Guest Post By Richard McMunn
Have you thought about joining LinkedIn but wondered what benefits this social media site would have for a busy nurse leader? Unlike Facebook which is more oriented for personal use to keep friends and family updated, LinkedIn allows you to define a professional profile and build your own brand based on your professional and educational background. It is a great base for nursing leaders to maintain ongoing relationships with former employees, students and other nursing leaders. Many executive search firms now use LinkedIn as a way of contacting nurse leaders about career opportunities.
LinkedIn continually adds areas to their vast site to enable communication between professionals to broaden networks within niche sectors. Some recent additions include the following:
Volunteer Experience and Causes
This section was recently added to LinkedIn on the demand of users. This section enables nursing leaders to interact with students who are looking to volunteer, increase their skills and ask for advice on the nature of their own progression into nursing leadership. This area also gives nursing leaders the benefit of spreading their own voices throughout the sector. Nursing leaders can build referrals and relationships and develop their clinical team using this area.
Second and Third Tier Contacts
Nursing leaders can benefit from second and third tier contacts via LinkedIn. Growing relationships and building a referral base is only going to further a clinical team and using the minds of these contacts and broadening your horizons will bring a whole new set of relationships in which to build from. Build your own network and you have a bird’s eye view of who is in the frontline of the industry. You have access to their contacts and you’re able to build your own network on which other people can draw their own networks from.
Tracking Industry News
LinkedIn is full of industry news and this keeps you up-to-date all in one area with all industry news, progressions and problems. Participating in groups is one way of catching something that you may otherwise have been unaware of. Enrolling in industry-led groups will bring quality over quantity. You can gain a vision of who is a voice or indeed, use your own voice to build a reputation within your niche area. Keeping abreast of industry news is vital to furthering progression and LinkedIn’s group area brings this to the forefront. By registering on LinkedIn, your inbox will be updated with industry news regularly. This you can then be imparted to your team.
Referral Base
LinkedIn is a free platform for a referral base and here you can build your base and use the contacts you have gained to build that base. The professional base of which LinkedIn is built on enables you to make, build and form referrals for you and students. This is ideal for students who are about to move from under your wing and with your support, your referral base is a platform in which to refer them to.
Credibility
Where else can you build credibility freely? LinkedIn overall brings you the chance to build your credibility within the industry. By forming strong links with other leaders, you are beginning to form credibility within your niche. LinkedIn is now the world’s largest professional platform and the advantages are immense. It is an opportunity for you to build a name within the nursing world. Credibility is one of the highest accolades in any industry, using this free-to-use platform gives you the opportunity to build your own credibility. It is there waiting for you.
LinkedIn has blown apart sectors that were formerly built behind closed doors and brings an opportunity to build on your knowledge and form contacts across the world. It is an opportunity to further advancement within the clinical nursing world and bring home a network which can only aid your development.
Richard McMunn is a writer for www.how2become.com a leading career and recruitment specialist for public sector careers in the United Kingdom. For the last 8 years How2become has helped numerous people prepare for and pass tough recruitment processes and assessment centers in order to secure their dream job.
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