Building your Linked in Profile
Notes for
Teaching session 23/05/14 by Author Emma Olohan
LinkedIn™ is primarily a professional networking website. Although some people use the site for job searches and recruitment, it mainly helps you to get in touch with past colleagues and potential clients, and expand your professional network.
With tools like LinkedIn™ Answers and groups, you can establish trust with those in your network and improve your reputation, while keeping up-to-date with industry news and trends.
LinkedIn™ can also help your organization increase visibility for its products and brand, and can provide information on other organizations such as potential partners, customers, and competitors.
Introduction:
You've likely heard of LinkedIn™,
the business-oriented social networking website that many people use for
keeping in touch with business associates, clients, and former colleagues.
In this module, we will
explore how to use LinkedIn™ for personal, professional, and organisational
development, including how you can use it for networking and recruitment, for
keeping up with trends and news in your industry, and for setting up groups
that are communities of interest/ practice.
What is LinkedIn™?
It
is a business-focused social networking site that launched in 2003. Its main
purpose is to help people network professionally. The basic service is free.
The
site lets you find other business associates, clients, and colleagues whom you
already know. You "connect" with them through the site, and they then
become part of your network.
Once
you've connected with a person, you will then have access to their list of
connections – this is called your "extended network." You can request
an introduction to people in your extended network through your mutual contact
or by sending an Inmail.
LinkedIn™
also provides other features including the ability to set up and join groups,
and a jobs section where members can advertise open positions or apply for jobs,
and provides a platform where you can share multimedia communications with
samples of business, academic articles, quotes, images etc.
LinkedIn™ Definitions
Here
are a few useful terms you should know when using LinkedIn™:
Connections –
Connections are other registered users who you know personally on LinkedIn™.
Although you can invite anyone to be a connection, they will need to set up an
account to use the site.
Second-degree
connections – These are the connections that your
connections have. For example, you're friends with Anne, who is directly
connected with her boss. Anne’s boss is a second-degree connection for you.
Third-degree
connection – Any connections from your second-degree
connects are third-degree connections. So, Anne’s boss's connections would be
your third-degree connections.
Profile
page – This is your personal page on LinkedIn™.
All registered users with LinkedIn™ can view it (unless you set it to be a
private page). Your profile page can list your education, past work history,
current and past projects, groups and associations, and more. Users can also
forward your profile page to contacts on their lists. You can also make your
profile page "public" so that anyone (even people not on LinkedIn™)
can view it.
Recommendations –
Your connections can write recommendations, or testimonials, for your profile.
These can be a powerful testament to your business and professional skills.
Introductions –
Introductions are when a third party introduces two people who weren't currently
connected. For instance, your colleague Nicola and your client Steven don't
know each other. You think Nicola could help solve a problem that Steven is
having with one of his projects, so you introduce Nicola and Steven through LinkedIn™.
Introductions are simply a way to bring people together on the site.
Using LinkedIn™ for your Business Brand-Professional Use: Your Brand:
There are several ways to use LinkedIn™ to
help you grow professionally:
Networking – LinkedIn™ allows you to network with people and professional organisations
in your industry. This helps you stay up-to-date with industry trends and share
information with others who do similar work to you.
In addition to networking with people in
your LinkedIn™ extended network, you can also set up and join specific groups
to discuss ideas and share industry news. This is a great way to build your
professional network further or join Communities of Practice.
Asking and answering questions – Many people use the groups on LinkedIn™ as
a kind of think tank or open brainstorming session. By offering your expertise
to those in your network, you establish trust and improve your reputation as an
expert. You can also use your profile's status update to ask questions to
people in your network, or share news or insight.
Research – You can use LinkedIn™ to find out more
about the people and organisations that you do business with. For example,
imagine that you're about to meet with an important potential client. You do a
quick search on LinkedIn™ and discover that the person went to the same
university as you. In fact, you know several of the same people. You now have a
valuable conversation starter that will help you build rapport with the client.
