Bit of background

Do you feel overwhelmed with the amount of information that is being thrown at you the moment you login in to your Linkedin account? There are likes, shares, updates from coworkers, profiles updates, group updates, company news, more and much more. The list goes on. You have updates happening by the second, streaming from your entire network. If you have 500+ members, and few dozen groups that you are a part of then best of luck sifting through the information.

So how does one make sense of it all?

Enter Linkedin Signal

Linkedin Signal was announced as beta way back in 2010. It was touted as a new way for professionals to consume news and information featuring on Linkedin in the form of status updates, tweets via shares, groups and profiles.

It is a convenient way for you to sift through the clutter and noise to get to the information that you want, the way you want it. Linkedin Signal works as a sorting and sifting tool. A user has the option of sorting updates by his network, by company, by location, by industry, time last updated, school, topics, and much more.

The information streaming in constantly when you first login becomes a little easier to manage. You can then like, favorite, retweet, reply, and also comment to all the action that is happening in your professional network.

Linkedin Signal Search feature:

As mentioned in the YouTube video, Linkedin Signal allows users to even search for jobs based on a few keywords. The search results will pull up people in your network and beyond who have posted status updates related to hiring. This works best if you have a large network to begin with.

Use Linkedin Signal today. It is a sub tab located under the News tab and learn from your network. Screenshot below.

Linkedin Series:

This is the third in a series of short essays on Linkedin that will talk about how to make the best use of this service for your professional networking needs, finding jobs, expanding your network, integrating and using the proper settings for your social media channels, and optimizing and maintaining an online profile.

Posts so far and upcoming

Linkedin – An Overview

Linkedin – Products Overview

Linkedin Signal – Linkedin Signal – Find out who’s hiring and what’s happening in your network? (currently reading)

Linkedin Groups – Unleash the hidden power of your Linkedin Groups (coming soon!)

Disclaimer

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Footnote

While I had trouble embedding a video¹ this time around, in case you want to do it for any of your posts anytime in the future just visit the two links posted below. For more details on shortcodes².

¹How to embed YouTube videos in your WordPress.com post. Visit link.

²How to use shortcodes in your WordPress post. Visit link.

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• Linkedin – An Overview
• Linkedin – Products overview
• IBM on LinkedIn: the most followed company on the network
• LinkedIn company page and follow company feature
• LinkedIn shutters Twitter widget ‘Tweets’ because of ‘extremely low usage’
• 11 useful tips for marketing your brand on LinkedIn

Intro

Over the past 9 years since its inception, Linkedin has emerged as a strong player in the online professional networking market. Its nearest competitors in the same market but farthest in terms of number of users are Viadeo and XING with a combined user base of 51 million users with Viadeo coming in second with 40 million and XING with 11 million user respectively. The total is roughly one-third of the current number of users boasted by Linkedin. According to TechCrunch – the professional networking giant is adding two members every second. That is approximately 3600 members by the time I finish writing this article.

Having 135 million members and counting, puts Linkedin in a very good position when it comes to using all that user data and offering products and services to its freemium, and premium users and its corporate clients such as companies, institutions and publishers.

Linkedin Products Overview

According to the products listed on the Linkedin Company Pages link used by the company there are a total of 31 products and services on offer as of today. I have listed four major ones I use and I identify with. For brief description on the entire list of offerings you can visit the following link

The products listed below are used by me as a freemium user. There is no particular order or rank.

Linkedin Today – is service that features top headlines based on your customization. One can customize it according to their interests in industries such as IT, Retail, Entertainment, Banking and many more. The relevant news will be pulled from sources such as Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Bloomberg, Harvard Business Review, Economist, TED and close to 50 other sources. Link.

Linkedin Groups – helps you connect to people who share the same interests, and belong the same industry. Linkedin Groups is a conversation starter where you can share posts, stories, opinions as well as collaborate with other group members. Linkedin Groups is a treasure trove of knowledge for both a novice and a seasoned practitioner as people ask, talk about their experiences and spread knowledge. Link.

Linkedin Jobs – According to the website Linkedin Jobs is currently used by over 70 percent of the Fortune 100 companies. Some candidates even claim to have got a call from companies because of their Linkedin profile. For details visit Linkedin success stories. While this product is targeted toward companies, individual users can also make use of Linkedin Jobs and apply directly, get in touch with recruiters and also forward it to their connections in case they do not see a fit. More on Linkedin Jobs and how a company can use it to recruit candidates visit link.

Linked Company Pages – offers companies a clean interface where they can show their products and services, connect with prospective candidates, advertise jobs and listen in to the buzz happening in the marketplace. It also allows Linkedin members to follow the company, apply for jobs and stay updated on company news. For more information on Linkedin Company Pages visit link

Linkedin Series

This is the second in a series of essays on Linkedin that will talk about how to make the best use of this service for your professional networking needs, expanding your network, integrating and using the proper settings for your social media channels, and optimizing and maintaining an online profile.

For more information on Linked Products and services visit link

Entire list of products and services at the time of publishing offered by Linkedin are listed below. Offerings featured in this post are in bold.

