is your linkedin profile portable?

credit nbii.gov

with the surge in popularity in all things social media, many people are registering for services for the first time. alternatively, people are discovering services they signed up for on the spur of the moment a while back are increasingly useful as more users come on board. whether you signed up a while back or last week, here’s something to verify (or change) today to ensure your social media persona (at least the linkedin piece of it) is with you for the long haul.

don’t use a work email as the primary linkedin address.

a client faced a problem when he came to me last year. he had signed up for linkedin a year or so before using his work email account. the account lay dormant for a while and the client moved on to another employer. worse, he forgot his password for the account. linkedin offers the following helpful tip for those who no longer have access to the primary email account: bummer, dude. we did tell you to register more than one address. basically, game over, hit the reset button.

I was reading another blog when I came across another example. the author told of a call he received from a client asking for a recommendation on linkedin. he recalled having done so already and asked why the second request. the sheepish client admitted that his account was set up through his work address, the company had gone out of business, he had no access to his account, boo hoo. the exchange was part of an interesting discussion of ownership of one’s linkedin profile. I have some strong opinions on that topic, but you’ll have to read those in the comments on neal‘s post (note my ironic link to neal’s linkedin profile).

linkedin allows users to include email addresses in addition to the one they use to log in to the service. I don’t know how many users bother with this; I suspect it is not many. I urge you to do that, but the most important thing is to use a personal email address as your primary, registered address in the system. at the top right of the linkedin site, you will see a link for settings. licking that will bring you to this screen:

email addresses are easy to find.

go ahead and dump in all the email addresses you think people might have for your contact address. Include your current work address by all means – just don’t make it the primary address. need to switch it? click the address you want as primary and the big blue button on the bottom. easy, huh?

I also put an old work email down that some people might have for me. even though the confirmation email bounced, it’s still in the file, so searchable…I think.

is your social media portable?

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