The value of networking - LinkedIn Tutorial

- [Instructor] LinkedIn allows professionals from around the world to connect. In fact, over 4.6 billion connections have already been made. A strong network can provide you with a lot, including shared resources, they can provide you with feedback and advice, they can keep you updated on industry trends and news. And wink, wink, your network can also provide you with opportunities. Now, why does this matter? Well, your network can bring opportunities to your attention and recommend you for positions. Consider this, applicants are nearly three times more likely to get a job at a company where they have connections on LinkedIn. Also, applicants are four times more likely to be hired through their network. This is where I've seen the world of work change a lot. It's becoming more and more common for people to be introduced to opportunities through their online network. As well as to have network connections help them to get a job at their company. Now, this doesn't mean that you should connect with people and instantly ask them if you can get a job. Connections take time to foster. In order for them to be sustainable, they need to be win-win. As you get to know your connections more opportunities will arise. Let's take another look at why building up connections is important. Right now I'm inside of Julie Parker's account, this is a fictitious account that I created. Now I'm going to go up to the top and search for program managers. She wants to check out some more program managers, from here, I'll select the filter for people but notice what I see here, in the results, I see people where it just says, LinkedIn member, and I can't see much more. I also don't have the ability to connect with them. Now, this is because you need to have some level of connection to someone in order to be able to see their information, request to connect with them, or communicate with them. Now, there are a couple exceptions to this such as premium members who have opened connect turned on but for the most part you're going to need to build up your network. Now, I know what many people are thinking, I don't have any connections and I need to look for a job. My advice is that, although you'll still be able to search and apply for jobs on LinkedIn, I strongly advise that you begin building up your network. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now. Begin by connecting with friends, family, coworkers, classmates, or others you know. You can do this by importing your contacts, you can connect with me if you think I'll provide value to your network. Let's take a look at what this looks like, I want to go back here to Julie's account and up at the top, I'm going to search for someone, and in this case, I'll search for me and I have open connect turned on, so she will be able to connect with me. So, here she can click on my profile and then you'll see connect right here. Now, I want to point out something that is important, when you connect with someone, you'll get this pop up here that says, do you want to customize it? Now I could just hit send, and it will an invite to connect, but I highly recommend that you add a note. I'll click on here and say, hello Oliver, It was nice to meet you at the conference. Let's connect. When I'm done, I can go ahead and hit send. But I do recommend that you type in a message letting the person know why you want to connect. Now, as you connect with new people all of their first degree connections will become your second degree connections, giving you more opportunities to connect with people outside of your circle. This is when you can really start to connect with people from the same industry, people who work at a company that you'd like to work with, thought leaders and more. And when you do this, your network will grow exponentially.