Over the past 1.5 years since joining LinkedIn, I have experimented with standard LinkedIn sources and a bunch of my own. Some work better than others for various types of connections. Once you accumulate 500 or more, LinkedIn will report 500+ next to Connections in the 1st profile box and on your Connections page.
TOP 15 OTHER SOURCES & STRATEGIES BEGINNING NOW!
1. Listserv contacts who share similar areas of interest with you
2. Professional inquiries about your publications and other activities from new colleagues and students
3. Consulting firm personnel who hired you
4. Contacts from your Website, blog, or other professional sites
5. Meeting planner or conference organizer who invites you to speak
6. HR director or center director who hires you to speak or train
7. Faculty, students, or others who attend workshops you conduct (DYNAMITE SOURCE! After all, they attended your workshop because they’re interested in your work.)
8. Professionals you meet at conferences (with new business cards)
9. Professionals on Facebook or other social media and people “following you”
10. LinkedIn professional group contacts in discussions (join a bunch of LinkedIn groups in higher education, professional associations and organizations, and relevant businesses)
11. LinkedIn connections at institutions where you have worked or gone to school (colleagues, students, classmates, clients, etc.)
12. Connections from your LinkedIn connections (scroll down their connections and click Connect on the right)
13. Members who are listed in your LinkedIn groups (to the right, click Invite to Connect)
14. On your LinkedIn Home (upper left on menu), go to People You May Know box on the right and click See More at bottom (scroll through list to find potential connectees—click Connect or Invite to Connect and invite them as a colleague)
15. Acquaintances on airplanes, trains, buses, skateboards, snowboards, and other transport equipment
What have I missed? What sources have you used to generate connections? Let me know your strategies?
What’s Next? What hit rate can you expect when you invite prospective connections? What’s the response rate in academia compared to business and industry? Stay tuned for my next blog.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
At present, LinkedIn is the largest professional network with 80 million members (compared to Facebook’s 500 million).
So, now let’s consider 10 reasons why you should NOT join LinkedIn:
TOP 10 REASONS
You have NO need to:
10. consolidate resources 1–8 and your institutional Website profile into 1 location (see previous blog for 1-8)
9. build a network of like-minded (teaching, research, writing, clinical) colleagues
8. contact colleagues and students in your field easily and quickly
7. market your expertise and build credibility with colleagues
6. share your writing or research with colleagues
5. consult, speak, or provide other professional services
4. hunt for another job in or out of your field
3. search for the best candidates for job openings you're trying to fill
2. be part of multiple communities of scholars other than your association
And the NUMBER ONE REASON:
1. have important questions answered promptly by experts you don’t even know who are all over the world (beyond your association listserv)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
If you are convinced that you have no need for any item on that list, then get back to work. Stop fooling around with my blog. If, however, there is at least one reason you might benefit from LinkedIn, then stay with me.
This blog series will describe how you can use LinkedIn with minimal time investment, but with the possibility of a worthwhile ROI. Future blogs will describe how to prepare your professional profile and other critical elements.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS?
Social networks are not just the rage, they have revolutionized the way we communicate. There is even a movie about Facebook, but I forgot the same. The networks are free and open to every age, from diapers to diapers.
So what’s the problem? The networks have different purposes and require time to contribute. If you don’t contribute, they don’t serve their purposes and benefit you. And TIME is a major issue with all of us.
This blog series is about one specific network, designed for “professionals”: LinkedIn.
TRADITIONAL NETWORKING RESOURCES
Consider our traditional networking resources:
1. stone tablets
2. business cards, held together with a rubber band or paper clip
3. napkins with smeared ink name and phone no. (WAIT! That was for dates.)
4. Rolodex® cards
5. printed directories from institutions, associations, and conferences
6. mobile phone directory
7. PDA directory
8. other “on the fly” techniques you have used
Over the past decade, our institutional Website posts our profile with publications in some set format, which complements 1–8.
WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE?