• Linkedin Marketing Solutions
• Linkedin Groups
• Linkedin Talent Connect
• Linkedin Today
• Work With Us Recruitment Ads
• Linkedin Platform
• Linkedin Recruiter Professional Services
• Linkedin InMaps
• Linkedin Resume Builder
• Linkedin Recommendation Ads
• Linkedin Career Pages
• Jobs for you Ads
• Linkedin Job Seeker Premium
• Linkedin Recruitment Insights
• Linkedin Jobs
• Linkedin Recruitment Ads
• Linkedin Talent Direct
• Linkedin Talent Finder
• Linkedin Premium Accounts
• Linkedin Recruiter Corporate
• Linkedin
• Linkedin Mobile
• Linkedin Ads
• Linkedin Partner Messages
• Linkedin Events Sponsorship
• Linkedin Answers Sponsorship
• Linkedin Polls Sponsorship
• Linkedin Custom Groups
• Linkedin Content Ads
• Linkedin Display Ads
• Linkedin Company Pages

Posts so far and upcoming

Linkedin – An Overview

Linkedin – Products Overview

Linkedin Signal – Find out who’s hiring and what’s happening in your network?

Disclaimer

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Related articles

• Linkedin – An Overview (lawandesalil.wordpress.com)
• 11 useful tips for marketing your brand on LinkedIn (thenextweb.com)

“Its not just what you know but who you know that makes all the difference.” ~ Anonymous.

It’s all about people. It’s about networking and being nice to people and not burning any bridges. ~ Mike Davidson.

Intro

As of today, Linkedin is the largest professional community on the internet having close to 135 million members worldwide. Speaking of vast geographies, Linkedin members are logging in from over 200 countries and territories across the globe. According to Alexa – An amazon.com company, 32 percent of its traffic comes from US while close to 10 percent emanates from Asia and majorly from countries like India.

Starting out in 2002, Linkedin has grown rapidly with over half its members outside the country of its origin – the US. India has the largest user base with a total of 13 million users which roughly translates to 10 percent of its entire user base worldwide. For more stats and details visit the link

Why Linkedin? Why now?

Linkedin is designed for professionals who wish to connect with their classmates, colleagues, and industry peers to maximize on their experience, knowledge as well as seeking out fresh opportunities leading to jobs, and more business.

Linkedin has transformed itself from just another networking service to a legitimate business and lead generating tool. Linkedin today is used by professionals working across diverse sectors such as IT and ITES, Human resources (HR), Marketing and Advertising, Telecommunications, Financial services, Banking, Law Practice, Hospitality, Online media, PR and communications, Arts and crafts, Photography for their professional networking needs and opportunities that come up as a result.

Maintaining a Linkedin profile is a vital exercise for any professional since you need to ensure you get it right when it comes to representing yourself to prospective employers, and networking with your peers.

Linkedin Series:

This is the first in a series of essays on Linkedin that will talk about how to make the best use of this service for your professional networking needs, expanding your network, integrating and using the proper settings for your social media channels, and optimizing and maintaining an online profile.

Next post:

Linkedin – Products Overview

Disclaimer:

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Related articles

• Write your Linkedin profile for your future (chrisbrogan.com)
• Are You Receiving the Full Benefit from LinkedIn? (linked4ministry.wordpress.com)
• 12 Awesome LinkedIn Infographics in 2011 (hubspot.com)
• Top Five Ways to Use LinkedIn for Social Media Marketing (dreamgrow.com)

While it doesn’t take an Einstein to write one, resume is a formidable document that sums up all that has been, is and can be. A good resume represents the candidate to the fullest and brings out the best for the recruiter to take notice and maybe get in touch for another round.

Photographer - Alfred Eisenstaedt

Writing a resume is an art form. It takes a lot of time and introspection to encapsulate everything that has been your career up till now and putting it forth in a manner that is best understood by the recruiter. Time and again we ignore the basics and risk the chance of getting overlooked. It must be understood that companies receive scores of applications and the temptation to “trash” the unremarkable ones is usually higher.

No one expects you to do design work on your resume. Except of course if you  are applying for a profile that requires you to show your design chops. However, it is essential that one tailors their resume according to the job opening or description advertised by the company. A lot of companies especially the progressive ones create comprehensive job description sheets for the benefit of the candidate so they can prepare as well as understand what they are getting into.

It is a gross mistake to send across a generic or “what-I-have-is-good-enough” kind of resume. The disparity in the resume content and what the job requires shows up more strongly. While I am no recruiter, the first thing I am sure that flashes across recruiter’s mind is “Hasn’t he/she prepared or bothered to read through the JD?”. It reflects poorly on the candidate and their approach toward the job.

Here are some links to help you get started on building/writing a resume and job hunting in particular:

(I) Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Articles <Recommended>

• Resume Design
• Resume Workshop

(II) Job hunting basics

(III) How to articles

• Build a resume – 3 Quick Tips
• Build a resume – Squidoo
• The Proper Way to Write a Resume – Quick Tips

(IV) Tailoring your resume (PDF)

Related articles

• The One-Size-Fits-All That Fits Nothing (nataliexxmarie.com)
• Preparing to Write Your Resume – Start before you need it! (aceresumeblog.com)
• The Dating Game = the Hiring Process (coramaelengeman.wordpress.com)
• The 5 Smartest Things People Can Do To Get Hired (prnewswire.com)