Learning to Love and Leverage LinkedIn

Poor LinkedIn ... It may always be the buttoned-up-and-boring old dude compared to Facebook and Twitter, but that is precisely why it can be much more useful than other social networks for creating and nurturing professional relationships, establishing and shaping your personal brand and positioning your company as an authority among competitors.

LinkedIn seems to help the old people a wider range of ages feel more safe and comfortable than they do when lurking around participating in other social networks. It can be ideal for people who see value of joining the conversation, yet are not comfortable blurring the line between professional and personal contacts. On LinkedIn, the parameters are more set in that the conversations almost always are professional and industry specific. There is an ease associated with knowing even a tiny bit of what to expect, especially for social media newcomers.

Other cool things about LinkedIn:

- Unlike Facebook, there is no fear of being tagged in an unflattering photo.

- You do not have to question whether you want to "add" your mom.

- Unlike Twitter, there are several ways to reach out to your contacts without word count limits.

- No one is likely to ask you via LinkedIn to send them Mafia Wars items*.

* That's not to say you won't be asked for things; just keep in mind how much more valuable it is to your colleague to write them a professional recommendation versus helping them raise a barn or sending them a virtual sheep in Farmville.

I admit that I've been on LinkedIn for a few years and never bothered much with it until early 2010. I'd answer invitations to connect and send invitations of my own every few months. Besides joining a couple of groups, adding my blog url and providing basic career updates, I had done little else until our Content Operations department created the JCI Freelance Writers Group. The goal of this group was twofold: to create a single channel through which our department would share resources with our writers and to encouraging networking, conversation and resource-sharing among them as peers. So far, it has been a successful tool for us and our writers to share links about and discuss topics including online research, writing SEO-friendly headlines and copy, as well as other items. As the group develops, the possibilities seem to be endless for other applications.

The freelance writers group is just one way JCI already is using LinkedIn as a business tool; we also have a Journal Communications Inc. company profile established to represent our corporate identity on this channel.

If you have not yet created a LinkedIn profile, check it out and register. If you have a profile already, but have not maximized its potential (like me), here are two links to multiple resources that will help you do just that:

100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn

Lara Kretler's LinkedIn Bookmarks