Using Linkedin
I’m more of a Facebook kinda guy, but with literally millions of users, LinkedIn is a gorilla when it comes to business networking sites. No doubt you are either on it or you’re steadily bombarded by friends, family, colleagues, and clients with requests to link up with them. How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn by Eric Butow and Kathleen Taylor is an extensive work delving into the nooks and crannies of LinkedIn. It also talks through many ways that businesses can use its networking capabilities.
Using LinkedIn assumes you have no knowledge of the site and only a vague idea of what online social networking is all about. The authors, one the owner of a web design firm and the other a recruiter, both use the site extensively for their own businesses and thus bring their real-world experiences to the table.
Even though the book is written to business professionals and owners of all types, it does not deal with the many compliance issues that can come up online. Therefore, professionals in regulated industries should definitely seek out the guidance of their compliance departments before blindly following the authors’ suggestions. That warning does not mean that LinkedIn and other networking sites should be avoided. After all, most of your communications are potentially under compliance scrutiny, yet you still must communicate.
Since Using LinkedIn is so broad in scope, I will not try to summarize it. Instead, I believe the chapter titles will give you a good idea of what it covers.
Chapter 1: Using LinkedIn to Your Advantage
Chapter 2: Signing In and Changing Your Account Settings
Chapter 3: Creating Your Profile
Chapter 4: Searching for People
Chapter 5: Adding and Managing Contacts
Chapter 6: Finding and Recruiting for Jobs
Chapter 7: Looking for and Becoming a Service Provider
Chapter 8: Recommendations on Your LinkedIn Profile
Chapter 9: Searching for Answers
Chapter 10: Contacting Other Members
Chapter 11: Managing the Nonresponding LinkedIn Member
Chapter 12: Other Business Networking Web Sites
You can see that the book will help you get started with LinkedIn, give tips on how to build your profile (homepage), and teach you how to connect with other people. It does a good job in giving examples of how you can leverage the site to find employees, clients, and vendors.
While the book is most useful for someone just getting started with LinkedIn, its breadth may give even the most seasoned veteran a few new ideas to mull over. While I’m not sure it shows you how to succeed in business, it does show you ways to use LinkedIn to give your business a boost and yourself the opportunity to become linked.
Whether you use LinkedIn or Facebook, look me up!
This article was published under the title "Book offers tips on how best to use business network site"
in the Wichita Falls Times Record News Biz to Biz May 2010.
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