Hello
again, lovelies! I hope you’ve all had a
wonderful week. Last post, we talked
about how to get your LinkedIn (LI) profile set-up so you can start networking
in your industry of interest (either for immediate or future use), following
companies leading the pack, and reading about the latest updates and workplace
trends.
Now that
you are on LI and have the access you need to all of its resources, let me
first tell you what not to do: do not sign
up for a paid account. If I had written this a year ago knowing that some of
you are retiring from SAHM-hood and beginning your journey into the workforce,
I would have said absolutely, definitely, get the most basic $30/month account
even if it’s only for a month or two.
However, LI, as all companies eventually do, has scaled back the
benefits of a paid account and, frankly, it’s not worth it at this point in
time (at least not until you build up a profile, a following, and are prepared
to spearhead your job search). So for now, leave the paid accounts alone.
What you do need to do is dive right into the LI Pulse section and start following topics, bloggers, thought leaders, etc. in your area of interest. To get to this portion of LI, follow these steps:
- Logon to your account
- Navigate to the top left side of your screen where you have a black panel with several links: Home, Profile, Connections, Jobs, Interests
- Hover over “Interests” and click “Pulse”
- Start perusing and…go to town!!
- Click on “Discover” to see some recommended influencers to follow
The screen this takes you to will
have a series of boxes with suggested INfluencers (as they like to call them)
you might want to follow. If you continue scrolling down you’ll have “Channels”
and then “Publishers” to select from as well. Since you haven’t been on the
platform very long, the suggestions may or may not apply to you. If you see something that looks relevant,
click “Follow”. Otherwise, use the
“Search” box in the top middle of the page. Be sure to click the three-line
icon to the left of the box and select “Posts” to search topics of interest.
Note:
My personal recommendation is to always use the LI desktop site for browsing,
even if you’re navigating on your mobile phone. Go ahead and download the app
for your phone or ipad if you’re interested, but I personally find the LI apps
very difficult to navigate and un-intuitive. I prefer going through the
struggle of logging in to the desktop site from my mobile phone.
Try to find
at least 5-10 topics and INFluencers you’re interested in following right
away. You can always “unFollow” them
later if they don’t provide the kind of content you’re looking for, but this at
least gives LI a good view into the kind of topics that intrigue you so it can
continue to give you recommendations. In the coming weeks and months you’ll see
more and more topics and people pop up on your news feed (because LI
recommended them or someone in your network “liked” or “shared” something) that
spark your interest and you will have opportunities to increase your knowledge
base and hone in on what really interests you.
Now
what? Well, now you have to do something
crazy. Something that will go against
your every instinct, but that is so vitally important, you absolutely have to
force yourself to do it no matter how difficult it is:
Next time to you have some downtime,
Instead of logging in
to Facebook… log in to LinkedIn.
I know, I thought it was a
completely crazy idea at first too. But it’s SO much more interesting! Browse
through LI just like you do Facebook – peruse the newsfeed, see if there’s
anything new happening in your network, browse some of your topics – get your
head into your industry. This might be difficult at first for several reasons:
- You may not be used to putting your head into workplace or professional mode on a daily basis – it does require a different, but equally valuable, kind of energy
- You likely haven’t honed in on all of the topics that spark your imagination just yet, so the content you find in your newsfeed may seem bland at first
- Your network is probably small and there won’t be many updates initially
That’s ok. It will take some time to build all that up
just like it did on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and any other networks you
use.
Tip:
Start by connecting with me on LI! Simply visit my profile page here and click
“Connect”. You will likely be asked what
your connection to me is (it does this with anyone you aren’t already linked to
in some way) so simply click the “Friend” radio button and I will receive the
request. Once you are connected to me, you will be able to connect with anyone
in my network which can be very helpful if you’re interested in marketing,
technical writing, or the oil & gas and engineering industries.
But stick with it and you will soon
find yourself defaulting to LI because the information can be so fascinating! And on those days when
there doesn’t seem to be any adults within 50 miles of your location and you
are ridiculously tired of hearing 2nd grade vocabulary and you wish
you could find a single person to talk to who understands what a “relationship
status” is, you will find LI to be incredibly comforting. It will be an escape,
a moment of adultness, a moment of youness.
A chance to build a Mommy-interest and focus inward for a moment.
I’ve
never been a big fan of scheduling out time for, well, anything (exercise,
study, sex…), but if it works for you, go ahead and set aside a daily 5-10
minutes (or more if you can) for browsing LI.
Or, if you’re more like me, just file it in your head on the list of
“things I can do on my phone when I have 2 seconds to think” and hop on there
when you can – 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, half an hour there – whatever
works for you.
To
help you in your search for topics and Influencers, I’ve put together a
shortlist that includes:
·
Most common industry and job-related topics
·
Influencers I’m most fond of
·
Best articles from across LI
To access the shortlist, simply click
the download link and save it to your computer. It’s in pdf format so the links
will open up directly in you preferred browser.
I’d love to
know what topics and influencers you choose to follow! Please mention in the comments the “Follows”
that you are most excited about.
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