5 Steps To Grow Your LinkedIn Network In Just 15 Minutes A Week

Post Author: Mic Johnson

If you’re like most people on LinkedIn, one area you can improve on is increasing the number of quality connections you have. The good news is that if you follow the 5 simple steps I’ve outlined below for just 15 minutes a week, you will quickly grow your LinkedIn connections and develop a robust network you can be proud of!

The benefits of developing and nurturing a quality network can’t be overstated. Your network may help you if you’re in sales and want to leverage trusted relationships to get a foot in the door. It may help you find your next career. It may help you find a vendor to help you or your company. If you or your company start blogging, it also provides an audience to share your content with.

Growing your LinkedIn network with quality connections can do nothing but help you and your career. Completing these simple steps will make that a reality sooner rather than later.

1. Add A Recurring, Weekly 15 Minute Appointment To Your Calendar.

Go to your Outlook, Google or other electronic calendar and create a recurring weekly, 15 minute calendar appointment that says “Add LinkedIn Connections”. Schedule it on a day and time you will commit to each week.  

2. Log in to LinkedIn and go to “People You May Know”.

“People You May Know” appears in the upper right hand side of your LinkedIn home page.



Steps 3-5 and the complete BlueGurus article

10 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Boost Your Career

As far as I'm concerned, LinkedIn is the single greatest networking tool in the world - ever. The problem is, not everyone knows how to use it to their advantage. Of all the people I've talked to about LinkedIn, most acknowledge that they're a member but only a handful are actually getting value out of the networking website. Most signed up because a friend sent them an invite and haven't really given it a second thought since. The reality is, with more than 20 million business professionals on LinkedIn, you're missing out on countless business opportunities and the chance to build long-lasting relationships. Here are ten ways to get the ball rolling.

2. Increase Your Visibility Every minute LinkedIn is used a resource to find qualified people to hire or do business with. By adding the right keywords in your profile (such as the words someone would probably use to search for someone with your expertise) you're much more likely to appear at the top of search results. My LinkedIn profile is a good example of this (note all of the references to the areas of writing I specialize in): http://www.linkedin.com/in/logankugler 

3. Grow Your Network Fast Expanding the size of your network is a snap. Aside from being able to easily import your entire address book from most email clients and automatically view who is a LinkedIn member, you can search for other members by companies you used to work for, people you used to work with, and people who went to school with you. In order to use LinkedIn to its full potential, you should have at least 50 first degree connections. 

See all 10 ways and the complete TechCareers article

10 Tips For Giving Your LinkedIn Profile A Facelift

Maintaining your online presence is more important than ever. If you want to be taken seriously by employers, clients, and other professional contacts, you NEED to give your LinkedIn profile a facelift.

LinkedIn profile looking old and stale these days? Here are ten tips for giving your LinkedIn profile a much-needed facelift (no Botox required!):

4. Spice up your work experience by peppering in numbers.

Quantify, quantify, quantify! You want to quantify your experience whenever you can. People like to see numbers. They like to see results, not just tasks.
Here’s an example:

• Managed team of 7 employees at CAREEREALISM Media
• Managed monthly writing accounts for 20+ paid contributors
• Selected, created, edited, optimized, scheduled, and published 30+ articles per week
• Created, implemented, and managed 2+ major content initiatives annually, notable initiatives including the Happy Grad Project, which featured 35+ top career experts and acquired 4,500 new email subscribers within 30 days.

See how that conveys results? Try it with your own work experience!

9. Don’t forget about the Honors & Awards section!

Have you received any professional honors or awards? Showcase them! These are especially helpful if they relate to your major projects.
For example, if you received an award at your job for a great project, make sure you showcase both the project and the award on your LinkedIn profile. It helps back up your skills and expertise in that area.

See all 10 tips and the complete Careerealism article

3 Things Your LinkedIn Summary MUST Say

by Jewel Bracy DeMaio

Your LinkedIn summary is 2,000 characters of prime real estate to genuinely differentiate yourself among the three million member online community.

1) Make it personal.

Before you even get to the details of the work, show yourself to be a human being interested in a genuine human connection. The interviewer is not a criminal investigator, and you are not sitting under the hot police lights. It’s not an adversarial relationship, but a collaborative one. The interviewer is looking to support and advance his organization’s goals, and so are you – that’s what you have in common.

Find additional areas of mutual interest by researching the person interviewing you. Nearly everyone has an online presence in social media. Perhaps you’ll come across a personal blog and discover you share a hobby or pastime. Another possibility is uncovering the interviewer’s whitepapers and articles about the future direction of the company or the industry at large.

2) “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”

The days of the printed newspaper are (almost) over. However, the concept still holds true: find out news about the company and weave that into your interview. This strategy is far superior to looking at the company’s website, which likely doesn’t keep up with the news. Furthermore, most of your competitors are merely relying on the “about us” and “company history” pages.

