A look at connecting on LinkedIn from the POV of an interactional sociolinguist.

1. How and Why
we link on
LinkedIn
Anna Marie Trester,
@CareerLinguist

2. The many worlds of LinkedIn
 LinkedIn multifaceted (many worlds within it)
 At the same time nested (only one piece of any
person’s social media presence)
 Always understood in context: learn as much
as you can about the contexts in which your
profile will be used and understood. Because
it is about connecting with people who you
know, be reflective about how they will USE.
 Lead with listening!

3. First things first, a story!!

4. About me

5. Linking = connecting
Communicating is a choice (just as it is a choice NOT
to communicate) And then, you make choices in
HOW you communicate!
As a linguist, I am interested in:
 What was said
 What wasn’t
 What you could have said, but didn’t
As an interactional sociolinguist, it all comes down to
a moment of conversational interaction – metaphor
of “the ask”

6. My LinkedIn model –
Focus on interaction

7. Conceptual Metaphor: the
ask

8. Before we begin:
A word about privacy
settings
Every time you edit your profile, it sends a message to
your network…..

9. Connecting
Capture Your
Existing
Network
www.linkedin.com

10.  Groups
 Join relevant groups: Ask Questions (for ideas, look
at the groups others in your network belong to)
 Start a Group, demonstrate “thought leadership”
 Alumni
 Target by an industry or geographical location
“The ask” here is the request to connect (how to
honor that)
People you know “IRL”
(family, friends, work, clubs)

11. Doing things
www.linkedin.com

12. DOING Things on LinkedIn
 Having curated your network makes the site work
better for you
 Research
Companies, Jobs, Locations – planning to travel, or
move
Yourself – if someone is looking for you, how would
they find you? Search for yourself with keywords, do
you return?
 “the ask” Request to be Introduced (how often
depends on what you are looking for right now)

13. Researching using Advanced
Search

14. Searching for yourself using
keywords

15. Telling your
story: your
profile
www.linkedin.com

16. Opportunities for Languageing
 Headline – not just your job title (framing, positioning,
presuppositions)
 Every section has a genre: Meaningfully different from a
resume, Facebook, job board, Twitter, etc.
 Pay attention for opportunities to tell a story
 Your picture tells a story
 What are you doing with your summary?
 How do you describe your experience? Your projects?
“The ask” here a bit more abstract – ask for someone to know you
and know what you might be looking for (that involves work,
paying attention to that interaction means doing the work of
making yourself, your wants comprehensible)

17. Summary example 1

18. Summary Example 2

19. Summary Example 3

20. Summary Example 4

21. Talking about your experience
on LinkedIn: Pronoun choices
 I evaluate domestic and international credentials…
 Evaluate domestic and international credentials…
 Evaluates domestic and international credentials…
 She evaluates domestic and international
credentials…
 Alison evaluates domestic and international
credentials…
 We evaluate domestic and international credentials…
 Domestic and international credential evaluation…

22. My ask
Give me one
Hour a week for
your future!

23. Some Final
Thoughts

24. Linking OUT
 Share visuals: examples of your work
 Direct people to your Twitter, your blog,
websites, Amazon book reviews, etc.

25. Pay it Forward
 Be generous:
 Get in there and look for opportunities to PAY IT
FORWARD!!!!
 When you are closing out your hour on
LinkedIn ask yourself: is there a way that I
could help someone? Is there something
simple that I could do like making a
connection for two people who would enjoy
knowing one another?
 What ideas do you all have?

26. Me
www.careerlinguist.com
@CareerLinguist