Jans calls her tablet 'my little laptop'. In her easy chair, under the lamp, she reads the digital Margriet and the Volkskrant. Every day Jans plays the game Angry Birds and on Mondays she solves a crossword puzzle. She immediately Googles the newfangled terms she hears on the radio and TV. "I didn't know a word like chillen." Afterwards Jans puts the 'little laptop' in the newspaper basket, near the socket with the charger. Jans has only just got her tablet, but she can no longer imagine life without it. "Boy, I'm still learning every day."
Jans is eighty-four, and she wants to know everything about social media. In her service flat, she serves tea with a speculaas biscuit. She collected her questions on the digital notepad of her tablet. During her daily wanderings on the internet, Jans keeps coming across profiles on LinkedIn. βThey look like brochures in which people advertise themselves,β she says, and I agree with her. That is indeed what it looks like, and that is how people use it. A profile on LinkedIn is a CV, a Curriculum Vitae, but LinkedIn is not directly intended to help you get a job or assignment.
LinkedIn shows who you are, what you have done and where they can find you. You can use LinkedIn to maintain a connection with colleagues. Sometimes you have something in common, and that is nice to know. Through your network you can come into contact with connections of connections. A huge number of people, experts, are suddenly available to answer your questions. LinkedIn connects.
Creating an account on LinkedIn is as simple as it seems. But if you do it, do it right. And that can't be done in an afternoon. Start by studying the accounts of your peers. Are they understandable? Is their language flawless? If not, show that you are better. If so, take a good look and learn from them. You can download a free step-by-step plan via the internet in no time. Another tip: in the world of LinkedIn you belong if you have more than 500 contacts. And 99+ endorsements. So there's work to be done.
Jans is satisfied with my explanation. She carefully puts 'the little laptop' back in its place. She asks why I'm smiling. I tell her that the tablet in her newspaper bin has as much power as the Cray-2 Supercomputer that was introduced with a drum roll in 1986.