Guide to LinkedIn for CF Members

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So, what's all this LinkedIn business about and why do some CF members seem to keep recommending it ?

To answer the above, being a frequent LinkedIn user, I thought I'd write a user guide, so here it is !

What is LinkedIn ?

Think Facebook but for all your work and industry profession type contact rather than friends and family. In other words it is a professional networking site.

LinkedIn Statement :

LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.

So where do I find LinkedIn ?

Just go to www.linkedin.com in your favourite browser

Does it cost anything to join ?

No, and yes. As with other similar sites a basic, free account is completely free. There are accounts where you pay but most of the UK based people I know reckon it's not worth paying out and really not needed.

LinkedIn statement :

"LinkedIn is free to join. We also offer a premium version of your accounts that give you more tools for finding and reaching the right people, whether or not they are in your network. LinkedIn participates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework and is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union. All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and no one appears in the LinkedIn Network without knowledge and explicit consent. LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California and is funded by world-class investors including Sequoia Capital, Greylock, the European Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures."

So to summarise - A LINKEDIN ACCOUNT IS FREE

If you want you can pay :



So why should I join ?

Official LinkedIn response :

Relationships Matter

Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return.
Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.

In reality, I would say you should join for some or all of the following reasons (and there may be many others) :

1) Allows you to connect ("network") with your peers and other work/business contacts
2) Useful as an online CV (it provides a link for the public to view whatever bits of your profile you permit)
3) Can ask, and answer, questions this promoting your knowledge expertise
4) Take part in topic specific discussion groups (allows you to network with more people)
5) Events are advertised which may be useful for you to attend
6) You can "broadcast" a status comment - useful for job-hunting !
7) Jobs are advertised on the the system
Advertise what you're reading - links to Amazon
9) Who's viewed your profile - limited info but useful to see if people are looking at your profile i.e.e career history and expertise
10 ) Collaborative tools - LinkedIn works with Huddle and Box.net for file (document) sharing and many others

If you're in IT for the long haul i.e. developing a career then you never know when a contact may be useful for advice, help or even to get you a job.

So what about these collaborative tools ?

See this :



How do all these network connections help ?

You can not only contact your directly connected contacts but also ask them to introduce you to their contacts and theirs too !



What about this business of asking and answering questions ?

Under various topic headings you can ask a question to the whole of LinkedIn. Hopefully, you will get some useful answers ! You can also answer questions from others. If they deem you to have given the best answer then you can get awarded an "expert" status :



Ok, this is all starting to sound good. What do I do now ?

Go to www.linkedin.com and sign up for the free account.

Then see this thread : http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=309578#post309578 which is all about the CF Group on LinkedIn. Go to LinkedIn Groups, search for the CF one and request to join it. Once approved by myself or Ken (wagnerk) who set the group up, then you can see the other CF Members and ask them to connect to you.

Then add all your work and business contacts - if they're not on LinkedIn it allows you to send an email asking them to join too.

After that, check in frequently and network away !

Oh, and don't forget, if the CF forums go down we can decamp to LinkedIn !

 

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Just a *bump* to this thread as we've had a lot of new members recently who may not have found it.

We have a CF LinkedIn group too

 

Thanks for this, this has been really useful for me as I had absolutely no idea what it was about. I will now definately be signing up.

 

I signed up for linkedin then proceeded to do nothing with my account, seeing this thread has prompted me to have another crack at it so I'm now following a few people and signing up to a few groups to expand my reach.

 

Plenty of BCS Groups for you to join on there

 

I have joined this group as well please approve ;)

 

I thought I'd write a user guide