NETWORK YOUR WAY TO THE TOP WITH LINKEDIN: AN EXPERT’S INSIGHT

Students and young alumni are the fastest growing demographic group on LinkedIn. The biggest global network for highly educated and influential members has 39 million students and 332 million users around the world to date. From those, Denmark represents 1.7 million users and is one of the top two most active countries linked in.

Last month we attended an intense LinkedIn Seminar with Ole Bach Andersen (MA ‘88) and wanted to share his expert knowledge with you. For the last 6 years, Ole has focused on understanding, teaching and building solutions around Facebook and LinkedIn. With more than 25 years of experience as a business and IT consultant, Ole is the CEO of Newsperience, a company that offers apps and consultancy to create better results and relations using social media.

“Many people believe that they don’t have a network. They forget that you always have it, even if you are unsure about your studies or career path”, says Ole. For him, LinkedIn is entirely a people game and students and young alumni should not hesitate to use it to reach out for help. Ole insists on the fact that users need to be clear at communicating their goals and needs when connecting with professionals on LinkedIn: “Make it simple and use key words, literally say, can you help me with...”.

Online professional presence is built upon connections that are exercised in real life. “Networking face-to-face is still important and effective, at some point you’ll meet somebody that needs you”, encourages Ole.

To maintain your Aarhus University network, Ole recommends making better use of the advanced research tools on LinkedIn for Higher Education and actively manage group memberships such as the official AU Alumni group on LinkedIn.