How Can Linkedin's New Features Help Job Seekers?

Linkedin has released some interesting upgrades in the past week that can help job seekers. Linkedin’s two big new features are Linkedin Follow and Linkedin Twitter Integration. How can these new features help job seekers?

Linkedin Follow:

Linkedin Follow is a new feature for Linkedin Groups (If you haven’t discovered the power of Linkedin Groups yet, read Top 20 Linkedin Groups All Job Seekers Must Join). One feature of Linkedin Groups provide a way for employers to advertise jobs to a targeted audience….for free. Aren’t these postings you want to see, especially from targeted companies or industries?

For those already using Linkedin Groups, Follow gives a user the ability to follow the posting stream from an individual group member. Linkedin’s blog states that Follow’s purpose is “…making it easier for you to see contributions made by your connections and other people you value within your groups.”

You already see the posting streams of your Linked network…the accepted network invitations you’ve sent, and the LinkedInvitations you’ve accepted.

But what if you want to follow someone who’s not your connection? How about someone who has very few connections, but who writes interesting posts on groups…or advertises job openings on Linkedin groups?

If you’ve discovered this person’s posts, chances are you’re both members of the same Linkedin Group. If not, just pull up their profile, discover what groups they’ve joined, and join a group where your target most likely posts content. But once you’ve joined, you’ll see everyone’s postings, whether relevant to you or not.

Once you find a posting from the person you want to follow, you’ll see a link under their name and picture allowing you to follow this person’s posts.

Let’s put it into practice…Let’s say one of your target companies is AT&T. Search Linkedin for HR Managers and Recruiters currently at AT&T. Pull up their profiles, to see what groups they are in, and pick a group you think they are likely to post jobs (perhaps they’re in the Telcom Jobs group?). Join the group, and search the group for postings by people from AT&T.

Perhaps the person you think is a target isn’t posting jobs, but others are? Join industry groups and groups for job seekers to discover who’s posting jobs. You can follow their posts by clicking a follow link under the poster’s name.



If you’d like to follow my Linkedin Posts on the Career Change Central group, you can follow me at http://tinyurl.com/phillinkedin. You’ll now be able to see the stream of posts I submit to the group…just like a twitter stream.

Speaking of Twitter…Linkedin just announced Twitter Integration:

Why integrate with Twitter? You’ll double the reach of your tweets & Linkedin status updates by broadcasting your tweets on Linkedin, and broadcasting your Linkedin status on Twitter. This is great news for those job seekers who want to reach more hiring managers and recruiters on the open forum of Twitter. Also, since Google recently started indexing tweets, now your Linkedin status/tweets can be searched on Google which you can use to improve your Online Reputation Management.

Just click the Twitter icon underneath Network Updates on your Linkedin home page:



But what if you don’t want every tweet broadcast to the business-centric audience of Linkedin? You’ve got options here. You can set a default option so that Twitter only shares tweets with Linkedin that include the hashtag #in or #Li.

Here’s how I’ll use it. When I publish an article, I typically send status updates to Linkedin, Twitter & Facebook. I’ve already integrated Twitter & Facebook, but it would be nice if I only had to post once and have the same messages on all three platforms. However, I thank people who retweet my articles, send some messages only relevant to Twitter, and occasionally send some personal tweets…that I don’t want on Linkedin. I used the default setting to selectively rebroadcast, so when I want a tweet to appear on Linkedin, I’ll end it with #in or #Li. If I don’t include the hashtag, the tweet doesn’t go to Linkedin.

So if I’m letting a job seeker know that I’ve included them in my Twitter list @philreCareered/jobseekers, I won’t rebroadcast on Linkedin (unless the job seeker has asked me to). On the other hand, if I want to inform a hiring manager that they’ve made the list of top hiring managers on Twitter @philreCareered/hiringmanagers, I’ll likely rebroadcast that on Linkedin by using the #in hashtag.

Job seekers, recruiters, and hiring managers….

How will you use these new features, Linkedin Follow and Linkedin Twitter Integration? Please comment and share your ideas!

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".