Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The use of LinkedIn


As we are starting our 6th week of school here at Purdue, classes have begun to pick up for everyone. Before we know it, midterms will be rolling around the corner making things even tougher. Lets face it; we wouldn’t be college students if we were not procrastinating. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and more all can distract you from accomplishing your tasks. And we all know people have at least one or all of the social media. One social media people forget about is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a mix of social and professional media people use to stay connected- especially to old coworkers, bosses, and much more. It is a tool people can use to find job information, stay in touch with people to get a different job and much more. It is basically the Facebook of professional connections. Here are a few tips on getting the most out of your LinkedIn account.

 Personalize your connections. If you are going to add someone you found that you worked for 2 years ago, always add a personal tag to show interest in the person. It will always make them feel great you remembered the person. They are more likely to remember you as well.

Complete your profile. Remember, LinkedIn is a professional site where one can get jobs! So always, always, always have an updated resume and profile. It if is unfinished, people will assume you are lazy and “don’t have the time to put the effort in.”

Professional Photo. Facebook is for the fun, laid back photos. Stay professional by using a nice, clean photo of yourself where you are not with your friends, drinking and partying. It looks really bad to employers looking at your site. It screams unprofessional.

Re-post or post professional thoughts. The more active you use your profile, the better and more professional it looks. Follow some of your favorite professional people and see what they have to say. It can never hurt to know more about the professional world since we are all going to graduate one day!

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