Using LinkedIn for professional development Enhance your professional network; let the world know your achievements!
Ευδοκία Ρόκα (MEd. in TESOL - HOU) Εκπαιδευτικός αγγλικής και γαλλικής γλώσσας (1. BA in English Language & Literature, (2. BA in French Language & Literature: National & Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Using LinkedIn for professional development Enhance your professional network; let the world know your achievements!
Evdokia Roka EFL teacher , FFL teacher, Materials designer
Athens 2013
Evdokia Roka
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ISBN: 978-960-93-5492-9 © Evdokia Roka, 2013 Ευδοκία Ρόκα, 2013 All rights reserved. reproduced,
copied,
or
No part of this publication may be transmitted
in
any
form
without
written permission from the author . Απαγορεύεται
η
αναπαραγωγή,
αντιγραφή,
αποστολή,
αναδημοσίευση του παρόντος έργου με οποιονδήποτε τρόπο χωρίς προηγούμενη γραπτ ή άδεια της εκδότριας.
First published 2013 by Evdokia Roka, Athens, Greece Πρώτη έκδοση 2013 από Ευδοκία Ρόκα, Αθήνα, Ελλάδα
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my school advisor during the school year 2012-2013, Dr. Thalia Chadzigiannoglou, who offered me the opportunity and the incentive to further develop professionally and broaden my horizons with regard to long-life learning.
I would also like to thank my colleague Georgia Gyftoula (MEd. in TEFL) for reviewing the present work.
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Contents
Page
Introduction
7
1. What is LinkedIn?
9
2. LinkedIn Glossary
10
2.1 Profile
10
2.2 Connections
11
2.3 Groups
11
2.4 Recommendations
12
2.5 Company page
13
2.6 InMail
13
2.7 Advanced Search
14
2.8 Alumni Tool
14
2.9 News
14
2.10 Applications
15
3. Use LinkedIn signal for prospecting
17
4. Fill out your LinkedIn “Interests” and “Skills &
17
Expertise” sections
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5. Languages
6. Take
18
advantage
of
the
“Who’s
viewed
your
20
new
20
profile” tool
7. Tap
company
searches
to
find
business contacts
8. Expand your group membership
21
9. Upgraded account
23
Conclusion
24
YouTube Τutorials
25
LinkedIn Resources
25
Bibliography
26
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Introduction “Web 2.0” refers to the new generation of web based services and communities characterized by participation, collaboration and sharing of information among users online.
Web 2 .0
applications include wikis, blogs and social networking sites which encourage user -generated content and social interaction online.
Social Web defines how Web 2.0 ten ds to interact
much more with the end user and make the end -user an integral part.
Social media are the outcome of what we call “web 2.0” i.e. the interactive use of the web .
In contrast to web 1.0, the
content/meaning is not just read , but socially constructed through online communities .
It includes the growth of social
networks and bi-directional communication.
Social media is a
specific part of the Internet: it is not sending an email, buying an item from Amazon.com or enrolling in an onlin e class. Social media is “user -generated”.
This means that the public is able
to change, alter and/or contribute while sharing in that application. The categories of social media that were created by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) are: Collaborative Projects (suc h as Wikis) Blogs (such as BlogSpot) Content Communities (such as Pinterest) Social Network Services (such as Facebook) Evdokia Roka
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ďƒź Virtual Game Worlds (such as World of Warcraft) ďƒź Virtual Social Worlds (such as Second Life) Many people mistake social media for Facebook.
However,
Facebook is a specific application in the category of social network services under social media.
The top five social
networking service websites reported by eBizMBA (2013) were Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and MySpace.
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1. What is LinkedIn? This is one social network that has thrived on innovation in the last year, potentially being the only major site with high hopes for significant growth. social media.
LinkedIn is one of the most popular
Founded by Reid Hoffman in 20 03, LinkedIn is
the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 225 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
Thus, it is
the world’s
largest professional
network on the Internet, currently available in 17 languages. The opportunities the site offers its users is continually growing.
In a globalized and digitalized professional context where all of us are required to have an enriched , online CV with all our working
experience
and
professional
accomplishments
available, LinkedIn is ideal for this purpose and can be used by everyone. In fact, it is the ideal choice because it allows you to
show
off
your
credentials
to
potential
employers,
colleagues, and people with similar professional interests.
It
is growing and expanding and its features are improving as well.
