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TechTips: what is LinkedIn anyway, and why the hell should I give a damn?

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Adam Joseph is marketing insights manager at the Herald Sun, Australia’s best-selling daily newspaper. Adam has over a decade of marketing experience across all aspects of the marketing mix, particularly within the UK publishing industry. Adam graduated from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 1992 with the CIM Diploma.

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It may disturb you to know that right now there may be imposters out there, all over the world, giving you a bad name. Or in some cases a good name.

I thought that my name was fairly unusual until a quick Google search revealed the shocking truth - I'm not alone. In fact, I’m a mild-mannered meteorologist in Philadelphia and a soul musician in New York City. Closer to home it appears I am a past president of the Australian Sceptics Society, although I struggle to believe that’s true. But best of all, I am the casting director of my favourite TV programme, the medical series House. Surely that’s worth a few Vicodin.

Behind this apparent narcissism of mine is a serious point about searching and being found.

I recently set up a profile on LinkedIn, described by the New York Times as "the social network for professionals". A few months ago LinkedIn received US$53 million in venture financing, which bumped up its market valuation to around US$1 billion.

A quick people search revealed 14 listings for 'Adam Joseph'. Ten of these doppelgangers live in the United States, two live in London, one in Amsterdam but there is only one of me in the Southern Hemisphere. Half the world to myself – hmmm, I reckon my ego can handle that.    

But what exactly is the point of joining LinkedIn?

On the website's home page there is a blog by Guy Kawasaki on the Ten ways to use LinkedIn.

I think his list is a bit padded-out so I’ve condensed it into five suggestions I think are the most useful for marketers:

  1. Chance
    In my opinion the 'killer app' of LinkedIn is that it apparently helps to boost your Google page ranking when someone types in your name trying to find you. In this way, it’s a form of simple Search Engine Optimisation. By being LinkedIn you boost your chances of coming up high in the organic listings.

  2. Credentials
    LinkedIn can act as a form of virtual CV, giving an executive biography of the career history you’d like others to see. Of course, this is open to abuse by name squatters - I found four 'Rupert Murdoch listings on LinkedIn, but I suspect my bosses bosses boss did not personally enter 'janitor' or 'owner: telly' about himself.

  3. Connections
    The number of 'connections' you have might be seen as a type of status symbol. It can show how well connected you are and how far and wide your professional network extends – like MySpace, but for 'friends' read 'professional connections'. In fact, you can think of it as a supersized virtual Rolodex.

  4. Checking
    I confess right now that I have an innate sense of curiosity – a polite way of saying I’m bloody nosey. Prior to meeting people, whether a potential business partner, potential supplier or potential recruit – I like to find out a bit more about them. If they are LinkedIn, I can do so. If not, I wonder why not? Why are they hiding?!

  5. Competition
    My nosiness naturally extends to what the competition is up to. LinkedIn allows you to see who is listed from rival companies and what your counterparts want to say about themselves. Of course, if they’re not listed or don’t have many connections you can assume they are sad and lonely in their professional lives.

I think LinkedIn will ultimately be successful as a business networking and reference tool because it effectively taps into the human condition. For me personally, LinkedIn is a new toy and I’m still playing with it.

If you'd like to find out more about LinkedIn, I'd encourage you to watch the two short videos below. CommonCraft always deliver really digestible and easy short videos that help to make things even clearer. The first part is an overview of what LinkedIn is and thesecond video is all about how LinkedIn works.

If you liked this post you might also consider reading some more TechTips posts, a series dedicated to demystifying technology and making technology work harder for marketers. If you're a marketer and you use a specific technology, tell us about it and write your own guide to help marketers save time.

Related Video

CommonCraft's 'What is LinkedIn?' video, Part I

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Click here to watch the video on YouTube

CommonCraft's 'What is LinkedIn?' video, Part II

Sorry, YouTube videos are currently unavailable on MarketingMag.com.au.
Click here to watch the video on YouTube

1 Comments

misternf
  • Wrote on 25 Jul, at 04:36PM
I thought linkedin was just full of lazy recruitment consultants trying to steal other peoples connections because they're too useless to build up their own network of contacts.

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