LinkedIn launched in 2003 and is currently the third most popular (behind Facebook and Twitter) social network in terms of unique monthly visitors. It is an online social network designed for business professionals. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.
As a job seeker LinkedIn is a powerful tool and an overhaul of your profile is a very worthwhile exercise. I have listed some tips below to make your profile stand out from the crowd. With more than 380 million members in 200+ countries, LinkedIn should not be overlooked as a professional network.
Social Media Like LinkedIn Defines Modern Recruitment
Put in the time to complete your profile - the more complete your profile is, the more likely you are to be found by an employer or recruiter. Once complete keep it up to date – it will make sure people can find you and help you find more relevant potential contacts.
Don’t waste the summary space – your summary should be about 3 paragraphs long and highlight your key skills and unique qualifications. Make it interesting and engage your audience in a story about yourself, this is what people remember.
Treat your Profile like it is your Resume and then some – make it clear and concise and list your responsibilities and achievements but also add some non-resume language and tell a story about yourself and your experience. You can use LinkedIn to showcase everything that doesn’t fit into your resume.
Customise your public profile URL – make your personal profile more professional (and easier to share) by customizing your LinkedIn profile URL. The URL that LinkedIn automatically creates has lots of numbers at the end and is confusing. For instructions on customizing your URL click here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/87/customizing-your-public-profile-url?lang=en - so it looks like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/your_name
Share relevant, professional and interesting content highlighting your industry.
Avoid making negative comments about former work places or colleagues.
Use appropriate keywords in your headline, summary and profile – relevant to your industry.
Don’t avoid making connections – a lonely profile with no connections doesn’t help you broaden your reach on LinkedIn.
Join groups that relate to your area of expertise and share knowledge relevant to your industry. Did you know that if you’re a member of the same group as another user, you can bypass the need to be a first-degree connection in order to message them? As long as you’ve been a member of LinkedIn for at least 30 days and a member of the particular group for at least 4 days, LinkedIn allows you to send up to 15 free 1:1 messages to fellow group members per month (across all groups you belong to). Don’t spam and promote yourself over and over again, take the time to add value to the group and that value will come back to you.
Add projects, volunteer work or languages you speak to your profile.
Get some recommendations – you can’t write your own or edit ones that have been written about you but you can decide which ones to publish on your profile. They are like mini snapshots of professional endorsement that can enhance your profile. It might feel awkward to ask someone to write something about you. Asking people who know you well enough to recommend you is a good place to start and will make the request valid and then also valuable. A good time to ask someone is when you have been given a compliment or have done something outstanding.
Get endorsed for your skills and manage your endorsements. You can customize the order they appear on your profile or if they appear at all. Add, remove and rearrange sections as needed.
Connect with people you know and those you would like to know. When you do send a request to add someone to your network make sure you personalize it. You have the option to include a personal note – include it! Let the connection know why you made contact with them. The standard default line: “ I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” is very impersonal.
Turn off the “Notify your network” section so that your whole network does not get an update every time you make a small change to your profile. If this is set to “on” your network will be notified each time you add or delete something from your profile.
