LinkedIn is a very powerful SUV.
I get in it for a road-trip.
I turn it on, take it to the car wash.
Then I realized that I have no idea where I want to go.
The maps in the back seat pile up and spill over, leaving me in limbo.
Where do I go now?

Relying on technology to make our career decisions is probably the biggest fallacy any job seeker could make.

In the 1970s, British economist E.F.Schumacher wrote that the downfall of our economic system will, in part, be rooted in our misconstrued belief that technology will solve our problems. 1970s!

This year, we still hold this harmful belief and I see it harming job seekers who begin to use social media with no strategy, no map or direction. Relying solely on some automated function built into the technology by some network engineer at midnight 5 years ago.

LinkedIn is Just a Tool, YOU are the Artist

When you login to LinkedIn, the first thing you see are a list of folks who you “might” know. Woopie!

Problem is that the people you might know may have little to do with the industry that you are trying to get into now. LinkedIn doesn’t tell you the people you need to know now that can connect you into the industry of your dreams.

Have you asked yourself exactly how you are going to meet those people.

They’re there! With 53,000,000 possible connections on LinkedIn, the people you need to know are there. Your job is to find them and make your best impression.

LinkedIn as a Yellow Pages, or as a Lazar Beam

There are basically 2 schools of thought on this issue. The first camp, calling themselves LinkedIn Open Networkers, LIONs, believe there is more power with a larger, diversified network. They vow to never say, “I don’t know him” when getting invited to connect.

In contrast, there are the “LinkedIn Libertarians”, who follow LinkedIn’s original premise of networking with folks you’ve at least had a conversation with first, or have something in common. These folks only accept invitations from people if there is some kind of real connection. Perhaps they met at a trade show, or were referred by someone.

The first part of your LinkedIn strategy will be deciding which camp you fall into, and at what stage in growing your network.

Don’t let a website make the decision for you. YOU are in control

So decide on a destination for your LinkedIn efforts and map your way back to the present moment. What is your next step?