Revisiting LinkedIn

It has been quite a while since I last did one of these posts on using LinkedIn. Since successfully using LinkedIn to land my current job, I've been busy doing what I hadn't done in nearly four years -- working!

Landing a job is great and for many of you it's your ultimate goal, but don't let your landing lull you into thinking that you no longer need LinkedIn. One thing the two years I spent in meetings at my ProNet group in Deland and Daytona with Donna Runge and Jamie Newcomb taught me was the importance of networking. Never underestimate the prospects that networking can offer you. I know, it was through my own networking on LinkedIn that I found my job.

Even after you have found your job and are working, the effectiveness and use that your LinkedIn Profile is still there to help you. Make sure that you continue to frequent and update your Profile. Times can change and new opportunities can present themselves to you so make the most of them.

Over the past two years, I have been routinely checking my Profile and making Status Updates. If you haven't been doing this on a regular basis you're missing out on one of the easiest ways to grow your reach through LinkedIn. You don't have to spend a lot of time with your Profile when you make a visit. Just check to see who has been viewing your Profile. They might be another prospect, or a link to that further contact you'd like to establish with another business. See if any of the Groups you are affiliated with have any discussion going on that you can relate too. Look for any Invites or Messages that you may have from connections or people seeking you out. These are ways for you to increase your range of connections and networking. Remember, all it takes is some activity, a change on your Profile, or a mere question or statement in a Group to increase your web presence.

If you're like me, keeping tabs on your LinkedIn Profile will also help your become up-to-date on changes in the function of LinkedIn itself. The look has changed and the toolbar may appear different to you. The LinkedIn Learning Center with its Resources is no longer there but some of those same Tutorials and Helps that you may need from time to time can be found by exploring the LinkedIn Help Center. Be sure and update yourself.

Keep up your maintenance on that LinkedIn Profile and make those connections.

Larry French works as a Science Editor for TSI Graphics and is a novelist and writer. He will soon publish his first novel, Time Will Tell, The Awakening which blends his love of history and science and is set during the American Civil War. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/larry-french/12/213/534 Read about his work at, LARRYFRENCHHISTORICALNOVELIST.COM