If you want to be known professionally, use a service for professionals. Bad design does not help your professional image. Social networking services such as Facebook and Myspace are not the best for your purposes. Most of these have a very unprofessional look and that could be damaging to your professional image.

Register on a professional networking site such as LinkedIn. This free service allows you to build your profile, find connections from your address book, and make and receive recommendations. I have been using this service since New Year’s and now have 29 direct connections — I even was able to make contact with some people who I hadn’t been able to find otherwise. I have received five recommendations from clients and associates.

Once you have entered some of your connections, then go back to your profile page to see happened to your information. When I did this, I saw that each of my connections have links to other people, the number of mine range from 1 (me) to an outstanding 182 for my associate Aaron Marcus, an expert on User Interface design.

The person who has the most connections wins in the networking game — here it is visible to the eye: the more connections your connections have, the more opportunities can come your way.

The recommendations other people have submitted for me enhance my reputation online. I try to network at events and parties. Anyone who may want to employ me for my expertise in public relations and communications will want to check my reputation before they hire me; all they have to do is check my Linked In address. There they can read my professional profile, see my photo, and read the recommendations from satisfied clients and associates that show me to be a professional who knows my field, has integrity and gets the job done.

— copyright 2008 Aliyah Marr