It's All About Who You Know

No matter where you are in you are in life, in school, looking for work, or employed networking is key. As a enthusiast of social media I enjoy spending time checking my Twitter timeline or Facebook newsfeed but nothing is more key than professionalism. Remember that everything you post may be visible to others, and can be shared via word of mouth or screen captured and spread on. What you choose to say or post is up to you, but be mindful of potential impacts. Nonetheless the true meaning of this post is how to network yourself in the most professional manner.

In my opinion LinkedIn is your best bet. Create your profile in full! The more action key words the better and if you are job seeking recruiters can see completeness percent. In my short gap in employment I was contacted by recruiters based solely on the information I had provided on my LinkedIn profile, so yes you may even gain employment offers without actively perusing them yourself! Load up all information that is relevant to your professional life. I would recommend only linking websites or social media profiles if everything posted there is at that same level of professionalism, if not don't put yourself at a disadvantage and assist those recruiters in finding a potential hire damaging decision.

Once you have loaded up all your internships, work experience, skills, education, groups/activities, etc...connect with everyone you know! Connect with your peers from school, colleagues, higher-ups in your company, family friends, your parents friends...but at first limit your connections to people you actually know and that know you. Once you start networking yourself in person, via email, or phone conversations then outreach to those you haven't met in person yet.

You are your best marketing officer. Every chance you get to meet influential people regardless of their industry you should introduce yourself and get their contact information. If you have a company business card give it to them, if you aren't working its not a bad idea to print up some for yourself (there are plenty of websites like Vista Print where you can get 250 cards for under $10) so they have your information. Find them on LinkedIn as soon as possible so you are fresh in their mind when they see your connection request. Today WHO you know is more important and can be more helpful than WHAT you know. That is not to say don't try hard in school or at the workplace to continually grow your skill-sets, you need the foundation to have intelligent conversation and get the job done. What I mean by that is the more marketable you are with the network associated with you, is an intangible asset of tremendous worth.

Market yourself, introduce yourself, document all of your achievements, add bullet points to your job descriptions, and be proud of what you do! If you don't have a LinkedIn profile I strongly suggest creating one, if you have one and it's not 100% complete add those last bits of information! Networking is key, associate yourself with great people and make yourself a must-have connection for other people's networks!

For more information on the benefits of being found on LinkedIn my friend Sarah Mitus (www.SarahMitus.com) created a PDF download which is a great read! Check it out: How-To-Be-Found-On-LinkedIn.

Also feel free to check out my LinkedIn profile as a reference when creating yours, located here.