Xtraordinary Women Magazine October 2014 | Page 12
Why is LinkedIn so important? By Retha van Staden
I am often asked why a profile on LinkedIn is
so important if you are not looking for a job
or trying to impress your boss?
While it's probably important in those
circumstances too, you will find that every
savvy business person who have a
scheduled meeting with you would have
looked at your LinkedIn profile before the
meeting! Or when you send an email to
someone, or give them a business card...
I know of a prominent procurement officer in
Cape Town who receives an email from his
PA with links to profiles on sites like
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and any other interesting bits she found about a person
before he meets with them. This is common practice for any professional these days,
so you will find that even your children's teachers would be "googling" the parents or
other family members to find out more about them.
While very little value is given to a Facebook profile where you won't be able to see
much if not befriended by the subject, Facebook is understandably seen as a
personal or private networking profile, but the same is not true of LinkedIn.
When a potential client (or employer) is faced with an incomplete or inaccurate profile
on a professional networking site such as LinkedIn, alarm bells are already ringing as
to your suitability to projects or contracts where details, documentation and
communication are involved.
Update your LinkedIn profile now, keep the information on it to a minimum if you are
only going to use it on the odd occasion, but ensure it's up to date!
Once your profile is up to date and complete, the power of LinkedIn will become more
clear to you as you are looking at your friends, colleagues and clients' profiles and
learning things about them you never knew!
Contact me for a LinkedIn workshop for you or your employees:
Retha van Staden
[email protected]
www.solutionetics.co.za