Limbering up with LinkedIn

Thanks to Dale Smith (2012) I received Tim Tyrell-Smith's (2012) guide against being lazy on LinkedIn.

On pondering Tim's advice, I wonder whether there are some people (like me perhaps) for whom such sites are not the best place to promote oneself. For example: suppose one is aiming for a career change - where they have worked in the past could be a distraction; Or suppose one has been out of the workforce raising children for many years? Or working at positions below one's ability during those child-free years because they are the only ones with child-friendly hours?

If I were to convert Tim's warning signs into a to-do list, re-ordering for the limited position LinkedIn has in my humble ambitions:

1. Keep profile updated:
   Thankfully, LinkedIn sends out notices fairly regularly, so when someone else updated their profile recently I let it prompt me into updating mine.
2. Come up with an appealing headline
   Particularly difficult for humble people - could you point to some good ones?
   (Update August 8: Michael Keleman recommends precise (unpuffy) clarity)
3. Improve summary without just copying resume
   
4. Find a few more connections.
   Eek, I'm not keen on quantifying my connections, so I'll not let Tim's "at least 100" factor in at all. (Except cousins: I still take childish pleasure in having lots of cousins (>50)).
5. Complete profile
   If I did, I would run out of things to update it with?
6. Keep personalising connection requests
   - yes, of course, would anyone send a generic request except to someone they know very, very well?
7. Keep seeking constructive groups
   Two of the ones I joined are more often spammed than constructive
8. Find new ways to contribute constructively to groups
9. Provide true, specific recommendations for others
   It is the only kind I would, but for whom would my recommendation be desirable?
10. Recommendations? Does anyone take them seriously?
    Even Tim admits they don't carry a lot of weight. Maybe he just wanted to round out his "10" signs? How useful are they if you're not sure what kind of work you're seeking? Might they be counter-productive the more generic they are, or if they are more relevant to past than future ambitions?

What would you advise?

Image credit: Tamayo, T. (2008). Monkey swing. CC:BY-NC/2.0 from Flickr

References

Keleman, M. (2010, January). LinkedIn Taglines. Retrieved August 9, 2012, from http://recruitinganimal.typepad.com/ch/2010/01/linkedin-taglines.html

Smith, D. (2012, July 28). RT @WayneMansfield: 10 Signs You Are Being Lazy On LinkedIn [...] #inf2506. @das013. microblog. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/das013/status/229111276884865024

Tyrell-Smith, T. (2012, July 26). 10 Signs you are being lazy on LinkedIn. Retrieved from http://fixbuildanddrive.com/10-signs-you-are-being-lazy-on-linkedin

---

Part of my Wordpress→Blogger journey, this post transferred Jan-Feb 2021 in republication of my 29 July 2012 post at my experimental self-hosted Wordpress.

---

The original post resulted in 1 conversation of 3 comments:

Tim Tyrell-Smith said:
06 August 2012 at 4:10 pm

Hi Mica –

Thanks for sharing that post and I love the way you broke it down and put your own views to it. The truth is that we need to manage our online profiles – if nothing else to be found in a positive light.

Regarding a few of your comments:

#2 – Appealing headlines help people find you, are full of relevant keywords (not just your current job title) and describe your larger value for people who are learning about you for the first time. And if you are out of work, “looking for work” is not an appropriate headline.

#6 – 9 of 10 connection requests I get are from complete strangers and almost all are generic (not personalized) :-(

#10 – As I said, better to have them then not have them. It shows at least a minor commitment from your network to stand up for you – and the more specific the better!

Cheers and thanks again!

In response to which I replied:
09 August 2012 at 3:55 pm

Thanks Tim,
#2 – I will personally need to think a lot more about a headline/tagline. It might not just be humility – my inbetween status makes it difficult to make clear headline statements… and clarity is the recommendation of recruiter Michael Keleman.

To which Tim replied:
09 August 2012 at 6:22 pm

@animal knows his stuff for sure. :-

I, Closing the chapter | Mica Meerbach, later Pinged this post
07 October 2012 at 5:07 pm

[…] student, (Smith, 2012). Similarly, I take Tim Tyrell-Smith’s (2012) thoughtful appreciation of my own take on his advice as validation of my conversational […]

Something useful: “A deployment strategy for maximising the impact of institutional use of web2.0”

Chess set at Ryde Library. Photo taken 10 July 2012 during ALIA2012 tour

Are books likely to be useful for INF206?

The book publishing process is so slow compared with the rate of change in the world of social media technologies that I do not figure finding much of current practical value from books. However some information specialists suggest that books published some time after an event can offer depth, expansion, detail and analysis (University of Illinois Library, 2010). With such hope I focussed my search on books published as recently as possible.

-"book review"

As diplomacy is so time-consuming, I shall refrain from whole-book reviews in the course of this subject--unless I stumble upon something startling. If I comment at all on a book in this 'learning journal', it will be on stuff I find useful - ready to be applied.

This I can use - concerns and how to manage them

From the notes I took, Kelly's (2010) chapter "A deployment strategy for maximising the impact of institutional use of web2.0" jumped out at me as being specific and practical. Kelly listed eight IT department concerns (p. 105); succinctly described six risk management approaches (p. 110); provided a risk assessment toolkit (p. 116) and a risk/opportunity management framework (p. 117).

