{"id":5979,"date":"2010-11-27T18:50:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-28T02:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slisgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-descriptor\/?p=222"},"modified":"2010-11-27T18:50:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-28T02:50:00","slug":"networking-effectively-using-linkedin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/networking-effectively-using-linkedin\/","title":{"rendered":"Networking Effectively Using LinkedIn"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Theresa Putkey<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
As a self-employed Information Architect working on my MLIS, it\u2019s important for me to learn and make connections by meeting people in my (or related) industries. After years of struggling with making the right<\/i> connections – including a lot of time spent at networking events in vain – I finally hit upon an incredibly useful technique.<\/span><\/div>\n
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LinkedIn<\/a> is a great resource to reconnect to people I meet and ask for introductions. This idea took me about six years to figure out. Since I\u2019ve always struggled with how to market my services \u2013 \u201cinformation architecture\u201d and \u201cinformation architect\u201d aren\u2019t phrases that everyone understands and when they do, they usually don\u2019t find it relevant \u2013 I thought I might save you some pain and misery and share the idea.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

My overall goal with using LinkedIn was to find people to do informational interviews with. Before LinkedIn implemented its Companies<\/i> feature, I used to look through the profiles of my connections to see who they knew. But this was quite random and  took a long time, and resulted in a list of \u201cblah\u201d. I was never excited about it as I didn\u2019t feel that my list was truly targeted.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Along comes the Companies<\/i> feature and wham-o! Looking up the companies by category and (a somewhat limited) geography, I was able to find companies are potentially interested in the information architecture services I offer or have a director or manager with whom I could conduct an informational interview.<\/span> Not only was I able to find these companies, but I was also able to find how I was connected to someone in this company. I concentrated on companies where I had one or two degrees of separation. This was an easy way to narrow down a long list of companies. You can also narrow them down by category.<\/div>\n
Using LinkedIn\u2019s Request for Introduction<\/i> feature, I contacted my connection to ask for an introduction to the person I wanted to connect to. Not only does my reputation and credibility increase, but my LinkedIn profile information is also sent along with the introduction. With each introduction request, I send a well-written message outlining who I am and what I\u2019m seeking. The message is tailored to the person with whom I want to interview. Most people are happy to talk and want to know how they can help you. Sometimes my answer is, \u201cI just want to know more about the field\u201d or \u201cI would also like an introduction to this other person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the numerous informational interviews I\u2019ve requested through LinkedIn, I\u2019ve had a great success rate. I have been asked to participate in proposals and have bid successfully for two projects with one of the companies. The standard introduction took about 30 minutes to write and each specific introduction takes about 10 minutes. The overall time spent on this is quite low, considering I used to spend hours per week at networking events and would usually not meet anyone who was a good connection.<\/p>\n

As a tip, before asking for the introduction, I come up with the questions I want to ask the interviewee. You might ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d Well, it\u2019s just in case the interviewee says he or she can talk immediately. This did happen to me \u2013 I asked one person for an interview and he requested to talk with me later in the day or the next day. His company was looking for an information architect and I just happened to ask for the introduction at the right time! Had I not been prepared, I really would have had to scramble.<\/p>\n

As someone who is self-employed, I\u2019m always after the next job. But I also believe that everyone should treat their careers as though they\u2019re self-employed: always making connections, seeing who you can help, seeing who can help you. You never know when you might want to change jobs or when you might get laid off. Having connections already established is an excellent way to create a safety net, especially in careers where each job opening is extremely competitive.<\/p>\n

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Theresa Putkey is an independent information architect in Vancouver, Canada currently in her 4th<\/sup> semester at SLIS. <\/a>Contact her at tputkey@keypointe.ca<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Theresa Putkey As a self-employed Information Architect working on my MLIS, it\u2019s important for me to learn and make connections by meeting people in my (or related) industries. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253,254],"tags":[370],"class_list":["post-5979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-descriptor-news","category-november-2010","tag-social-networking","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}