Translators (freelancers anyway) need to find work. How can they find work? Through developing contacts. Today social networking sites are one of the best means of developing these contacts.

There are many social networking sites that you could join to promote your translation business; these include sites like Twitter, Facebook and Flixter. However, there is only one social networking site which stands out for business use and that is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the only social networking site that has grown through more professionals connecting together than friends connecting.
The site was originally used as an insider’s approach for job posting and job searching, but in the last few years it has flourished into a community for all industry sectors and in 2008 its population increased significantly by gaining a vast international presence.

LinkedIn continues to be localized with over 5 million users in Europe and with several European languages now available it is becoming ever more popular in Europe and is now starting to gain popularity in Asia.

Due to LinkedIn’s success in localization, the site has become extremely popular with the language, translation and localization industry and is often used to place jobs, news updates, discuss industry trends, conduct surveys and ask/answer questions.

You can use it as a way to gain new information and build new connections to get your translation business noticed, below are a few tips to help you get the most out of LinkedIn:

•    Build your own personal profile for free and include as much information as you can, you will be asked to include your employment background, what your current employment is, your industry focus, your education and a picture.

•    You can gain recommendations on LinkedIn from other LinkedIn users; these will show up on your profile and can act as a testimonial to your work.

•    For your selected industry type your homepage will show you upcoming events, discussions and questions from other LinkedIn users in the same industry. This will help you to keep up to date with all the latest news in your selected industry.

•    Join network groups to help you connect with other professionals in the same industry as you, once you have joined a group you can then join in on all their discussions. This is a good way to show your knowledge in the industry and to gain new information from others.

Now that you have your LinkedIn profile up and running you can also expand your professional social networking presence by joining other sites like Twitter.

by +Steph Lyons

No related posts.