Below is a top-10 glossary on “must know” LinkedIn
features.
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2. LinkedIn Glossary 2.1 Profile
While a profile is one of LinkedIn’s most basic elements, users tend not to take full advantage of it.
Simply adding your
current and past positions is not enough: your LinkedIn profile is essentially a digital resume that allows other users to view a snapshot of your professional history. Having a professional profile photo is a must . This not only allows people to quickly identify you, but it lets other users know that you are, in fact, a real person.
Profiles with photos are seven times more
interactive than those without a photo.
So, take the time to
enhance your personal brand via LinkedIn to achieve better results.
Many employers use LinkedIn to search for their
prospective employees.
It is a fact that the better your
profile is and the more pro fessional it looks, the higher your chances of getting hired or more widely connected .
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2.2 Connections Connections are everything.
LinkedIn views connections as
someone you actually know or a trusted business contact. Unlike other social media sites, LinkedIn urges users to only connect with users they know and not complete strangers. This platform has policies set up to try to mediate users from “spamming” others on LinkedIn.
If 14 or more users reject
your invite to connect claiming they do not know you, LinkedIn requires you to provide an email address for each new invite you attempt to send.
The best thing about connections on
LinkedIn is that one connection can link you to thousands of other users through 2 n d or 3 r d connections.
When requesting
connections on LinkedIn, it would be a good idea to change the default
template
that
says
“I’d like to add you to my
professional network” to something that really identifies you and your reason for wanting to be connected with that person. Once you are connected to someone, they can introduce you to others in their network. If you use this feature correctly, i t’s very easy to grow your LinkedIn network.
2.3 Groups Groups offer like-minded users an opportunity to share news, ask questions, and post opportunities.
They are filled with
people who share an interest in a certain industry or topic. Groups can also be used as a knowledge base; users can ask a
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question and, within minutes, have experts providing answers or suggestions. LinkedIn has several interesting groups where educators share educational resources, tips, and discuss issues and topics of educational relevance.
2.4 Recommendations Recommendations help build credibility for users.
This is a
useful feature that allows you to gather short excerpts from past or present colleagues and peers around your work. feature
offers
recruiters
the
opportunity
to
This
“reference
check” users without picking up the phone.
There’s a newer feature called “Endorsements,” which is a simpler way for users to recommend your work.
Instead of
writing a paragraph or two, a user can just click “endorse” to recommend a certain skill or expertise you have listed on your profile.
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2.5 Company Page LinkedIn recently rolled out a new company page layout. page features are largely the same.
The
The company page gives
users an overview of a company, its services and its career opportunities.
A LinkedIn page can serve as a condensed
version of a company’s website, something which allows users to learn about a company without having to leave LinkedIn. There are several advantages to a company page —like the “Careers” page. It allows you to post jobs, showcase employee testimonials and view stats on the current staff of a company.
2.6 InMail InMail is LinkedI n’s version of email.
Users send InMails to
all of their current connections, and can attempt to send InMails to users they’d like to connect with.
It’s a great tool
for following up with someone you met at a networking event; InMail can also be used as a stepping stone to sen ding an invite
to
connect.
Users
can
reach
out
to
prospective
candidates, clients or connections with an InMail, explaining why they’re interested in connecting.
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2.7 Advanced Search Are you looking for a candidate with a specific skill set?
Or,
are you looking for a mentor in a specific industry?
The
advanced search tool allows you to go way beyond the normal search by entering in specific criteria for your search.
A
LinkedIn user can search for those who work at a specific company, live in
a certain geographic location or hold a
specific title.
2.8 Alumni Tool The Alumni tool specifically showcases users who share an alma mater.
If a user is trying to get an “in” with a certain
company, the Alumni tool is a great way to find out if you have a connection with anyone who currently works at that company. It’s also just fun to check in on what your peers are doing after graduation.
2.9 News We all have our preferred news outlets, but have you ever considered using LinkedIn? newsfeed,
you
can
different sources.
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find
a
At the top of your LinkedIn variety
of
news
stories
from
The News tool uses your profile, status
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updates and groups to determine what your interests are, and then targets news stories that fit into those categories.
2.10 Applications The first nine features discussed are just a small list of the things you can do with LinkedIn. a
user,
check
out
To receive more benefits as the
number
of
Applications
available. These applications range from Tripit to Reading List from Amazon. there’s
a
experience.
