Is LinkedIn More Than A Pretty Resume For You?

01/23/2017 1:31 PM | Paul Venderley (Administrator)

When asked which social networks our members belong to, LinkedIn stands out the most.  Which comes as no surprise; ATD OC is a professional development community, and LinkedIn is recognized as the online space for professional networking. 

I’m interested in a few other questions, however. 

  • How frequently do we use LinkedIn?
  • Why do we use LinkedIn?

You can answer those questions by clicking this unassuming link, which will take you to a short survey.

Common wisdom is that we professionals use LinkedIn for networking.  I believe I saw a bit of that in action over the past few weeks, as I’ve been managing ATD OC’s social media communication for a little over a year, and LinkedIn has notified my network that I’m celebrating a work anniversary.  The congratulations have been trickling in over the past few weeks – little pings in my network of people who, briefly, remember my involvement of some part of their past business lives. 

I confess, my LinkedIn networking skills are similar to my peers: I check in, see that someone’s got a job announcement of sorts, and congratulate them. 

Of my ATD OC network, I can point to two people who truly use LinkedIn as a networking device, seeking information and opinion about something I profess to know about.

LinkedIn also has Pulse, which I’ve turned to more recently since my Facebook feed has overwhelmed my senses with political sniping and social dismay.  There, at least, I will find a preponderance of network-sourced professional news.  Yes, social media does rear its ugly head in the LinkedIn news feed, but not to the extent of Facebook.  Perhaps I’ve curated my network more assiduously there.

But LinkedIn is meant to be about interaction! Networking! Community!  Once we have tweaked our LinkedIn Profile to perfection, we’re supposed to do something with it, get it noticed!  And that takes me back to my question:

Why do we use LinkedIn?

We’d like to hear your thoughts on this, so again: here’s the link to our survey asking for your experience.






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