Now there’s another option to 1–8: your iPhone® or Black’n Blueberry®. Well, your phone is an option since it can contact anyone and connect with just about every piece of electronic equipment, but that’s not what I meant to type.
What I meant was: LinkedIn. It’s kinda the professional counterpart to Facebook or Twitter. Instead of tweeting or facing, you are linking. Is it a gimmick or a waste of your valuable time?
ARE YOU ON LINKEDIN?
Academicians, in particular, seem to be unaware of LinkedIn and those who are on the network rarely use it to its full potential. “Why?” you’re thinking, or maybe not.
Administrators and faculty are overwhelmed with a bazillion tasks that usually do not require a vast network of colleagues and the need to build a network, advertise a business, and/or hunt for a job. According to my latest calculations, there are about 4 administrators and 3 faculty who use these services on LinkedIn.
Academicians teach, write grants, conduct research, advise students, mentor faculty and students, grade, administer departments, plan faculty development events, write journal articles and books, present at conferences, consult, attend a quadrillion meetings, plus other activities I missed. So why aren’t you on LinkedIn? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?
So, let’s consider 10 reasons why you should NOT join LinkedIn in my next blog.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT TSN?
Writing & Directing. Scalpel-sharp, machine-gun fire dialogue from The West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin coupled with David Fincher’s thriller-paced direction turns the typically tedious, mundane, boring world of Website construction into a gripping, exhilarating, mesmerizing adventure, consistent with the Net Gener’s “twitch speed” of playing video games. It’s like a 2-hour sprint. You won’t fall asleep.
Transition to Web 2.0. The activities chronicled as Facebook was being built represent the quintessential 2003 example of the transition from Web 1.0 to 2.0, from “read-only,” passive viewing Websites to “read-write” participatory sites. Facebook ushered in a new generation of sites that required user interaction, active participation, and content creation. Users contributed content in the form of their personal profiles, pics, comments, etc.
Social Networking. TSN is a mind-blowing, once-in-a-lifetime success story that changed the world of social networking. The story is like the social network itself, still in motion and constantly being revised and rewritten. Zuckerberg started a global phenomenon he can’t figure out how to finish.
MESSAGE FOR TEACHING
Watching TSN reveals the techie potential that some of your students may possess, or not. The issue is assessing and tapping your students’ abilities and potential. Here are some thoughts:
1. Measure your students’ tech skills
2. How even or uneven are they?
3. How can you or other personnel/resources level the playing field to a certain standard of performance?
4. Consider how their skills may be applied in your course
5. Leverage the momentum of TSN while it’s hot. Explore how Facebook and other social media can be used as systematic teaching tools
GO SEE IT!
As a movie, TSN received critical acclaim with 97% of the critics giving it a positive review with an average score of 9.1/10 based on 217 reviews. It has been characterized as “impeccably scripted, beautifully directed, and filled with fine performances.” If you can squeeze it into your super-busy schedule, GO, GO. Sorkin’s zingy, dazzling wordplay with his scathing wit are worth the price of admission alone.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
ROMANTICIZING THE WEBMASTER: "This Is Your Time!"
Who would have thought that the tapping on laptop keyboards and scribbling algorithms on a windowpane (not since John Nash in A Beautiful Mind) could possibly be as exciting as a James Bond or Jason Bourne spy flick? Welcome to “GeekWorld”! There’s an almost romantic aura to punching those keys at lightning speed to code a Website. The movie glorifies computer genius. Webmasters and IT professionals, listen up: “This may be your time.” It certainly is in TSN.
SIGNIFICANCE OF TSN TO THE NET GENERATION
As Sean “Napster-founder” Parker says to Zuckerberg in the film, “This is our time.” He may well have been addressing the entire Facebooking-Twittering community of Net Geners.
The goal was not to make money off the site, at least, not early on, because it will lose “all cool and credibility.” However, Zuckerberg’s genius combined with his social insecurities to create a computer chip on his shoulder the size of Quasimodo’s hump played out in his relationships throughout the film.
