Thanks for the great tips for finding job. In the current economic conditions , graduates like me are surely having tough time to find a suitable opening and get placed. Linkedin is surely the only hope for us. I have a suggestion to make. It would be really great if Linkedin had another tab with recruiters names, company, email id and other details. This way it will help us connect better and find an appropriate job.

Nithya Venkateswaran.
MIS graduate, Sam M Walton School of Business.

http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/11/09/a-guide-to-building-the-right-connections/

Following this advice will really help you in the long term. I haven’t heard of any solid evidence that shows real return from connecting to everybody you can. I am connected to a couple of super connectors, and I get requests for intro’s through them, from people they themselves don’t know, and can’t vouch for. I never respond.

I have a calling within my church to help people find jobs. The hints and techniques that you share are helpful whether these individuals are on LinkedIn or most any network. I always encourage LinkedIn membership, but I’m out to help in any way that I can.

I have watched some of the LinkedIn extroverts that want to connect with everyone and that’s great. The reality is that it is not “Who you know” or even necessarily “How many you know” as we have been told over and over it’s “Who knows you” and there is no better way to accomplish that than through a good LinkedIn profile and great recommendations.

If you are writing a recommendation don’t just throw accolades at the individual, point out what they did for or added to your organization.

Follow the PAR – Problem – Action – Result formula and you will truly help the person that your are recommending.

Antwan Radt
De7Mythen / http://www.de7mythen.nl / 06 10203636
The Netherlands

I’d love to hear how people are effectively synching up their LinkedIn.com strategies with their other social networks.

Coach Christy Shore – ActionCOACH.com
TwinWest Chamber of Commerce – Grow! Minnesota Taskforce

To try to address as many of the comments as possible, here are some thoughts.

On groups, I agree that there can be some broadcasting that goes on. What I do to tackle this is 1) make sure I only belong to groups where the conversation is focused and useful and 2) report broadcasting or soliciting activity activity to the group owner whenever I know them.

Re: twitter, the app we have right now is the Company Buzz app, which lets you track what people are saying on Twitter about your company and any other item you’re interested in. In terms of ‘professional self expression’ on your profile, we have two great blogging apps currently – WordPress and Bloglink.

It sounds like you’re all making use of LinkedIn to be successful at what you do. Getting recommendations, particularly from important clients/customers is a great asset that stays with you, on your profile. Your profile will increasingly be an important way that people find you, so remember to reserve your LinkedIn public profile url. It will help increase your ranking on Google, Yahoo and other major search sites.

And remember, a great daily habit is to check your network updates and see who YOU can help, provide recommendations to, etc. Small acts of kindness come back tenfold when you need a favor. Happy new year!

Patrick Crane
VP Marketing and Advertising, LinkedIn

I have LOVED LinkedIn, and it has been very helpful to me in meeting specific people with similar professional interests, as well as catching up with former collegaues and classmates.

However, I suspect that LinkedIn is being degraded by many indiscriminate users who spam internally. This is very prevalent in the groups, and defeats the purpose of having a group to discuss specific issues and share expertise. Also, as more people get mass/junk email from “open” networkers, people will value LinkedIn less, and soon it will be the “Matchmaker.com” of the professional world, not valued and seen as rather suspect.

I would hate to see LinkedIn as I’ve come to know it go away, and would gladly pay to have it remain a pure professional resource. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I am sure there must be a way…

Regards,
Elizabeth

vikram,
http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/01/05/keeping-2009s-new-year-resolutions-with-linkedins-help/#comments

You’ve given me ideas where I can improve my Linkedin acct.