LinkedIn is my secret weapon–both professionally and personally–but not for the reasons you may think.
Yes, LinkedIn is a powerful recruiting source for small and large companies. Recruiters scour LinkedIn for the ideal candidate to woo for open positions. Having a strong LinkedIn profile is a huge advantage to you as a person in career transition or active job search . I teach people and organizations about this aspect of LinkedIn each and every day. But it is such a limited view of the tool.
The power is in the NETWORK – the COMMUNITY – I can access and build using this LinkedIn tool.
First and foremost in my life, I have my “inner circle” of women and men who I rely on for support daily. Quite honestly, they may or may not be on LinkedIn or social media at all. It doesn’t matter because I can just text, email, call or stop by their house with coffee. And you can be darn sure that many of those women are Wellesley women.
But what happens when we need to expand beyond that “inner circle”? You’ve been there, right? When you feel like you are “overusing” your small “inner circle” but you are not what to do next.
My secret weapon is the network I have build on LinkedIn -my “go to group” for so much of everything else. This LinkedIn community is the group I reach out to when my “inner circle” has been tapped of resources, ideas and referrals. When I just need a different perspective. When I don’t want to ask them for help AGAIN.
The key is, I built the community along the way- a little bit every week- rather than frantically creating at the time of crisis and desperation (yes, there have been those times!)
If you sort through my LinkedIn community (and I encourage you to), you will see that it is made up primarily of people who share something in common with me- former or current employer, location, industry, entrepreneurship and WELLESLEY.
There are two things I know for sure when it comes to this secret weapon of mine:
- The only thing constant in life is change.
- Wellesley women help other Wellesley women.
I use LinkedIn because:
- There is no way I can be familiar with every twist and turn that the lives and careers of my Wellesley classmates have made.
- There is no way that I can ever know with certainty the Wellesley women who live in my town or city.
- There is no way that I can identify on my own Wellesley women who graduated decades before me or decades after and work in a particular industry.
LinkedIn is where I begin.
When it comes to building my network and community, I start with Wellesley women before I begin connecting with people who once worked at my former company, people I met at conferences, and business cards I’ve collected. Because Wellesley women help other Wellesley women. So when I identify a Wellesley woman on LinkedIn who works in my industry (and yet I have never met), I am thrilled and I reach out to connect via LinkedIn. And she says yes. Wellesley women help Wellesley women–it’s a special bond we share.
It is such a great place to start when it comes to building your on-line network. It becomes your “go to group” of people who you can tap for a “get-to-know-you call” or a quick question on a resource. Build the network NOW because you will never know what you need until you need it.
Want a little behind-the-scenes view of how I utilize this tool? In just the past 2 months, I have connected with Wellesley Women in my network for the following reasons:
- Class of ’79 once worked at a company I needed more information about for business development.
- Class of ’92 lives in a city one of my clients is considering moving to and wanted to know if I could connect them so my client could get additional insight.
- Class of ’05 is coming to NYC on a trip and we are having coffee so she can ask questions about my experiences starting a business.
- Class of ’90 wrote a book that I think is fascinating so I called her.
- Class of ’01 is a consultant to whom I referred business.
- Class of ’12 landed a remarkable new role in a hobby industry of mine and I reached out to congratulate her.
- Class of ’89 classmate sent me a note about a workshop in NYC that is right up my alley.
- Class of ’82 is connected to someone who once worked for me-turns out they are dear friends also! Lunch date pending.
- Class of ’59 was a thoughtful mentor of mine early in my career so I reached out after many years to invite her to lunch.
- Class of ’88 is speaking at a conference I am attending and wanted to connect before I got there.
Now’s the time to build out your network on LinkedIn. A great and very welcoming place to start is by joining the Wellesley Alumnae Network group. Of course, you can connect with me as a simple first step. Search for classmates. Consider the connection suggestions LinkedIn will offer you. Create your own secret weapon!
Bryn Johnson ’89 is a business and career strategist. She founded Bryn Johnson Consulting from her passion of working with small business owners to make the complicated areas of business simple and fun. Bryn Johnson Consulting is simply a combination of all business conversations Bryn loves to have – strategy, career management, personal development, social media, technology, recruiting, communications and networking.