This film is the 1st detailed screen portrait of the Net Geners by mostly Net Gen actors. It conveyed their views on money, personal and professional relationships, careers, and responsibility to society. The movie also revealed their character, integrity, business ethics, and values, although loyalty, betrayal, and jealousy were the primary driving forces.
HOW DOES TSN DEPICT NET GENER CHARACTERISTICS?
You bet! All of my research and writing on the Net Generation over the past 2 years hit me in the gizzard as I was watching TSN. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay and David Fincher’s direction represented the confluence of so many Net Gener learner and social characteristics: tech savvy, creation of Internet content, operating at twitch speed, learning by inductive discovery, teamwork and collaboration, pressure to succeed, need for instant gratification, embodiment of change and activity, confident and assertive, trial and error problem solving, and craving social interaction—face-to-face and, especially, virtual connectivity.
TSN is like mouse candy to a Net Gener baby. What does Facebook represent in the transition to Web 2.0 technology? What message does it send teachers? Stick around for the final blog, coming to a PC/Mac near you.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
THIS IS NOT A REVIEW!
I don’t write movie reviews, but I do search for what I can learn as a teacher from movies, TV programs, plays, and musicals, and then apply those ideas in the classroom. What message can you glean from the content, dialogue, pacing, events, and characters? I reflected on those aspects of Avatar last spring and wrote about a few walk-away implications for teaching. My bias is to dismiss the negative and contentious and, instead, extract the few nuggets that teach and inspire us to consider those techniques we might not otherwise even think of using.
WHAT’S TSN ALL ABOUT?
This time it’s The Social Network. It’s the story of Mark Zuckerberg and how he founded Facebook. He was transformed from a computer genius, socially maladroit Harvard student and dropout into the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 23. The screenplay is adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires. However, this flick is much more than the drama about relationships and lawsuits surrounding Zuckerberg’s quest to create the largest social networking Website. Reviewer Andy Lowe subtitled it “How to Lose Friends and Influence People.”
WHAT’S WRONG WITH TSN?
Before examining TSN’s implications for teaching, let’s be clear on what Zuckerberg perceives as an egregious error in the movie regarding his motivation to build Facebook. In a video interview by entrepreneur wannabes at Stanford University posted on YouTube in October 2010, Zuckerberg said the film misrepresented his motivation as “wanting to get girls and erect some kind of social institution.” That was dead wrong. He stated that “They [director and writer] just can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things.” Incorrect pronouns aside, Zuckerberg said they instead paid meticulous attention to details such as his wardrobe, “Every single shirt and fleece in the movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.” At least, he wasn’t driven by money.
My next blog will examine TSN’s portrayal of the Net Generation. Stay tuned.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Are you ready for 2.0? Me neither. Hold on to your keyboards. Here we go:
WEB 2.0 (2004–present)
This 2nd generation was “read-write” (Berners-Lee), social Web with interaction, active participation, and content generation. The term was coined by Darcy DiNucci (1999). It’s been called the “participatory Web” compared to Web 1.0 as the “Web-as-information source” (Decrem, 2006). It had a user-centered design to foster interactive information sharing so that users could be contributors, producers, and consumers. Examples include web applications, social media, video sharing, blogs, wikis, mashups, and folksonomies (categorizing content through tags) (see Wikipedia on Web 2.0).
USER-ORIENTED AND INTERACTIVE: Encyclopedia Britannica Online was replaced with Wikipedia, which relies on users (collectively) to constantly and quickly generate content. Users can write their own content and comment on others’ content through blogs, network groups, and social media. They can post their own social and professional profiles for others to review and create pages to advertise their businesses, events, and products on these sites. Users can even build their own social network with Ning. Other interactive services include Skype, online banking, and job and employee searching on LinkedIn and many other sites.
RELIANCE ON USER CONTRIBUTIONS: Some Webs rely almost entirely on user contributions, such as (a) social (Facebook, Twitter, Digg) and professional networks (LinkedIn), which permit users to create and share audio, video, text, and multimedia content, (b) photo (Flickr) and video (Flickr, YouTube) distribution and sharing sites, and (c) professional listservs. Without these contributions, most of these sites might vanish into cyber-air.
