LinkedIn is a social media tool used by many professionals and college students engaging in networking. It allows people to make a more formal connection and join each others networks. LinkedIn is becoming one of the most preferred ways of networking now days. You can network with coworkers, colleagues, friends, or with people that share the same interests. Currently I am using LinkedIn to network with professionals I hear speak or meet in person. The reason for this is a possibility for an internship. Networking is so important and LinkedIn makes this easy to do.
In PR Tactics II class I had the opportunity to listen to Katie Felton (@KatieFelten) speak on LinkedIn. She is currently a Promoter/Strategist at MKELive. Katie also hosts her own show "Tech Talk with Katie." She is very knowledgeable in the aspect on social media. Twitter and LinkedIn are tools she feels very strongly about. Katie told the class a lot of valuable information we can use to promote and brand ourselves in this social media world. One point she made very clear was to make sure you have a professional looking head-shot on your profile. People feel more connected to someone when they have a picture. As the sang goes a picture is worth a thousand words. She also highlighted the importance of having keywords in your headline that will help brand who you are. For example she has social media, twitter, linkedIn, event promoter. Those describe what Katie knows and what she is interested in. As I mentioned before LinkedIn is all about connecting and networking, that's why Katie also told us to not be afraid to ask a friend/colleague/co-worker to introduce you to another possible networking opportunity. If you would like to network with an employee at a possible place of employment and you have a friend who is already connected with this person, ask your friend to introduce both of you through LinkedIn. This is a professional way of introducing people in today's changing world. I feel this information could be very helpful as I continue to use LinkedIn as an opportunity to network and connect.
Katie was very insightful when it came to LinkedIn. I thought she had a lot of advice that can help students brand themselves in a social media world. Katie is very active in the PR world and is a great connection for any student to have. She is a great person to have as a connection for college students like myself hoping to soon get a career in PR.
