How to Get Invited to the LinkedIn Party
More apartment professionals are finding the social media site to be the ideal platform to get noticed... and hired.
For many, LinkedIn has become the “party” that everyone wants to go to. Getting an invitation is rather easy. Log into the site, find peer professionals you know or don’t know and connect.
Designed as an employment networking platform, apartment industry professionals (not to mention millions of others) are finding it to be more than that. It’s a chance to “find your voice” as a writer, offer daily news updates, inspire others and create bonds that were thought to be not possible.
Given the number of posts of people attending industry or work events (yes, networking), some are finding it a more viable version of Facebook in the personal sense.
Tony Sousa and Moshe Crane hosted a live webinar in January discussing LinkedIn strategies, tips, hacks and how they leverage the site.
Sousa is Vice President, RPM Living. Crane is Vice President of Branding and Strategic Initiatives, Sage Partners.
‘Expanding Your Network Far and Wide’
Joining and participating on LinkedIn is intimidating to some. Professionals can become too self-conscious about what they share and who might see it. Choosing an image can also become a roadblock because who really likes stock images?
But the site has proliferated, especially post-pandemic and now serves as a place for mentorship. Its LinkedIn Live video tool is gaining share from traditional webcasts and podcasts, whose growth might have peaked a year ago.
Because of its convenience, LinkedIn became a de facto networking choice in place of in-person events due to social distancing. That alternative has seemed to stick in smaller or tertiary markets.
“Early on, I didn’t accept connection requests unless I knew the person,” Sousa said. “But I’ve now realized, it’s about expanding your network far and wide.”
Sousa posts regularly – anything from what’s going on at his company and industry connections to how he spends time with his family.
Crane said, “Posting forced me to clearly articulate my thoughts. The hope was if people saw my thoughts and liked them, they were more likely to schedule a call with me.”
For both, and for many, the site evolved into a great platform for learning about what was going on in the industry.
Sousa said he uses the platform as a way to find out what is going on in the industry first thing in the morning. “It’s almost like The New York Times for our industry,” he said.
“At any time, if I was curious, I could reach out to contacts and do survey posts to see what people were thinking about given topics related to apartment management,” Crane said.
Now more firmly established, Crane suggests a posting cadence – such as doing so regularly on a certain day or days – and Sousa said he’s more spontaneous about when to post. “Really, it’s okay to not post some days if you don’t have anything,” Sousa said.