Networking has never been as easy as it is today. You can literally sit on the couch, pull out your smart phone, open up the LinkedIn app, and begin connecting with other professionals in your industry. After connecting with fellow LinkedIn users, you can begin to reach out and network. Need help finding a job? Try reaching out to someone who works at a company you want to work for. Want some advice? Send a message to someone who holds a position you want to hold one day and ask them how they got there. With LinkedIn being such a convenient and easy way to connect with other professionals, it is surprising that more people do not attribute their success in finding a job to the online networking site. If I had to guess at why that is, I would say it has everything to do with how LinkedIn is being used.
Simply put, there are two types of LinkedIn users. There are those who use LinkedIn exactly how it was intended and then there are those who do not. After graduating college with a degree in advertising, I was on the hunt for my first real career-starting job. My wife and I were going to move to Provo, Utah so she could start esthetician school. Neither of us had ever lived in Provo before and therefore didn’t know what the job market was like. It was at this time of my life that I dealt with the two very different types of LinkedIn users. I will let you, the reader, decide which user you think is using LinkedIn correctly and which is not.
LinkedIn User A
Not knowing much about the marketing industry in Provo, I decided to hop on LinkedIn and look for any acquaintances that lived in the area and worked in advertising, PR, or marketing. After a bit of research, I finally found someone. It was an old friend of mine from California whom I hadn’t seen in over five years. I sent him a very professionally written message over LinkedIn asking if he knew of any agencies that were hiring. I then waited anxiously for a response, but it never came. Not even a simple ‘no’ ever entered my inbox. I watched as that same friend continued to post his accomplishments and projects on his LinkedIn feed for all of his connections to see. He would even ask his connections for favors such as letting him borrow personal items for projects he was working on.
LinkedIn User B
Once it was solidified that my wife and I would be moving to Provo, Utah I changed the headline on my LinkedIn profile to read something along the lines of “Seeking a job in advertising in the Provo, Utah area.” Only a few days later I received a LinkedIn message from a former classmate of mine. He told me that he had seen that I was looking for an advertising job in Provo and wanted to know if he could help. He and his wife had moved to the area a little less than a year earlier and he had been looking for jobs in copywriting. We had a long discussion where he gave me advice on building my portfolio, suggested certain books to read, and even let me know of some agencies in the Provo area that he knew were hiring. At the end of the conversation he told me to reach out to him if I ever needed more help.
Now for the moment of truth: which LinkedIn user uses LinkedIn correctly and which one does not? This should be an easy one. LinkedIn user A uses LinkedIn for the purpose of showing off what they have done, hoping that one day their dream employer will reach out to them asking if they want a job. LinkedIn user B uses LinkedIn exactly how it was intended—for networking. The Oxford dictionary describes a network as, “A group of people who exchange information, contacts, and experience for professional or social purposes.” That word “exchange” sticks out to me the most because it means that networking is a two way street. You have to give in order to receive. Unfortunately, all too often we see people on LinkedIn who use it as a way to make themselves look good, without considering how they can help others. So next time you use LinkedIn, ask yourself—what type of LinkedIn user am I?