No matter what your objective is on LinkedIn,
host
of
applications
that
can
enhance
your
One of my favorite applications is SlideShare; it
allows users to show off presentations they have given.
In
addition, your likes from SlideShare
(the world’s largest
community
can
for
sharing
presentations)
appear
in
your
LinkedIn updates if you choose so in your SlideShare account settings. This is an added bonus for those selling a service or looking for new career opportunities.
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Finally, a bonus tool for all of the iPhone users out there! CardMunch allows LinkedIn users to snap a picture of a business LinkedIn.
card
and
quickly
connect
with
that
person
on
The application reads a business card and finds its
owner on LinkedIn to connect.
It also serves as a business
card repository on your iPhone.
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3. Use LinkedIn Signal for prospecting “Signal” is a feature on LinkedIn that is rarely talked about, but it is powerful. You can access it by selecting “Updates” in the master search menu or by selecting “Signal” in the dr op down menu on the “News” tab.
Basically, “Signal” is an aggregated feed of all the status updates, groups’ posts, and any other content posted on LinkedIn.
Why is this powerful?
Because you can essentially
see every status update from every person on LinkedIn; not just your connections, or those within a couple degrees of you, but every person on LinkedIn.
You can then use a targeted keyword search to sort through the statuses to find people talking about topics with which you want to engage.
You can even sort the results by company,
location, and many other parameters.
4. Fill out your LinkedIn “Interests” an d “Skills & Expertise” sections The “Interests” and “Skills & Expertise” sections are two areas that are commonly glossed over by people building their profile.
LinkedIn’s search algorithm is fairly basic, which
means that if you have the right keywords on your profile (enough times) there is a good chance people will find your profile when they’re searching for those keywords. Evdokia Roka
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“Interests” and “Skills & Expertise” sections are great places to load up on your keywords.
In the latter section you are
allowed 50 keywords. Use all 50. Don’t just list four and move on.
In the “Interests” section you should do the same thing, take advantage of the space that LinkedIn gives you.
Some people
use this area to say they like “knitting” or “eating barbeque.” While this is a fine approach, we prefer to use this area to focus on the keywords that will drive appearances in search, profile views, and conversions.
Keeping your “Interests” and “Skills & Expertise” sections rich with keywords is a great way to improve your position in LinkedIn’s people search rankings.
5. Languages In the “Languages” section, you can mention which languages you speak as well as your level of proficiency.
The level
descriptors may seem puzzling to you as they are not those of the CEFR.
To be more specific, they are based on the
Interagency Language Roundtable scale (ILR), which included representation
by
the
United
States
Foreign
Service
Institute; it consists of descriptions of five levels of language proficiency, and it is the standard grading scale for language proficiency in the Federal service.
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about
these
descriptors,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILR_scale . descriptors
carefully
before
see
Consult the relevant
specifying
your
own
foreign
language proficiency level.
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6. Take advantage of the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile?” tool Developing business is all about being seen and staying in front of your prospects.
The “Who’s Viewed Your Profile ?” feature
on LinkedIn is a great way to make this happen and most of us regularly check it.
Here’s how to take advantage of this in a targeted manner: 1. Make a list of all the prospects you are trying to stay in front of. 2. Once a month, open up their profile in your browser. 3. When your prospects view who has been looking at their profile, your name has a very good chance of popping up. It’s just another way to keep in front of your prospects.
Do this simple three -step process once a month and you are guaranteed to increase name recognition.
7. Tap LinkedIn company searches to find new business contacts Lots of people search for prospects on LinkedIn.
That’s
nothing new. But how you search for them is another matter.
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A great tactic to find prospective clients is to search through the companies listed on LinkedIn that you are targeting.
In
the master search tab you can pull down the “ Company” option and start finding the companies on your target prospect list.
Often, people will perform a keyword search for something more position-focused like “procurement” or “purchaser.”
By
taking it a step further with the company search, you can find lists of employees to connect with on LinkedIn.
Not only can you connect with the “purchasers,” but also with many of the other people who work at their company, thus improving your sales chances.
8. Expand your group membership If you don’t post in many groups or join group conversations, you need to start.
You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn —unless you use this little trick.
Many groups have smaller subgroups associated
with them.
Sometimes there might only be one or two
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subgroups belonging to the master group, but other times there might be a dozen or even more.