LinkedIn™
offers several interactive tools that build on and strengthen your Professional
CV also.
For
instance, take the “recommendations” tool, which helps you seek out
recommendations from past and present mentors, supervisors, and/or colleagues
to feature on your profile.
Recently,
LinkedIn™ also rolled out an “endorsements” tool that makes recommending
contacts much easier.
For
those special “projects” that might not quite fit into research or teaching categories
– for example, a consultancy job for a nonprofit organization – you can add a
separate section.
Your Brand
on LinkedIn™ : When deciding your heading for your professional Title:
First think
value proposition – how do you provide value? Be as specific as possible here
and remember the old saying: “the nicher, the richer”.
Think target
audience – whom do you provide value for and who will read this? It’s not
always the end customer that is the decision maker.
Unique selling
point – you are likely to be stacked up against your competitors and you had
better have your USP in the headline already to stand out.
Now think
keywords, pepper your headline with the keywords that you think people will do
searches for. The more technical terms here the better (academic, standards, certifications etc).
Finally, think
memorable. Your greatest challenge online is to be remembered so be creative
and/or funny so that your headline sticks with the people that matter.
Get Creative when
creating your professional or person LinkedIN Brand using Technology:
1) Infographics:
Have you heard of Piktochart? Easel.ly? Infogr.am?
Visual.ly? These are just a small handful of the various tools available to
create infographics. Infographics are brilliant for creating a visual story of
your personal brand. Many of these tools have free versions with a nice handful
of templates to get you started.
2) Pinterest:
Create a board on Pinterest that communicates your
brand – pin images that show the story of you maybe even pin a video bio.
Demonstrate your thought leadership by pinning content relevant to your field
and expertise. The opportunities are endless but go in with a strategy and
create specific ‘boards’ related to your personal brand rather than just
randomly pinning images.
3) Wordle:
Wordle is a great visual tool where you can use words and
phrases to communicate your brand attributes, your vision, or your brand
story. I often see people use wordle for a manifesto or the about page on
their website. Here is a great example of an ‘interactive’ wordle where each phrase is
clickable and takes you to more information, images, videos, etc. www.wordle.net.
6) Present.me
If you are still a committed slide-type
presentation user and have no clue or desire to muck with a new tool like
PowToons or Prezi, then Present.me is a great way to give your existing slides
a personal touch. Present.me provides a platform to upload an existing
presentation file and then record via your webcam an actually video of you
presenting the slides. Your slides and the video of you exist side-by-side
literally adding you to the presentation.
7) Vizify
Vizify is a fun new way to promote your brand via
social media. Vizify collects and transforms all the fragmented data about your
brand across your social media platforms into a one unified and interactive
visual profile.
For Your Employer/ Company/Organisation/College:
You
can also use LinkedIn™ in the following ways to develop business growth:
Increase
visibility – LinkedIn™ gives your organisation increased
visibility for its brand, products, and corporate goals. Potential customers,
clients, and suppliers can research your company on LinkedIn™ to see if they're
interested in doing business with you. This is especially useful if your
organisation sells services e.g. Academic courses or products to other
businesses.
Conduct
research on other organisations – LinkedIn™ also works the
other way. You can use the site to research your competition, potential
partners, or new suppliers.
Tell
your company story – This company story ,
if told in the right way, can inspire customers and potential employees,
prospective students, and create an
emotional connection with people. Special applications, like video, allow you
to create a multimedia experience with other users.
Understand LinkedIn™: Task: Group to connect.
Make Connections. If you
can build a decent sized network on LinkedIn™, all the other features will work
much better! The first thing you should do is import contacts from your address
book or webmail account, by clicking on ‘add connections’ along the top navigation
within ‘Contacts.’
