In last week's C&EN, this comment about social media and LinkedIn-based networking:
Friend. For people you know and trust, you can move up a level and connect with them on LinkedIn. This is a two-way relationship, in which you each have value to share with the other. Once you connect, you should put in the time and effort to maintain the relationship—build up a conversation (and trust). The best long-term relationships are mutually beneficial and are developed before you actually need something from the other person. This means you can’t add too many people too fast or it will be challenging to keep up with all of them.
I have to say that I agree with this advice. I find it irritating when people attempt to connect with me without any idea as to who they are, especially when I get the generic "X would like to connect with you" message without any added context. I find it especially irritating when salespeople use the connect function to sell me products or services.
(My work pays for LinkedIn Premium*, and its sole useful product is "InMail", which allows you to contact non-connections.)
(*if you're a job seeker, it is not worth the price.)
I joined LI in 2011 when my site was up for potential divesture. Since 2009, I've worked for 3 different companies. When I went out on the job market twice, I cold emailed contacts asking if they knew the hiring managers for positions that were posted - this approach paid off and led to multiple job interviews/offers at each job search. LI is a hugely powerful tool in that regard and I definitely owe jobs I've had to due recruiters cold calling me. After being on LI for over 10 years, I have over 500 contacts varying from graduate school friends, old colleagues, new colleagues, recruiters and salespeople. There is no way I can even hope to keep up with my old contacts - but I try with some. It's a real challenge. Words can't overstate how powerful & useful LI is, though.
ReplyDeleteI just wish LinkedIn would get serious about being a professional networking site and stop trying to drive clicks/interaction at all costs. They're degenerating into Facebook with all the political crap. I also don't understand why so many people post stuff like that - if I say Joe Biden / Donald Trump / whoever is great / awful, I've just pissed off half of my potential employers, coworkers, customers, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the anonymous commenter above. LinkedIn is invaluable for finding insiders at a target company, and it's often someone you worked with, went to school with, or met at a conference years ago.
CJ is right that a lot of the contact requests are spam. No, I'm not interested in leaving my full-time position for a 6-month contract in a QC lab paying $15 an hour.
Agreed about the nonsense of some people posting click-baity posts and it appearing at the top of my timeline. I don't care how some random boomer had to pay for his or her student loans and therefore others should have to pay for their student loans.
DeleteI enjoy the small company space. Over the years, there are many people that are remotely connected at various companies. When I have looked for new positions, I obsess and investigate many employees at various companies to see if I knew them or knew people who knew them.
ReplyDeleteThis was not an issue when I was changing jobs while employed as there were not too many irons in the fire at one time. However, when I was looking after a layoff I quickly hit the cap of searches.
For me Linked in premium was useful to get over that cap and also to see who was looking at my profile and gauge interest from the companies to which I had applied.