UPDATE: October 19, 2020:
Another example – 10-year-old Vinusha from Chennai, on LinkedIn!
ORIGINAL POST:
I have written extensively in my book about prudent and purposeful use of social media. And in my mind, the target audience of the book is working professionals since most people consider social media merely as a time-pass, and to ‘connect’ with people.
Even LinkedIn, the one social/professional networking platform that most people consider as an essential when it comes to jobs/employment, is used merely as an online CV of sorts by most people, without digging into the opportunity of purposeful engagement. I hear more cynicism from most people – jokes about the quality of posts on LinkedIn and that persistent joke on “Hi, I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” – than the point about the fact that the platform can help you create a professionally useful perception about yourself amongst relevant people.
Amidst all this, I got a connection request from someone named Tanya Elizabeth Ken, recently. I spend some amount of time on most connection requests and have a process of accepting or declining requests. (I have explained that process in my book, in Chapter 5. ).
As I looked at Tanya’s profile, I was astounded to find that she was a Class 11 student from Chennai! Her connection request had a personalized message (it doesn’t bother me that most requests do not have a personalized message, but when it does, it does help) too that specified her focus (Equality in Education), a brief intro about herself (a 11th grade student from Chennai) and a link to her body of work (URL).
Kids her age are generally assumed to be more interested in Instagram and TikTok and here’s an 11th Standard student reaching out to me on LinkedIn. I looked up more – on , her posts on LinkedIn – and I was genuinely impressed. That’s a lot, for a Class 11 student, and one who should, technically and conventionally be worried about the Boards exams. To be sure, her posts and activity on LinkedIn were not extraordinary, but there was a focus – on education, skilling, mentorship and so on, all directly related to her mission on equality in education!
Also, unlike most Class 11 students, she has enough interesting things under ‘Experience’ in her LinkedIn profile! Tanya’s focus on education and the methods she has adopted to accentuate that interest and make herself useful to that cause is mighty impressive.
And the awareness that LinkedIn, as a platform, will be useful to further that cause and interest, is something that even most adults could learn from. If you look at her posts on LinkedIn, there is a consistent focus towards that cause, and the more you notice it from time to time, you associate her with that interest/topic.
I’m fairly sure this focus and purposeful use of LinkedIn, even this early in life, will be really handy for her later career-related pursuits in life. The lesson for the rest of us is simply this – if a Class 11 student makes good, contextual use of LinkedIn (and social media), what’s our excuse?
I’m sure you could ask me, “But Karthik, she has found that focus/mission and hence she’s making good use of LinkedIn. Where can I find my focus? Or mission?”. Unfortunately, nobody can tell you how to go about that – you need to sit and think about it and find it for yourself. It’s definitely not rocket science and is simply common sense. For starters, you can get my book 🙂
Incidentally, I also noticed Tanya in The Times of India, over the weekend! The point is, Tanya isn’t merely saying things on LinkedIn – she’s truly living by that and adding credibility to those claims!
