The unemployment rate is rising approximately .5% monthly since April 2009. We read about companies shutting down branches, filing for bankruptcy, layoff numbers are increasingly high.  Personally I know at least 3 people who were just laid off in the last month.

A friend I hadn’t heard of in a long time wrote to me through LinkedIn to tell me he had just been laid off and if I had any suggestions for him.  I wrote back saying I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head but then proceeded to tell him several methods he could look into to find work in his industry.

There are many sources you can use to find work, partners, funding, customers and a general source of support in these economically trying times.  We are going to focus on LinkedIn this time.

LinkedIn is a great network for professionals to connect.  It’s used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in your contact network.  Unlike Facebook, MySpace or Twitter the feel of this network is definitely more professional than social purposes.  Although you can link you status updates with your Twitter tweets, for the most part a very professional tone kept.

I personally use LinkedIn.  I’ts very important to fill out your profile as much as possible!  Resume, education, photo (most definitely!!) And link to as many qualified folks in your industry as possible!  But remember, it’s about quality NOT quantity!

But I’ve found that the most important feature to utilize is the Groups!! You can search for groups relating to your region, industry, school, companies you’ve worked for, causes you promote, a large general networking group, etc.  What’s great about these groups is you can create your own, join in, start a discussion or post a job listing or request.

• Subscribe to a weekly (not daily-too many if you belong to a lot of groups) email summarizing the discussion topics and job listings.

• Read what others in your industry have to say.
• Leave comments on any that interest you, illustrating your knowledge and expertise in the area or asking further questions you would like clarified.

• Note: Make sure you put your website url in your signature and in your profile description so folks can easily check out your site.  Always use (http://yourcompany.com) It creates an instant hyperlink to your site.

• Take the opportunity to connect with them by adding them into your network if you like what they have to say (and vice versa.)

• Join some local networking groups in the area.  Often they will meet and you can make some good connections and maybe make some friends.

My brother works with REO’s and is always looking for investors.  It took him months before he finally listened and went on LinkedIn and joined some real estate groups.  Now for every discussion he starts, he receives over 15 replies! He’s made some very good connections!  Come to think of it, he owes me dinner!

Here are some popular groups you may want to join:

• TopLinked.com (Open Networkers) (Worldwide)
• LinkedWorking Los Angeles (Los Angeles)
• E-Recruitment Group (Post Jobs & Resumes)
• On Startups – The Community For Entrepreneurs (Worldwide)

There are many tips and tricks on how to best use LinkedIn, including LinkedIn’s own blog.  I found this article “5 Simple LinkedIn Actions that Make a Difference” by Sean Nelson on his blog Linked Intuition, clever, huh?

Also check out the different applications you can use.  For example, you can link your blog to your profile and everyone in your network can read your posts.  You can add a video to your profile (still have to do that one myself

In my online search for photos for this blog I came across this job finding source site.  Some links are specific to the Massachusetts but it also includes online resume tips, job sources, etc.

Hope this was helpful!  Now there are a lot of other sites where you can go to look for jobs Twitter, Facebook, Craig’s List, these are just a few.  If you have other suggestions I would love to hear about them!

Please share this information with friends, family and anyone else who finds themselves out of a job, looking for new customers or just needs to find others in the same situation.

Let’s help each other out anyway we can!

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