Question

Topic: Career/Training

Linkedin/facebook Profiles When Switching Careers?

Posted by miketorrettinni on 11/23/2016 at 10:36 PM ET 500 Points
Hi

I've been in IT for 10 years and have LinkedIn (LI) profile all about IT, my experience and over 1.500+ contacts, all IT people from all over the world. These connections are clients and other IT professionals.
Now I'm seriously thinking of switching into Marketing, Advertising, Sales industry... and I don't know what to do with LinkedIn account. As is most likely that new career will be focused locally, current LI connections will not be 'useful' for my new career, they will not benefit from my connection, posts anymore.

What can I do with LI profile? Should I start a new LI profile? Should I start dropping current connections, since my new career/business will not benefit being connected? I will start adding new local connections, related to new career, and will start posting posts related to new career.

Similar thing with Facebook (FB) account, I would like to start using for new career, but many family members and friends have no connections to my new career and it doesn't seem right to pollute my FB timeline with content that they are not interested in.

Thank you for advice.

Mike
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/24/2016 at 9:44 AM Accepted
    Your old connections may still be quite valuable - where the IT people are located, there are also (usually) marketers, advertisers, etc. And if you've build up trust in your abilities, it may be a plus.

    Some resources:
    https://hbr.org/2015/05/how-to-use-your-linkedin-profile-to-power-a-career-...
    https://www.quora.com/What-should-you-keep-on-your-LinkedIn-profile-if-you-...
  • Posted on 11/24/2016 at 11:36 AM Accepted
    You state, "I'm seriously thinking of switching into Marketing, Advertising, Sales industry." Step #1 is to decide how committed you are to your new career path. If you want to keep your IT options open, then maybe leave your existing profile in place and start a new one.

    However, if you are committed then why not leverage your existing social media capital? Don't assume that just because your existing contacts are in IT they can't help you with your new career. They may be able to make introductions or share your content.

    What you can do is write a post announcing the career change and promote it on LinkedIn. Maybe even send a link via private message to your best contacts. Then anyone who feels they will no longer benefit from being connected with you can make that determination on their own.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 11/24/2016 at 2:01 PM Accepted
    "Should I start a new LI profile? Should I start dropping current connections, since my new career/business will not benefit being connected?"

    ABSOLUTELY NOT.

    By all means, rethink, retool, and regroup, but do NOT drop existing connections.

    Make such profile and career history changes as needed, but do so WITHOUT notifying your existing network. Here's how: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141106002442-4907991-change-your-linkedin-...

    For Facebook, set up a new group page dedicated to your new direction and post related content to THAT STREAM ONLY. Few of your immediate family and friends care about your career change, so it makes no sense to clog up their streams of social chatter with your career-related content.

  • Posted by miketorrettinni on 11/25/2016 at 6:40 AM Author
    Thank you for great responses! It does make sense to try to leverage current profile.
  • Posted by peterjohn on 11/28/2016 at 12:10 PM Accepted
    Hi..i am a new user here. I think if you are committed then why not leverage your existing social media capital? Don't assume that just because your existing contacts are in IT they can't help you with your new career. They may be able to make introductions or share your content. What you can do is write a post announcing the career change and promote it on LinkedIn. Maybe even send a link via private message to your best contacts.
  • Posted by miketorrettinni on 11/28/2016 at 11:35 PM Author
    Yes, this sounds good, to contact best contacts about career change. I don't have regular contacts with everybody in 1500+ IT network, but I do with some.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/29/2016 at 1:51 PM Accepted
    I think both LinekdIn and Facebook really want (try to require) that you have 1 personal page for each, not multiple. So creating a new one may cause problems with them if they catch it.

    For LinkedIn, the consensus above is to keep the page as is and ad marketing as it becomes appropriate. That matches what I would agree with.

    For Facebook, it was suggested to make a group page for your new work. This does sound good. or if the work you do is as a consultant or separate business entity (not an employee of a company), you could make a business page. Do keep in mind, though, that most people don't go to Facebook for business reasons, so excessive pushing of work stuff my cause people to unfriend or stop following you, reducing the value of Facebook. Even if they don;t, Facebook does use an algorithm to determine who sees what, and that takes in account how involved they are with you (how many of the links you send they open, how many they react to, etc.). So if your friends don't react to your posts, they will see less of them.
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