Professional Networking - get other professionals to sing your praises

This is the fourth in a series of 5 articles. In the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at photographs on CV’s, personal professional websites and on-line CV’s. Today - Professional Networking.


We British professionals can also get help for our modest personalities from business networking websites, the use of which is currently booming in the UK. Facebook is popular for social and, to a lesser extent, business networking, but the sites that focus purely on business – LinkedIn, Plaxo, StumbleUpon and ZoomInfo – are now being used in record numbers.

LinkedIn is the site of choice for business professionals with 23 million registered users worldwide (as of June 2008) and over 1 million here in the UK.

"LinkedIn is like an online Rolodex, where users post their résumé and website addresses, invite colleagues to be a connection, and through them connect to a vast network of business professionals."

Wheeler/Taleo

Again, it appeals to our sense of using technology in a professional and business-like way as opposed to for overt and obvious self promotion. It is almost like inviting a prospective employer into your 'professional world' and even more attractive to the more modest amongst us is that you can get other people to “sell” you via recommendations. We are all more comfortable with other people singing our praises, especially when we don’t have to be there to listen to them.

Having said this, it is worth bearing in mind the way you use a site like LinkedIn. It should be about the quality and relevance of your contacts, not the quantity. What would you think about someone who had 5000 ‘friends’ on Facebook? Would you consider that person to be hugely popular with an outstanding personality and ability to network? Or, would you consider them to be at best a contacts magpie, and at worst a rather sad individual with no life outside the virtual world?

Used in the right way, it allows potential candidates to set their caliber and experience in a subtle and professional way. Perhaps best of all for the less flash amongst us and those with the stiffest of lips, it allows you to sell yourself in a tasteful and acceptable manner.

Next week we look at 'The Impact of modernisation on employers and employees'.


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