LinkedIn, like most social media platforms can be quite intimidating when you are new to the platform, because you don’t know what is on the other side once you hit send. What I mean is, comments may be written positively to boost your confidence or negatively to have you second guessing yourself.
I avoided joining social media initially until I learned of the benefits. One of my favourite social media apps is LinkedIn. I have been on LinkedIn for about 8 years and I check it multiple time’s throughout the day. I do take a break every now and then). I follow a variety of leaders in different industries, designers and company’s that post articles of my interest.
When I first joined, to fully grasp the concept and the functions I once spent 3/4 of the day at a workshop to gain knowledge on how to use the app. I did what they told me. I had set up my profile, built my contacts and shared articles that I found to be informative. My previous manager told me I need to have a minimum of 500 followers for recruiters to contact me. It sort of worked. Recruiters did reach out to me regarding opportunities. I reached out to some of my contacts and asked for information interviews. I sent out 50 messages and 9 responded from various cities including a designer visiting China, researching for her next collection ( that was exciting). They were all very helpful. But, until reading the article ” There are tremendous opportunities on LinkedIn, especially if you know how to build your personal brand and leverage it.” https://www.business.com/articles/leverage-linkedin-for-personal-branding/ I now realize I haven’t been using it to it’s full potential.
During the lockdown, for the first time I found myself more engaged with my contacts from different parts of the world, New York, Vancouver and more. Reading comments and adding my own comments. To my surprise, my comments were acknowledged and it increased my confidence to be more engaged.
Before this course I never thought of myself as a brand. I followed the old standard rules of building a resume and created my LinkedIn page as such without any creative flare to it. More work to do! Exciting work cleaning up my LinkedIn page, marketing myself as a brand.
Which social media platforms do you spend the most time on?
Facebook:// Want to know more on how to use LinkedIn? Check out my blog!
Twitter: // Want to know more about leveraging your LinkedIn page.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 