Exploring KC with LinkedIn

I've had a LinkedIn account for a while, but never thought of it as more than just a tool for building your professional network. For a long time, most of my contacts were my peers, professors, and several other people from the Springfield community that I knew well.

Now that I am getting to move to another city, I've been doing some research, and I started to notice a lot of blog posts and articles urging me to "Make more of your LinkedIn profile" (this is one of my favorite articles) and sharing tons of great tips and information.

I felt like I discovered a completely new (and most importantly, helpful vs. Facebook being more of a procrastination tool) social network. I found out first-hand that LinkedIn has so much to offer!

Here are a few things that I realized about LinkedIn and how it can help you when moving to another city:

1. It's OK to add to your network people that you have never met, but would really like to know.

I like using the "Get introduced through a connection" link. That makes your invitation to connect on LinkedIn look a little more legit and professional if you are connecting with a person who has never heard about or seen you before.

I connected with a lot of marketing professionals in Canada and Russia this way. The best thing is that you can keep the conversation going after your introductions and exchange a lot of great info and advises with your new connection.

2. Don't just join groups on LinkedIn, participate.

I've been a member of several groups for a while, but never had a reason or desire to participate (I just thought it looked good on my profile...).

Now, moving to a different city, I've been looking for all possible ways to find people and events in the advertising industry. And LinkedIn Groups turned out to be an incredible resource.

I joined the Social Media Club of Kansas City and Kansas City Search Engine Marketing Association and already participated in several discussions. 

3. Explore Company pages.

Company pages is also a great resource, especially when moving to a new city.

I started following every company where I applied. It is a lot easier to keep up with their tweets and blogs that way (in case I ever want to send my congrats on their recent Addy award or something like that).

Now that I have found an internship (I can't wait to start working!!!), I've been connecting with other employees and interns at that company.

LinkedIn definitely helped me get the inside scoop on what's going on in KC and I look forward to meeting more people in the advertising industry!