LinkedIn – Beyond Seeking Employment

LinkedIn – How I Discovered It’s Beyond Seeking Employment

Over the last year, developed my love for LinkedIn. I quickly discovered it’s so far beyond seeking employment. I was overwhelmed at first because it does differ from other Social Media I’m used to using daily. It all started by networking and hearing others talk about their profile; so I began slowly tweaking mine. I joined LinkedIn in 2010 (wowza 10+ years ago) and barely touched my profile for years. The basics were there such as job history and maybe a photo, but that’s about it. In August 2020, I really started to investigate optimizing my profile. I started doing this by looking at other’s profiles seeing what they were doing. It has evolved into so much from there!

If you didn’t know, I have built my foundation of Opportunity’s Knaaking on networking. I love to network! Check out my blog post “The Power of Networking” to read about how I’m networking in 2021. LinkedIn is the perfect place to grow and build your network. You can find like-minded individuals, individuals from your industry, individuals with your current company, individuals in a field you are interested in and more!

How to Start Your Connections on LinkedIn

How do you start that connection? I started with people I knew first. You can follow the same process as other Social Media platforms to build your network by connecting emails and all that other fun stuff. From there, your connection suggestions will show up as you build your profile. Connections may be based upon criteria such as your location, job history or who you are already connected with. Once you join LinkedIn (or update that existing profile), you may get connection requests from people you’ve never heard of. You are welcome to be selective in who you choose to connect with. At this time, I don’t base my success on the number of connections rather the quality connections I have. 

Now let’s flip the thought of who’s reaching out to you and focus on if you are reaching out to someone with a connection request. If you do not know an individual you are requesting to connect with, send them a message telling them why you’d like to connect with them. Tell them the specific reason you are requesting a connection.  Some examples may be: you have many connections in common… you’re growing your network… you are interested in their profession… etc.

I will stress this from beginning to end, do NOT send a sales pitch to someone’s inbox the second you connect with them. Does it work for some? Maybe. If you do it to me, chances are I’m going to delete the message and remove the connection. I am all about building authentic, real relationships and I don’t want to be sold to the second I connect with someone. I may not talk to individuals daily, weekly or monthly – and that’s ok. They may interact with my posts and I may do the same for theirs. We don’t need to buy from each other’s services to be an asset to one another. Instead of that sales pitch message, consider asking how you can be an asset to them, or how you can help each other out. It should be a two-way street, not one-sided conversation.

Uses for LinkedIn Beyond Finding New Connections and Networking

LinkedIn is a great space to create events. When I create events for Opportunity’s Knaaking or a client’s business, I will often cross post amongst multiple platforms. If there is a market for opportunity on LinkedIn for an event, I always post there also. One tip: notate in the event if you are marketing it on other platforms and the event may not reflect an accurate attendance count. You can link to an Eventbrite, Meetup, website, Zoom, etc. for ticket sales or registration right in LinkedIn!

LinkedIn is an amazing application to learn or post great information. It lacks all of the nonsense and drama I can see across other Social platforms. I love, love, love that part! It’s a more professional platform and I don’t have to weed through useless (to me) posts to find an interesting article or topic to read about.

Another cool (somewhat) hidden gem is the LinkedIn Learning feature. A few months ago, I decided to invest in the Premium account just so I could use the LinkedIn Learning. There are so many courses and learning opportunities available; I was intrigued and went for it. I’m so happy I did! I have challenged myself to 60 minutes of learning per week on LinkedIn. I realize that goal is a little too much for me since I do a lot of networking in the evenings, but it’s paid for itself in courses I’ve decided to take already. There are courses available that are just a few minutes, to 12+ hours! You can even take CEC courses!

LinkedIn is Great for Many Reasons and I Hope You Learned Something New

Yes, the obvious is LinkedIn is great for when you’re on the hunt for a job. I hope you were able to learn some other potential uses for LinkedIn beyond a job search. The main key is show up and be authentic. The rest will fall into place in time. Just like any other social platform, do not expect immediate results whether searching for that perfect job, or searching for great connections. 

Tell me, do you use LinkedIn? If yes, tell me what you like about it. If no, why do you choose not to use it? What is your favorite Social Media platform to use? What platform do you dread using the most?

If you’d like to learn more about optimizing your LinkedIn use, contact me today to set up a free Zoom consultation.

I wish you all the success in your journey!

Best,

Kim Knaak

Connect with me and follow Opportunity’s Knaaking on LinkedIn

*LinkedIn is not affiliated with this post. I wrote this based upon my experiences using the platform*

6 thoughts on “LinkedIn – Beyond Seeking Employment”

    1. Thank you Consuela! I hope you are finding great uses for LinkedIn with your small business “Own Your Confidence.” LinkedIn is a great resource for you to find your target audience of HR & Management!

  1. Charles N Harris

    Hello Kim and thanks for connecting with me,
    I found this information on how you use Linkedin to be well done and helpful. May I suggest that you take me up on my offer to do a free – no cost – no obligation consultation to discuss ways to accelerate your influence among those who need what you offer and will be more than willing to pay you to assist them?

    My calendly link is https://claendly.com/thecashflowaccelerator.com
    To Your Success!
    Chuck Harris
    414-510-1888

    1. You’ve worked pretty hard and actually read what I sent you via LinkedIn! I think I’ll take you up on that consultation just for putting all of that work in. Have a great Monday!

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