Recently, I signed up to be a part of the networking website, Linked In, and I was impressed with the application. Linked in uses an easy way add connections right away searching the contacts in your email, and if they find an email that matches one of their members, they’ll ask if you want to add them as a friend or connection, whatever you want to call it. I’ve stressed the importance of being well-connected and networking to achieve your goal of changing careers, finding your dream career, starting your own business, or climbing up the ladder in your current career. This is a great application to take advantage of for free, and you just never know who you’ll reconnect with.
Advantages of the site:
- It will help you reconnect with old classmates or colleagues that may be interested in the same professional interests as you.
- It’s an informal way to network with people, so it helps shy people connect with others without going to cocktail parties and boring Jaycee meetings.
- It’s an easy way to pitch your idea for a small business and see if you get any bites for business partners or potential investors.
- It gives you tons of opportunity to network with your extended network. You may only have 50 people in your network, but multiple the 50 people they know, and the 50 people they know, and you’ve got limitless potential to meet new people in your career field or a career field you’re interested in.
Disadvantages to the site:
- It’s an informal way of connecting with people. This is an advantage and a disadvantage, because people take you less seriously by email and messaging correspondence. To really gain a strong contact, you need to meet face to face with someone so that they can read your body language and you can read their body language about whatever you are talking to them about. If you’re trying to gain clients, the face to face method is always the best method.
- It might connect you with people you were trying to avoid or not be connected/associated with. Got any stalkers?
I would encourage you to sign up for free, and play with the application. It’s fun to see who you’re connected to and who those people are connected to. You never know, it could help you meet the right people to launch your new career.
