Kirstin on Fullback and Friends | Writing my themed ‘I Love LinkedIn’ blogs for the past six weeks has been so much fun. Why? I have loved having the opportunity to share my thoughts and I hope useful advice to inspire others to connect with like-minded professionals, embrace your personal brand and to make sure it reaches out to as wide a professional audience as possible.
To make sure this series ends on a high, here is my ‘I Love LinkedIn’ top 3…
1. “Do you remember the first time” – How do you get your first or next connection
Always remember, that LinkedIn is not a professional networking platform to put on hold until you are successful, and established in your profession/industry. LinkedIn is all about the professional journey, and celebrating each professional achievement. Professionals that you connect with, enjoy receiving profile updates. Why? Because they like to be a part of your career/professional journey.
Getting that first connection is not hard, for most starting out on LinkedIn, it is more about the fear of connecting, ‘what if my request to connect is rejected?’ That should never be a reason to not send a connect request. As I have said each week #BeBoldConnect as there are plenty of LinkedIn users like myself https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kirstin-burke-b4b54317 and https://uk.linkedin.com/in/markjasonbryce who will want to connect with you.
So before you start sending out connect requests, do your research first on the industry and profession you want to be a part of, get to know your networks inside and out, and do not forget to include your current and previous employers. You will amaze yourself as to how colleagues you can connect with, and who will be supportive to your future career.
Remember, LinkedIn is about connecting with people you know, like and trust. Do not be offended if not everyone chooses to connect with you.
2. “Reach for the stars” – Identify the top 20-25 profiles , and how they will help you address any employment gaps
I am a great believer of being inspired by other professional profiles, and the best way to get to know an industry, is to learn early on, and identify how many opportunities are available, and what do you need to do be successful and to steadily develop within it. My favourite part of connecting with professionals is to work through their career history, I love to see what types of work experience, internships they organised whilst studying, were they involved in extra-curricular/society work at University, what was their first graduate entry-level role? How many years did it take them, to develop into managerial/executive roles? Did they work in a variety of industries? Have they freelanced? Do they have portfolio careers/are they DISCO entrepreneurs?
If you are struggling identify these amazing profiles/connections, do a quick ‘Top 20…’ or ‘Top 25…’ professional search. Then all you need to do is to sit back with a coffee and get to know the industry.
3. “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name” – The Introductions
For the past six weeks I have introduced a number of LinkedIn superstars, if you need a quick reminder of who they are, click on profiles below:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/markjasonbryce
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sweetmandarin
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/laurakenttextiles
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/hannah-wallace-181a1789
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cat-scott-9a699b84
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robertjameshyde
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mcreynolds-30835821
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gavin-parry-7263235
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tombright1
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/hollie-myles-60a56043
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tommycroft
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/darrencousins
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/katiegallagher2
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jaymenipatel
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/reeyapatel6
“Bring Me Sunshine” – Thank you for reading my blog
So here are my LinkedIn facts & figures…
My profile link | https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kirstin-burke-b4b54317
My connections | 1,394
Account | Basic
Profile Strength | nearly, just nearly an ‘All Star’
Favourite LinkedIn tool | opportunity to showcase the creative you – portfolio of work