edited after re-reading the OP.

Yah but did his personal brand jump off the page? How about all of his inspirational posts? Team building and consulting expertise?

I use mine to track down potential distributors and customers via groups or trying to contact people without having to go through the 'contact us' portal on a website.

I get contacted by recruiters pretty regularly through LinkedIn. Most of them are dead ends, but some are decent and one turned into a good job.

Get a lot of that too. I get annoyed a good bit too from them though. Coming to me with a 'Regional Sales Manager' position when I'm already in a director's position. Usually fresh kids that are just starting as headhunters, but I will admit I've lost my temper in ocassion with one or two for not doing more research or prep before contacting me.

The only recruiter I've actually blown up on got my work email from the company website and kept emailing me on that rather than the personal email that I have on my profile.

I don't begrudge them for fishing or not knowing whether one company involved has inflated or deflated titles. Most of the recruiters I get remind me a lot of real estate agents... they aren't really professionals.

The title bar used to be always just people's job title "Director of Whatever", but now it's changed into a 120 character Rorschach test.

A friend of mine, who is effectively a low level manager at a Public Utility, has the title Thought Leader/Influencer/Innovator. I'm like c'mon man, don't you want to add "Life Coach" or something and go for the full set??

I'm a thought leader ninja.

My brain automatically translates "thought leader" to " constantly reposts Richard Branson and wastes time on meetings that are excuses to be in the same room with someone slightly more important".

Lol, I just got a message from one of those dudes today.

Quote:

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Thanks for connecting Joseph,

Please follow my profile / posts, like to share interesting market insights...

Let me know if any of my network contacts look like a good referral for you.

How do you use LinkedIn? -Fred

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Sorry bud, I don't need to waste time digging through your connections.

I got my current job because of my LinkedIn profile. The headhunter ran a search and found my resume. The rest, as they say, is history.

I turned to LinkedIn as a last resort.

I didn't want to believe that getting my skills/job experience noticed required a LinkedIn profile. Maybe I was just stubborn - but I really wanted to stand on my resume and application and cover letters.

But after building a profile and connecting...I had more luck than before.

I wish it wasn't like this, but from my limited experience - it can be a good job hunting tool.

I don't reach out, post, message, or try to connect with people, I basically copy/pasted my resume and let the recruiters do the work.

LinkedIn was instrumental in landing the last job. I will keep it because it makes me money, and I get to see if all of my old girlfriends are fat now (since I am not on FB).

My favorite posts are the guys using hashtags throughout the sentence on LinkedIn.
#NotTheCorrectPlatform
#NotHowThisWorks
#You'reOver40SoQuitUsingHashtags

Also the old people that post about politics on LinkedIn. That's awesome.

I recall in the 80s everyone had business cards that said "Consultant" which ment unemployed.

I used to work for a guy that used hashtags in emails and it drove me nuts.

IrishTxAggie said:

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Get a lot of that too. I get annoyed a good bit too from them though. Coming to me with a 'Regional Sales Manager' position when I'm already in a director's position. Usually fresh kids that are just starting as headhunters, but I will admit I've lost my temper in ocassion with one or two for not doing more research or prep before contacting me.

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I get this a lot too. My profile clearly says that I am not going below Director. But I get recruiters who email me some senior manager job and a few who go "yes, not director, but senior management wants to groom the person into senior management" Yeah right. Those tricks don't work anymore with me.