Fresh in my mind were lessons from the introduction of Open leadership. Within the example of Red Cross and Hurricane Katrina, Charlene Li (2010, p. ix) identified the importance of persistently and patiently addressing executive fears and concerns.  I want to get back to see if I can get specifics on any that might differ from IT concerns, and check whether they require different management approaches.

Because pictures are more interesting...

I have been trying to find an image that conveys deployment strategy without competitive/destructive overtones... any suggestions?

A TV top battlefield: Toy soldiers deployed around an overturned jeep. By Darcy (2007)

References

Kelly, B. (2010). A Deployment strategy for maximising the institutional use of web2.0. In D. Parkes and G. Walton (Eds.), Web 2.0 and libraries: impacts, technologies and trends (pp. 95–122). Oxford: Chandos.

Li, C. (2010). Open leadership : How social technology can transform the way you lead. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.

University of Illinois Library. (2010, March 3). The information cycle. Retrieved July 21, 2012, from http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/informationcycle.html

---

[Part of my Wordpress→Blogger journey, this post copied 01/07/2017 in republication of my 18/07/2012 post at my experimental self-hosted Wordpress]

---

Preparing for conference

#ALIA2012 is my first librarianship conference.

How different will it be to gather with a collection of librarians instead of a bevy of breastfeeding counsellors?

ABA conferences inspire

I found conferences with the Australian Breastfeeding Association warm, friendly and encouraging. Could that be because members are nurtured in welcoming skills (by example, inclusion and training) from their first contact?  Perhaps it was also because we all shared a purpose, and identity - having reached at least a specific stage of training in order to be there. 
 
Of course my own attitude played a huge part too: I was eager and determined to learn all I could to make my own volunteer work more successful. I expected to enjoy an ABA conference because everyone who had been to one spoke positively and excitedly about them.  Even that would have been shared though, because going at all was an additional voluntary opportunity.

Discovering ALIA conferences

So why do I feel a little differently about going to ALIA2012?

• The association is different: ALIA is more heterogenous, sure we share an interest in library and/or information services but that is a very broad field. My evening work hours prevent me attending ALIAVic events so there are few inter-personal relationships involved in my membership. There is no patterned (personal) welcoming behaviour in ALIA.  I wonder whether warmer 'welcoming' is something ALIA groups could arrange for members to learn from ABA?
• My position is different.  With 18 months of study and unschooling to go, and with a casual and subordinate work-role the distance feels much greater between what I might learn in session and any opportunity to apply it.
• I expect that the content will be drier (no pun intended). Frequently after (other LIS) conferences bloggers bemoan a general lack of vibrancy in presentations.

Orienting myself

Nevertheless, having thought back to my ABA experience, I see ways to uplift my attitude and I realise I have been applying some already:

• Signing up for first-timer mentoring;
• Booked to attend the first-timer breakfast and all the social events;
• Paying attention to ongoing discussion around the conference - through ALIABiennial (blog), @ALIAbiennial and #ALIA2012;
• Pre-reading all information on sessions (the program now links to papers) and presenters - I've even browsed online sources about (or discussions of/by) speakers to get a sense of their direction: Keynotes: Alex Byrne, Michael Kirby, Tom Chatfield, Ingrid Parent, Mitchell Whitelaw, Anita Heiss, Matthew Reilly, Richard Glover.
• Discussing the conference with people at work;
• Reminding myself it is okay to be curious and to ask.

Re-reading advice saved earlier (with Delicious/Diigo)

Do you just love it when you can use sites you found earlier?  Although I had remembered most of the advice, it was still reassuring to refresh and double-check my readiness against:

• 6 tips to prepare for a conference from Kristy Bolsinger;
• David Bentley's Top 10 ways to get the most out of conference;
• Joeyanne Librarianne also offered 10 tips post-LILAC2010 ;
• Chris Brogan recommended 27 things to do before a conference.  

Sorting out the technology

• With my Xoom (so I can Skype home, and continue testing its relative handiness):
• its charger and the cable in case I need to re-enable Screenshot It
• New apps Evernote Hello, Blogger, WordPress;
• Games (currently Random Mahjong or Backgammon),
• My Toshiba laptop (for writing up in the evenings (and in case the Xoom dies))
•  its charger and a headset in case I need to dictate instead of type.
• with Evernote, Dropbox, Firefox and plugins (Diigo, Zotero, kwout, echofon) updated.
• Mobile phone (although it seems to be dying, will I have time to look for a smartphone?) and of course its charger
• Paper, pens and printouts of schedules - because electronics can die or disappear.

 I wonder what I forgot?

Image Credit: Laura Geared Up by Edward Liu, CC at Flickr

Who would like to meet up at #ALIA2012?

Tell me if I can look for you? 

Positive I am not the only introvert in libraries, would anyone else enjoy trying to put an internet handle to a face at the ALIA2012 conference? 

I will be there on Tuesday for one of the tours, at first-timer's breakfast, staying at the Hilton, at each social event.  I am bringing Evernote Hello on my Xoom and hope to encounter other social librarians, information specialists, Xoomers (or other droids), gamers, introverts, students, parents ...