Linkedin + Google = HR nirvana

It is much easier to find a niche skill set in a large company by searching people’s public profiles. Say for example you want to know who has experience in CPM at onlineshoes.com using linkedin.com; you could use the Google query below to find them:

[ cpm onlineshoes site:linkedin.com/in/ ]

The syntax is as follows:

[ skillset companyname site:linkedin.com/in/ ]

Employment and Hiring Opportunities

LinkedIn provides opportunity for people to search for new employees through the network. It seems that most job seekers and job posters on LinkedIn are involved in technical fields, such as web development: a search for “engineer” does not find jobs for mechanical or chemical engineers, but rather software engineers. However, non-technical jobs are posted and searched for here and there is no harm in advertising such jobs for LinkedIn’s audience.

Posting job openings is also easy and is similar to the services provides at sites like Monster.com. However, it is not free to post a LinkedIn job: the price is $145 USD as of 2008.

Answers Service

LinkedIn has recently released an Answers service akin to that of Yahoo. However, as would be expected on a network like LinkedIn, the quality, subject matter and style of answers is at a higher level than it is at Yahoo. The advice that applies to Yahoo’s Answers site can also be put towards LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s Answers pages to not tend to rank particularly well for the terms they contain, but they provide a professional forum where people will take the time to compose intelligent answers to you questions. It serves a good opportunity to solicit feedback from your community.

Using LinkedIn Answers for Customer Research and Though Leadership

A colleague of mine wanted to learn about customer service issues facing a communications service provider. He posted a question on LinkedIn Answers that resulted in dozens responses within a day. He was then able to engage the head of customer experience at that provider in a very well-informed discussion. As your answers are named top answers by your colleagues you will be increasingly deemed an expert. This strategy, when executed overtime, lends itself to a strategy for becoming a Thought Leader on any given space.

Google increasingly indexes your Linkedin.com profile if you allow it to be public. If linked to they will accumulate page rank. Of all the networking sites, LinkedIn may contain the least features, but a membership and presence at the site commands the most respect of all the popular networking opportunities available to you online. Although there are other professional networking websites that achieve similar things as does LinkedIn, this site is most popular with tech-oriented businesspeople.
The option to select your own anchor text for an outbound link also improves LinkedIn’s potential for helping you out with search engine rankings. Be sure to link out to all of your blogs and websites as well as to fill out your profile and add relevant contacts.