Creating an Online Identity - Part II

I recently created an account on a Professional Networking site called LinkedIn.com (http://www.linkedin.com/). Membership is free and entirely voluntary on the part of subscribers. A couple of coworkers told me about LinkedIn and encouraged me to join. So I signed up on LinkedIn and started to add several connections and contacts. During that time, I began to understand the site's real value to any prospective or working professional. Unlike many typical social networking sites, LinkedIn is geared entirely toward working professionals. LinkedIn may be used for any of the following purposes:

• Business deals
• Career opportunities
• Consulting offers
• Expertise requests
• Job inquiries
• New ventures
• Personal reference requests
• Requests to reconnect

The way LinkedIn works is by creating an account and generating a profile. While establishing a profile, the account holder decides what information to share, and which information is available to the public. The next steps involve adding "Connections" to the profile by sending and/or receiving requests to join a network of professional contacts. The network request completion process requires approval by the person receiving the invitation to join the network. Until accepted, only the public profile is displayed, and both email addresses remain hidden. This helps prevent spammers from collecting email addresses on the LinkedIn site, which is a good method for protecting sensitive subscriber information.

After adding connections for a couple of weeks, I am surprised by how fast my professional network grew. LinkedIn allows subscribers the ability to keep their name out in educational, professional, and public circles. In addition, subscribers can ask and answer questions amongst other professionals, find new business and job opportunities, or get back in touch with old classmates and colleagues, coworkers, and friends. LinkedIn supports group areas for past and present members of educational institutions, geographical region associations, special interest groups, and workplace affiliations to connect and interact. If the desire or need to contact an individual or organization arises, having a direct or indirect contact, through network connections, to that person or organization is a huge competitive advantage for any purpose.

LinkedIn is a wonderful resource for all professionals, and offers a bevy of useful tools and unlimited possibilities. Creating a LinkedIn account is well worth the time investment. For the aforementioned reasons, I made LinkedIn my first step in establishing my online identity.

Creating an Online Identity - Part I

Hello, my name is Matt Scheurer and I would like to welcome new visitors to my blog. For those that never heard of me before, or mostly knew me by name only, that was by design. I was perfectly content to quietly live out my life, and etch out an existence through hard work and professionalism alone. My personal life generally included family members and some long-time friends. Occasionally, I gained new friendships through people I met and grew to trust over time. My personal beliefs as a strong personal privacy advocate kept me from putting myself out in the public eye for most of my life.

Very recently, things began to change in my professional life. The changes in my professional life started to bleed over and affect my personal life. After much personal reflection and reevaluation, I concluded that I should implement changes in my life to achieve my own personal goals. Life brought me to a crossroad of choices and decisions, and for the fist time, I decided to try a different route than the path I knew. While preparing myself for new ventures, a longtime coworker decided to retire, and I attended their fare thee well party. While conversing, with a couple of other friends at the going away party, they encouraged me to create an online profile at LinkedIn.com. While I told my colleagues I would check out the site they recommended, I was secretly not enthusiastic about the prospect of joining a social networking site. As I created my online profile and added connections, I began to realize the value and power of knowing people and having a professional network of respected colleagues to validate my knowledge and work ethic.

My heart significantly shifted from where I was at the very beginning of the year, and the time for shaking things up is now. For too long, I preferred anonymity to acknowledgment. I settled for the serenity of a job well done instead of the spotlight. Had I not settled for mere contentment, which lead to complacency, my life would be more rewarding. While I cannot change the past, I took control of my current situation. I am improving my involvement in my public outreach each and every day. Now that I understand the beauty and power of establishing my name to the general public, I plan to make up for lost time.

My first series of blog posts are dedicated to my journey. I learned a lot in a very short period of time and continue to do so. My goal is documenting the steps along my journey. My greatest aspiration is that my story proves helpful or inspirational to anyone in a similar situation. My intention is writing weekly updates on different topics related to the steps for establishing an online identity and maintaining that presence. I am happy to share what I learn and I pray my efforts result in a positive impact for my readers.

Thank you again for visiting, and please allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Matt Scheurer, and I am a technologist on a mission to carve out a better life for myself, using the blessings and talents bestowed upon me.

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Matt Scheurer and I live in Lebanon, Ohio (between Cincinnati and Dayton) with my wife, Leah. Our family includes two cats, Gizmo and Tigger. I currently work at LexisNexis as a Technical Consultant in the Greater Dayton, Ohio area. When not at work, I enjoy working on computers, mixed computer networks, reading technical manuals and journals, learning new skills, and attending information technology seminars.

Aside from my technical endeavors, I also enjoy cooking, spending time with my family and friends, and watching movies. I am also an avid baseball fan, and go to a number of games every year.