to show you as the essential differentiating factor that is critical for the position they are seeking to fill.  And of course, part of your web presence today quite clearly must include LinkedIn.  

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,

D.S. Brown