William Reeve, Director, Reeve Communications Ltd

What do you do?

I work in strategic communications, in helping governments and other organizations with their overall communications.

What are your main objectives in using LinkedIn?

I find it a very positive way of making contacts I wouldn’t otherwise make.

I can make contact with some people I haven’t been in touch with for a long time. Also people have contacted me—specifically people who are looking for somebody working in strategic communications like myself—this has happened more since you helped me upgrade my LinkedIn profile. There are three specific companies who have contacted me through LinkedIn and I’ve been in touch with them since then.

What I tend to do on LinkedIn is to keep in touch—over the past ten years I’ve kept in touch with many colleagues whom I’ve met in the course of my work. And, although I haven’t applied proactively for projects, I get approached and invited to help with contracts or to carry them out, and as such LinkedIn as proved potentially extremely helpful.

How often do you login to or use LinkedIn?

Whenever I get the LinkedIn e-mails saying that someone has either left a message or recommended me, I look to check on these. Then about once a fortnight, I look at the people whom I may be interested in connecting to and I connect to those who I feel I would be happy to connect with me on LinkedIn.  By comparison, I don’t operate on Facebook proactively at all—it’s LinkedIn that I take much more seriously.

Who do you connect with and why?

I connect to people I’ve worked with before and who I’d like to keep in touch with, and with people who are dealing specifically in the fields I work in. I also connect with people in the various countries I’ve worked in who are involved in fields I might be able to help with.

Since our consultation, what has changed about the way you use LinkedIn?

I’m much more proactive about LinkedIn, because I’ve realized how it can help. Before our consultation I had a profile that was very short and brief—I didn’t get nearly the number of approaches I have had since then.

What advice would you give to others on using LinkedIn?

I’ve already put various people in touch with you!

To See William Reeve’s LinkedIn page click here or  below