BOTTOM LINE: Overall, Web 2.0 facilitates creativity, information sharing and dissemination, dynamic, ever-changing content, and collaboration which has led to Web-based communities and the hosted services listed above. It radically changed the way people use the Internet, from 1-way to every which-way.
Tomorrow I’ll examine some of the criticisms of Web 2.0, and then on to Web 3.0.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 RULES
The rules are divided into “do’s” and “don’ts.” Here are the 1st 3
NETIQUETTE DO’S:
1. USE APPROPRIATE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE: Avoid smiley faces and other “social” symbols (save them for Facebook), Web jargon, unfamiliar abbreviations, and any offensive language, such as sarcasm, profanity, vulgarity, and sexual innuendo. Your writing should be that of a professional, not a buddy on a social network. If Google detects your use of “blue material,” your Website, blog, or other network may be demoted in the search engine ranks. This rule also applies to jokes.
2. USE PROPER GRAMMAR AND SPELLING: Chek adn thowroughlee pruf-reed alll mesags. Use SPELCHEK! Don’t hurry to hit the send button. This applies when you e-mail, tweet, text, blog, face, goog, wik, or some other 3–5 letter communication. Although, we are all our own worst proofreaders, try to let your message sit for a while, at least a minute or 2, but a day is best. Seeing it again totally cold often makes the errors jump off the screen. Wait for this jumping. Your writing ability and the care with which you produce any written product will be reflected in your messages and blogs. Your communications also reflect on the institution that hired you. Send only your best work into cyberspace. Anything less may come back to bite YOU in your butt-tocks.
3. BE HONEST AND TRUTHFUL: Don’t even think about it. If you lie or even streeetch the truth in what you communicate, especially your online profiles on your Website, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networks that display your credentials, your career will hang in the balance. Be truthful in everything you say. Professional credibility is almost impossible to regain once it’s lost. Who will believe you?
If you use humor in your writing, as I do frequently, make sure your readers know you’re joking. Most professors and students, in particular, interpret everything they read seriously, unless they are familiar with the source as a jokester. Also, be careful with the types of humor you use. Self-effacing jokes are usually the safest.
This list continues in my next blog with 3 more do’s related to copyright, signature lines, and timely responses. Stay tuned.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
1. Carry Work When Traveling
If you really want to stay in control of your workload or jump ahead, carry work materials when you’re on the move. This time saver is one of the most effective time management techniques you can possibly use. Before jumping, whenever you leave your home, office, ship, or football field to go anywhere, take a briefcase, bag, or backpack with work materials and laptop with you. Don’t leave without something (including your American Express card—ya never know what will pop up), but don’t take everything, especially any vertebrae-breaking, cartilage-tearing monster course textbooks or complete dissertations.
SAMPLE OF TASKS
Today, as you travel to almost every destination, wait time will be involved. During that travel, you could complete the following 20 tasks:
• grade papers
• edit term papers or essays
• edit thesis chapters
• respond to e-mails from students and colleagues
• read articles for an article or chapter you’re writing
• write a section of an article or book chapter
• edit a manuscript
• write a review for a journal manuscript, grant proposal, or book chapter
• write a course lecture or student activities
• write an agenda for an upcoming meeting
• write the minutes from a past meeting
• write a letter of recommendation for a student or colleague
• write your letter of resignation
• write pink slips to whack your staff
• add a few items to your “to-do” list
• write a blood curdling murder mystery
• plan how you’re going to spend your federal stimulus check
• read The Chronicle of Higher Education for job options
• write a blog
• revise your profile on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn
You may have noticed that about 65% of those tasks require writing. That seems to be a significant component of our job description. Estimate your wait time to decide how much and what type of work to take. Depending on how you travel, your work opportunity will vary. Several travel options will be examined in the next blog.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC & Coventry Press