You are allowed to join all of them regardless of whether you have reached your limit of 50 groups. In other words, you can essentially join unlimited subgroups.
It should be noted that
you do not increase the amount of people with whom you are connected, since all subgroup members are already connected in the master group.
But you can post content to each group
individually, improving your chances of prospective clients seeing your posts in le ss crowded subgroups.
Now instead of
posting to 50 groups you can post to 60, 80 or even 100.
There are many tactics you can use on LinkedIn to build your business.
Spending a few minutes each day on these five is a
great way to start.
Stick with these activities for a few
months and you will see a spike in the number of relationships you are building and the number of real prospects that are seeing your name on LinkedIn.
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9. Upgraded Account Once
you’ve
explored
Free,
you
may
choose
upgrade to a LinkedIn account with more features.
to
Starting
at $15.95 per month, LinkedIn has premium subscription plans for businesses, job seekers, recruiters and more.
One of the distinguishing features of m ost upgraded accounts is the ability to send InMail to anyone.
InMail is an internal
LinkedIn message sent to a person with whom you are not connected. You can message people you are already connected with free-of-charge, but you can’t message non -connections; you must InMail them — and those InMails are limited.
The
Basic Business premium account allows you three InMails per month,
while
the
Business
Plus
plan
allows
10,
and
the
Executive 25 per month. So, choose your InMails wisely.
Upgraded accounts also have access to more search results, which can be a huge bonus for LinkedIn recruiters.
You also
have access to additional tools for saving and organizing profiles and you can view the full list of people who have viewed your LinkedI n profile.
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Conclusion For job seekers and professionals, LinkedIn can offer the chance to network with people in your field.
For recruiters,
LinkedIn can help identify and contact the right candidates for job openings.
It’s more than a social network —LinkedIn
can be the most useful professional tool you have in your Internet arsenal.
Since LinkedIn is strictly a professional network, it would not be a good idea to connect it to your accounts of other social media.
For example, are you sure that you want companies’
representatives
to
check
your
profile, or even your personal website?
account,
You should know that
you are what you tell them online until they know otherwise. Do not give them the opportunity to dig deep in your other social networks or website unless you are absolutely sure that this will only make you l ook better.
A LinkedIn account is a very important tool allowing you to build your own personal learning network (PLN), i.e. useful and real people who benefit your learning.
More specifically, i n
the current Greek context of financial hardship, degrading of State education, and general disdain originating from the mass media and authority figures deciding about education matters towards all teachers alike, professional networking through Evdokia Roka
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LinkedIn offers us the opportunity to become extroverted, to come out proudly, show off our studies and achievements, not just locally, but at a European and even global level. reason, profiles
it in
is
highly
English,
recommended so
that
For this
that
we
structure
our
can
be
accessed
an d
they
appreciated by all colleagues around the world and not just ELT practitioners in Greece.
YouTube Τutorials You can find some useful tutorials about LinkedIn in the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/LinkedIn
LinkedIn Resources More detailed information about LinkedIn can be found at: http://blog.linkedin.com/
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Bibliography Dodaro, M. (2013, February 27). LinkedIn
21 Steps To The Perfect
Profile.
Retrieved
from
http://topdogsocialmedia.com/linkedin -training-creating-theperfect-profile/
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media.
Business
Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
Kharbach, M. (2012, May). Social Networking Part 3: Teachers’ Guide to the Use of LinkedIn. Retrieved from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/05/social networking-part-3-teachers-guide.html
Lepi, K. (2013, July 13). Social
How To Effectively Use The Top 4
Networks.
Retrieved
from
http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/how -to-effectively-usethe-top-4-social-networks/
Presley, P. (2013). Development.
3 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Professional Retrieved
from
http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/3 -ways-to-use-linkedineffectively-for-your-own-professional-development/
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Roth, J. (2011, May 11). from
Ultimate LinkedIn Guide.
Retrieved
http://interactyx.com/social -learning-blog/linkedin-
guide/ Top 15 most popul ar social networking sites. (2013, July). eBizMBA: The ebusiness knowledgebase . Retrieved from http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social -networking-websites
U.S. Department of State Careers Representing America: Language Proficiency Definitions. Retrieved from http://careers.state.gov/gateway/lang_prof_def.html
Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2013, July 1 7).
IRL Scale.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILR_scale
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