Does anyone have a Linkedin or have experience with it? Can someone explain some things about it? Like why do people keep adding me (not employers), friends, acquaintances, people I’ve met once, strangers. it seems they’re also getting more invasive notifying everyone of everything you do. I’m thinking of deleting it. Is it actually useful?
*I’m not exactly sure where to post this, hopefully this is the right category.
Some people seem to think that having the most connections on LinkedIn makes them special. And then there are others (like me) who see LinkedIn as a professional networking tool rather than a social networking tool. It can be an extremely valuable tool to your career, but personally I’m careful to only accept connection requests from people I truly have a connection with. And I only update it with information that is professionally relevant.
It makes sense to connect with co-workers, friends, and folks you have some connection with, but it’s your right to ignore requests from passing acquaintances or strangers. It is common for employers to look up someone’s LinkedIn profile, so it makes sense to have one that contains information that is professionally relevant.
As an HR professional, I have successfully used LinkedIn to headhunt individuals for senior management positions with my company. In that respect, it has been useful for me as part of my job. I have also had some recruiters reach out and try to (unsuccessfully) headhunt me into other positions.
However, I do agree that LinkedIn is, in some cases, being used like Facebook. I see a lot of silly quotes and memes being posted that would not lead me to headhunt that individual. There are also a lot of LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers), who, like you describe, will network with anyone. I could see this being useful if you’re openly connecting to recruiters in your respective field, but not if you’re connecting to any Joe Schmoe across the country or the world.
I would limit what you post on LinkedIn to relevant, professional information that you would want potential employers to see. You are certainly welcome to reject connections from people you do not know. I do like reading some of the articles that are posted by certain individuals, so I do “follow” certain names that I don’t know. But I honestly use LinkedIn more for recruiting purposes than for my own career advancement.
LinkedIn has been invaluable to me since I started working - I have gotten at least one legitimate recruitment message (legitimate meaning that the recruiter actually looked at my profile and had interest in me in particular, not that they just spammed a bunch of people who work in a certain industry) each year for the past five years. I have also found LinkedIn great for job searching and connecting with recruitment professionals (either in-house at companies or external recruiting firms). In fact, after my first job, which I found through my school’s career services, the next two jobs I accepted came via LinkedIn - I found a job, and then, some time later, a job found me!
In terms of a strategy, it is easy to compare it to Facebook. On Facebook, I will not accept an invitation from anybody I have never met - there is an awful lot of personal information to manage; if you slip up, it could be damaging, and if you don’t, there is very little benefit available. On LinkedIn, I have no problem connecting with somebody I have never met, as long as that person is relevant to my network - the information is all professional, stuff you would put on your resume, so there isn’t as much risk of personal information getting to the wrong people; there is little risk, and there is a great opportunity for reward if the right person sees your profile.
LinkedIn is simply the online version of an extended networking event. You can connect with someone and then find out who they know, and who those people know, and on and on.
With all that said, recognize that LinkedIn is NOT Facebook. Don’t post nonsense, but DO post insightful items - if you have something to say and think it can help others, then post it.