LinkedIn™
automatically selects all of the imported contacts, so first you should uncheck
the ‘select all’ box. Now take a look through the list for people marked with
the blue ‘in" logo to the right of their name (this means they’re already
on LinkedIn™), and select the ones you want to connect with. Good choices are
fellow students from class/activities, former co-workers and supervisors, or
close family friends. You can also search by graduating class and company, for
those peers/colleagues for which you do not have their email address.
Join Relevant Groups. Groups
are a great way to expand your network even further. Join alumni/Industry related
groups such as Griffith College Dublin Alumni, or try seeking out a group
related to your chosen industry. Some examples I have used are Public Relations and Communications Professionals, Sports Industry Network, etc. Joining relevant groups will
allow you to view and participate in discussions with industry professionals,
as well as allow you to get closer to connecting to all of the members that are
already a part of that group.
Linkedin as a Community of Practice: Recruitment
For example, if you're looking for a new
team member with a particular set of skills, or prior experience in a certain
industry or company, you can post jobs on LinkedIn™, or search for specific
people who have the skills and experience that you're looking for. (Check
people's profiles first to make sure that they're happy to be approached with
new job opportunities.)
You may find this more effective than more
traditional recruitment methods, depending on the position you're looking to
fill, and your industry.
Many potential recruits also use LinkedIn™
as a research tool. For instance, suppose a person had two good job offers.
Which organisation will be a better match for them? What will their new boss or
colleagues be like? What is the corporate culture like? LinkedIn™ can help them to find out.
So, as well as keeping your organisation's
profile up-to-date, also make sure that you own personal profile reflects
yourself and your organisation positively.
LinkedIn™
in Academia:
LinkedIn
also accommodates most of the top scholars in my particular field, whatever be
their specialisation – communication, Pedagogy, Public relations, Media
studies, Interpersonal communication, health communication, etc.
You
can also upload academic papers, Powerpoint slides of your research or
teaching, and showcase relevant “groups” that you’ve joined to pad up your
online presence – add-ons that might not be feasible if you’re creating a
website from scratch for yourself.
Finally,
the LinkedIn™ algorithm does your social networking for you: it combs your
interests, skills, expertise, and recommendations to suggest new connections
for you, so that you’re able to find that brilliant Lecturer or scholar who
made that really insightful remark, but whose name you forgot to ask before she
left the room.
Academia.edu
– for Academics (AKA ..’The LinkedIn of Researchers/Academics’):
Many of you
may already know about Academia.edu, the social networking site
for academic types. There, you have a profile, and
can upload papers (or link to them, or post abstracts) to share with other
academics.
You can choose
to “follow” other users; as with Twitter (and as opposed to Facebook), this “following”
relationship is assymetrical: you can follow users who do not follow you.
Your profile
includes your areas of interest, or research areas, such that you are notified
when anybody publishes in those areas (even if you do not follow them).
Your notifications
are basically of two kinds: notification that someone you follow has published
something (anything), and notification when anybody at all has published in
your areas of interest. (By “publish,” I mean, “publish to Academia.edu”).
Your Academia.edu
profile is usually the first or second item on a Google search for your name.
Twitter for
Academics:
Twitter is a go-to
professional-development social network, especially regarding
pedagogy, digital learning, and the state of higher education. If you have a twitter active, it is
recommended you dip into it a couple of times a day, look through your feed and
find conversations to join, or links to save for later reading. But for the most
part, it is not a place where you will find “business opportunities.”
“DO YOU KNOW? - The US department of labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that….half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.” [ YouTube [WWW Document], 2012.]
ReplyDeleteSo how do we engage our students of the future? Which engaging techniques do we select and how do we use them to improve our pedagogical practice?
Lifelong learning suggests that students will become more independent in their learning by knowing more about their strengths and weaknesses. The learning does not only remain in the brain for a short time. The learning occurs when the past experiences meet with new experiences and knowledge. The focus of pedagogical practice in higher education moving forward will focus on student centered learning, providing for a learning experience focused on what students actually do to engage in their learning activities to attain their learning outcomes.
