LinkedIn: a sovereign individual's marketing weapon

The problem with today's society is that companies do too much marketing, and people -- ordinary people like you and me -- don't do enough marketing.

We don't do ANY marketing at all. I don't remember the last time I heard or saw a friend of mine on the radio, on television or in the newspaper, selling some product or service. Well, actually, I have a friend's who's an anchor for a television news show, but she's the only one who's "marketing" herself.

A NEW HOPE

LinkedIn allows people to do a bit of marketing, but very subtly.

People are wary of marketing messages, so you can't really go all out and shamelessly promote yourself. You have to do it gently and be smoooooth, real smooth about it (BTW, I'm giving calligraphy workshops, check it out here: http://freecalligraphycourse.blogspot.com)

But LinkedIn is not just a marketing tool. You can use it to drive your career development. How?

Focus on the four elements that Stephen Covey mentioned in his latest book, The 8th Habit. He says that to find your unique voice (or your unique career), you should determine the following four key elements:

• Talent: what is it that you do well (better than anyone else)?
• Passion: what are you truly passionate about?
• World's need: what is the need that you are serving?
• Conscience: what is most important to you? What is the right thing you wish to do?

If LinkedIn users check out your profile, and can see clear answers to the above questions, then you did a pretty good job of marketing yourself.