Thursday, 14 April, 2016 - 14:00
Category:
Activities
General Tips - Be it with Linkedin or any other social networking website you are intending to use for educational purposes, you always need to identify yourself to others.
Create a solid profile
Take the time to tell them who you are, where you have studied, what educational role you have now...etc. This will help you find and connect with educators sharing the same interests as you.
Accepting new connections
Always make sure to go through profiles of your prospective new connections. Sometimes you get friendship invitations from people having nothing to do with education, or they are working with companies promoting products or making sale online, so you check their information before you accept anyone.
Professional use
I said before that Linkedin is a professional network and by categorising it as being professional we inherently shun away some of social features you might be used to when using for instance Facebook. Make sure what you share has relevance to your educational background and your profession as a whole. It is for professional networking so keep it this way. People would love to connect to somebody who has some expertise in his domain. Nobody cares what movie you watched last night or what you did on the weekend.
Recommendations
LinkedIn has a unique feature called recommendation. This is particularly helpful in improving your profile and giving it more authority. LinkedIn is not just about sharing educational resources with the liked-minded people but is also a job market. Many Employers use LinkedIn to search for their prospective employees. It is a fact that you need to know that the better your profile is and the professional it looks the higher chances you have of getting hired. So If you are looking for work in LinkedIn then why not increase your chances by getting people you know like your former professors, employers, colleagues to recommend you. Recruiters do consider this.
Add your personal touch
When requesting connections on LinkedIn, you need to change the default template that says" I'd like to add you to my professional " to something that really identifies you and why you want to be connected with that person.
Be engaged
As is the case with other social networking websites, you need to offer congratulations, likes, and other little ways to let people know you're listening and you care.
Join Groups
This is very important in your professional development. LinkedIn has several interesting groups where educators share educational resources, tips, and discuss issues and topics of educational relevance.
Source: http://www.educatorstechnology.com
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