Good teaching supports those activities that lead to a deep approach to learning. [Biggs & Tang.(2011)p.31] To succeed in facilitating this approach with one’s students, we are encouraged to develop our pedagogy with assessment strategies that can determine how well the learning outcomes have been achieved. The active learning technique is widely used as it facilitates an openness, for an active learning environment. In order to do this we must look at relevant learning theory and determine how best to apply engaging learning techniques.
Today’s swift change in learning methods and deliveries in Higher Education has come about from the initiation of the Bologna Process in 1999. This debate, discussion and these policy changes taking place are for the improvement of flexibility within learning and educational processes and to encourage a learning environment where students will take a pro-active responsibility in their own learning. Even a century before the Bologna process, new approaches in learning theory have been developing. New approaches being adopted, such as student centered learning approach, are moving away from the traditional academic teaching methods of transmitting information via lecture notes and memorizing. We are now focusing on practicing a pedagogy that engages with the student in their active learning experience while the academic/teachers role is one of facilitation and support.
The Student Centred Learning Concept according to Attard, Di Lorio, Geven & Santa, 2010 [handout issued during lecture with Fiona O Roriodain 28th Jan 2012], claims SCL is about:
• The reliance on active rather than passive learning
• An emphasis on deep learning and understanding
• Increased responsibility and accountability on the part of the learner
• An increased sense of autonomy in the learner
• An interdependence between teacher and learner
• Mutual respect within the learner teacher relationship
• A reflecive approach to the teaching and learning process on the part of both the teacher and the learner.
Teaching methods"
ReplyDeleteIn Higher Education and other education institutions up to recent times were predominantly passive, and the academic/teacher designed their own programme, assessment strategies, and the delivery of information was through a lecture of information being delivered to the class, with course notes, and little engagement or activity from students beyond note-taking, this approach has not empowered learning for the students, this developed a low level engagement model.
When we increase levels of engagement and vary our learning techniques, we develop an active learning environment with buzz groups, games, group discussion, debate etc. The student is empowered and takes an ownership over their own learning. This approach being adopted focuses on the learning outcomes and the principle concern and the course is then designed around the knowledge, activities and requirements needed for the students to attain the learning outcomes successfully. This is an ideal technique to adapt and this is similar to the student centered learning approach, where students interact, discuss, debate and “do” something with the information they receive, hence their learning is taken from this interaction and social experience. The learning outcomes for each of the higher education qualifications describe in detail what the learner should know, understand, and be able to do upon completion of the programme, emphasizing once again the facilitation of lifelong learning. The Bologna Process now involving 47 countries continues to focus on teaching with the main emphasis on improved teaching and learning outcomes.
Learning abilities are different in every group of students. The brain is developing knowledge for lifelong learning. Embracing students and their learning experience, in particular the growing diverse cultures and different ethnic backgrounds we experience now and in the coming decade is critical. Our student’s expectations, demands and perceptions of their educational journey differ greatly. Individual students process their learning differently which is why a focus on previous knowledge, experience and socio-cultural learning’s will require engagement through our learning techniques and will require us to continue to self evaluate and evaluate the engaging techniques we choose to use ongoing. A good academic / teacher provides in their pedagogical practice the opportunity to facilitate learning, build understanding, practice skills, and engage in learning techniques that discusses, critiques and shapes the learning process. In order to encourage our students to perceive positive value, and motivation to engage in the learning outcomes we must ensure that the activities and learning outcomes are meaningful and engage their desire to immerse themselves in the learning journey. Focusing on constructive alignment throughout our pedagogy, this framework will enhance our willingness to self reflect; look at crucial points and improvements. When promoting engaging learning techniques, our teaching becomes more open, personal, and the objective needs to be clear- to create a motivating & open learning environment. Student will build on what they know, be ready to participate, and engage in active learning. The challenge is getting the students to a level where they will enjoy reflecting on their own learning. The challenge here is to select & apply relevant teaching activities.
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