Get Over It

I haven’t blogged in a while, and that’s ok. Instead, I have been actively using LinkedIn as my daily blog, tweets, information resource, observation sharing, website, email adjunct, etc. But today I am blogging once again as a comment on what I see and hear as I lecture people in all walks of life on how to really use LinkedIn, you have been warned: I will express opinions which will exceed 140 characters and lie outside what would be appropriate as a LinkedIn profile update.

That is to say, get over it!

Get over the excuse that you don’t have enough time to invest in yourself.
Find pockets of free quality time and improve your LinkedIn presence. At least start somewhere and help yourself. In all regards, be memorable, beneficial, and positive.

Get over the fact the 20 year olds are talking about themselves on social media and we 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-something year olds were taught not to talk about ourselves.
Use your LinkedIn profile to convey why your deep experience and unique skills set you apart. Then ask for others’ LinkedIn recommendations about you that tell a story or anecdote to demonstrate those capabilities. Give others recommendations too.

Get over your fear and loathing of strangers seeing details about you.
First it’s probably out there anyway (have you Googled yourself lately??) and on LinkedIn you only post what you feel comfortable speaking about: besides, no one can say anything about you that you have not approved on LinkedIn. But at least stake your claim to the LinkedIn chunk of cyberspace and tell who you are, in your own voice.

Get over doing things the old way, especially if you seek something better in your life: more business, new job, etc.
Start fresh and adapt to today’s ways of operating. That will certainly include a well-thought-out, crisp, fully detailed LinkedIn profile, with a photo. Be searchable and approachable!

Get over cutting and pasting your resume onto your LinkedIn profile.
Make your LinkedIn profile tell who you really are, not merely recount where you’ve been. Your resume is an obituary (IMHO), telling what you used to do. Your LinkedIn profile should be organic, showing your pathways: past, present, future. Reid Hoffman’s book “The Start Up of You” explains that you are always in “beta.” Read why.

Get over sporadically cultivating your connections.
Make LinkedIn postings and updates a steady discipline to add value to your outside world. Think of regular, routine, yet relevant ways to contribute to the community of connections you nurture and appreciate. Your network is your net worth.

Get over people who abuse LinkedIn.
If they endorse your skills on LinkedIn and you don’t know them well or regard them highly, delete the endorsement. Or disconnect from them on LinkedIn. Both are easy to do. Preserve your own reputation.

Get over the feeling that people post irrelevant material in LinkedIn groups or that groups aren’t interesting.
Demand the group manager set a higher bar. Or leave the group. Then find other groups that work well and participate routinely. Groups of like-minded pros can be very beneficial.

Now, friends, I will begin to step off the soap box.

Get with the other LinkedIn professionals, interact now more than ever, even when you are not looking for a job, and build your network (net worth) arsenal.

Use LinkedIn as a prelude to a richer, more intensive phone call or a more successful face-to-face meeting.

LinkedIn is an active participant sport, not a passive spectator pastime. Do all this, starting now, because LinkedIn announced it is launching a whole new look and feel on your profile and this is likely only the start of more things they will bring us. Thank them for it by using it often, and using it well.

Get over it, and get moving in a new direction.