LinkedIn Success Stories - Yes, you can find a job through LinkedIn

I received a lot of feedback to a recent blog post on New Media Hire entitled ‘LinkedIn Maintains its Place in Social Networking’. I also distributed the link on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. One of the questions I raised in the earlier post was whether anyone had ever leveraged LinkedIn to get a job or land a business opportunity.

A LinkedIn success story

Of all the comments regarding preferences and uses of LinkedIn, Barbara Maldonado responded on Twitter that LinkedIn was the key to landing her current job as business development director for Marketing Resources Incorporated near Chicago.

Ms. Maldonado describes herself as a ‘gigantic advocate’ for LinkedIn. Her original strategy was to participate in group discussions. As group members posed questions instead of offering a self-promoting response, Ms. Maldonado says she would provide answers based on her knowledge or expertise of the subject matter. “Answering the question shows thought leadership,” said Ms. Maldonado.

When Ms. Maldonado found herself unemployed in December 2008 due to a layoff, she used her LinkedIn status update to promote herself to potential hiring managers. It didn’t take long for someone in one of the groups she had participated in to notice that Ms. Maldonado was unemployed. There was an exchange of information which led to her resume being passed along to the hiring manager. Three months later, Ms. Maldonado had a new job.

Ms. Maldonado says LinkedIn is a wonderful tool for reputation management. She remains visible and active in discussion groups and integrates LinkedIn with her presence on Twitter. It has worked to her advantage as she is being sought out by high-level marketing executives to connect on LinkedIn. Ms. Maldonado also uses LinkedIn as a credibility check by including a link to her profile in her email communications. "I want people to access my profile and know that I am serious about doing business with them," she said.

How to leverage LinkedIn

Ms. Maldonado’s story is an illustration that LinkedIn is one of many strategic methods to gaining new employment, especially in a market where job candidates are seeking to break through the clutter to get noticed.

Social media expert Nathan Kievman, wrote an e-book about how to make the best use of LinkedIn to advance your career. Mr. Kievman offers five strategies to get noticed and strengthen your expert status:

1. Own (or start) a LinkedIn group
2. Create and share high quality valuable resources - post links to a blog or resources, videos, white papers that will be of value to LinkedIn users
3. Post relevant news topics - post links to a blog or news articles, again that create value to users
4. Post answers to questions - be brief, compelling, relevant and professional
5. Create engagement and conversation - build trust through open communication

Reputation management and personal branding will become increasingly more relevant in 2010. LinkedIn is perhaps one of many channels to consider as a way to add value, help others, engage others and connect with others.

Cathy Y. Taylor is managing director for Vocii, a brand consultancy focused on filling the gaps between human resources, marketing and communications to align employee behaviors with company strategies. Ms. Taylor also blogs at TaylorYou.com.