The 30 Second LinkedIn Job Change Experiment

Ever experienced the Facebook Happy Birthday phenomenon? You know, on your birthday your Facebook wall gets plastered with dozens of “Happy Birthday!!!!” messages.

Except the people who post Happy Birthday on your Facebook wall are, well…not exactly the ones that’ll be at your actual birthday party!

Here’s a similar trick you can try with Facebook’s business coworker, LinkedIn.

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Log into your LinkedIn profile and change your title. But don’t make any material change to it…maybe become a “Technology Consultant” instead of “Consultant”, or “Assistant to the Regional Manager” instead of “Assistant Manager”.

Wait 24 hours and check your inbox.

Instead of dozens of Happy Birthday messages on your wall, you’ll get dozens of “Congrats” emails in your inbox. And again, they’ll mostly be from a bunch of people you don’t care about. A great way to ID the salespeople in your network too!

 

What You Think LinkedIn Is For

You probably have a LinkedIn account. (If not, create a LinkedIn account before reading the rest of this article if you haven’t already.)

So which of the following describes your LinkedIn activity?

  • I occasionally make new connections
  • I am diligent about updating my Background info
  • I love making endorsements

Got some bad news. If you answered yes to any of the above, you’re doing it wrong.

 

LinkedIn Is Not Your Resume

Lets say that again, LinkedIn is NOT your resume.

LinkedIn is a networking tool. And an amazing one at that.

Discover unknown connections, do market research, find potential customers, build your personal brand…this is where you should spend your time on LinkedIn.

 

What LinkedIn is Really For

Here are three things you can start doing with LinkedIn.

1. Find “Ins” inside companies you want to connect with

I wanted to talk to ReadyTalk to learn about potential partnerships with Less Meeting. Yet I didn’t know anyone at the company. And a cold call wasn’t getting me anywhere.

So I opened ReadyTalk’s company page and found out that my brother’s old roommate was an account manager there.

Who knew?!? Certainly not me.

My brother happily put me in touch with his old roommate and a week later I had a warm introduction to their business development lead.

2. Prospect Sales Leads

Looking for potential customers?

They’re on LinkedIn. I promise.

The challenge, of course, is finding them. That’s where tools like SalesLoft excel, helping you find and connect to new prospects.

3. Learn About Customers, Competitors

Learn about a customer before your next call you can build a better relationship. Be better attuned to their needs.

Find out how big your competitors are based on the number of employees they have.

LinkedIn is full of information. Use it to enhance those connections with the customers and competitors in your industry.

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LinkedIn will help you find and connect to new people. And once you’ve made those connections, you can start using the same tools to improve that relationship.

After all, it’s not called ResumeIn, right?