Search Google news to see what the business is working on, about to launch, or just delivered that won industry recognition. In the interview, use what you’ve discovered to speak to the company’s pain points and hot buttons. Align your particular brand of skills and expertise with the priorities in the organization right now.

3) Be the man (or woman) with a plan. - Read How to Be The Man / Woman and the complete Careerealism article

How to get the most out of your LinkedIn recommendations

By Lisa Quast

The use of technology has changed not only the way we do business, but also the job-search process. Today, many job seekers are foregoing formal letters of recommendation and instead are asking for recommendations they can include on their LinkedIn profile.

Before you begin soliciting LinkedIn recommendations, take a deep breath and get strategic in your efforts. What’s important to recruiters and hiring managers isn’t the number of recommendations, it’s the quality that counts. For example, one of my clients was excited to show me that she had obtained a recommendation on her LinkedIn profile:

Recommendation (co-worker): “Brittany is fabulous and I really enjoyed working with her at ABC Company.”

The problem? The recommendation was too short and didn’t include specific information that would be helpful to a recruiter or hiring manager. The best way to get high-quality LinkedIn recommendations is to treat them similarly to obtaining formal recommendation letters:

See what the solution is, the results, and the complete Seattle Times article

10 Places To Promote Your LinkedIn Profile

by Cheryl Simpson

Think of your LinkedIn profile as the hub of your online identity. All of your online content should lead to your profile, and your profile’s purpose is to guide readers to call you or request your resume.

When you think of your LinkedIn profile this way, you’ll see why it’s critical to secure a custom URL for yours if you don’t already have one. You can achieve this at no cost by logging in to LinkedIn and navigating to Settings > Edit Public Profile > Create Custom URL.

Once you have a custom LinkedIn URL, what do you do with it? How can you share it with others to help drive traffic to your profile and interest to your resume?

1. Your Email Signature File

Arguably the most important place to include your LinkedIn URL is in the signature file of your email host. This feature can be accessed from your email system’s settings page. Note that I’m speaking of your dedicated job search and career management email address here, not your employer, business, or personal email account.

• The simplest email signature is your name, of course, but if you’re using this email for job search and career management purposes it really should contain more information such as:
  • A title or positioning statement
  • A tagline or power statement
  • Your personal contact information
  • Your LinkedIn URL along with links to other key social networking sites.
  • A link to your blog or Twitter stream, if pertinent and appropriate.
  • You may wish to consider including a photo.
• A great app to use to create a good-looking email signature is Wisestamp.

2. Your Bio Or Marketing Brief

Because resumes are highly specific and focused tools these days and are generally highlighting your qualifications for a specific role rather than a range of possible positions, they aren’t effective networking documents anymore. Bios or marketing briefs are better suited for networking purposes (a bio presents a third-person narrative description of your brand and career story, while a marketing brief provides a richer array of information about your candidacy, impacts, and goals). Most job seekers will need one or the other, not necessarily both.

• Since the task of either of these documents is to lead the reader to learn more about you, it’s appropriate to include your LinkedIn profile URL. It can be embedded as a link or listed in full address form.
• You can also insert a QR code leading to your profile.

3. Your Business Card

Depending on your job search geographic targets, you may or may not need to do local or regional face-to-face networking as part of your search. If you are, consider making or securing a business card not affiliated with your current or most recent employer.

• Use a positioning title that echoes the one used in your LinkedIn profile headline.
• Include all of your contact information along with URLs to social networking profiles, including LinkedIn.
• You can use a QR code which leads readers to your LinkedIn profile if you like, though I would also recommend listing your URL in non-QR code form as well, since many folks do not have a QR reader or functionality.
• Don’t forget to highlight your core competencies and career brand on your business card as well.

Places 4-10 and the complete Careerealism article

Creative Ways to Use LinkedIn in Your Job Search

Part one:  Look into Career Paths, Research People and Follow Companies

Are you guilty of logging in to LinkedIn to just look at people’s profile pictures, check out the latest updates and browse? Not to worry, you are not alone. In my experience in career consulting many people tell me they have LinkedIn accounts but have no idea what to do on the site.  People tend to grossly underestimate the value of actively engaging on LinkedIn. Most use LinkedIn to search for jobs and network with others. I advise all my clients, if they are in the job market, to log on to LinkedIn several times a week, if not daily. With millions of users LinkedIn is an awesome place to gain information about career paths, skill sets and industry news!

How to discover career paths:

To learn about career paths on LinkedIn

• Search your connections for people who are doing what you aspire to do and review their profiles.
• Read their profile in reverse to determine what they did prior to their current job. This will help you see how they attained their current position.
• Make note of what qualifications they have, the keywords used in their profile and what types of activities they’ve been involved with.

While everyone’s career path will be different, use this approach to gather ideas for new ways to find the job you seek.

If you do not have any connections with people who hold positions which you aspire to, search for new connections in relevant industry specific groups. LinkedIn has a fantastic “groups feature” which provides a place for industry professionals or people with similar interests to discuss business, share content, ask/ answer each other’s questions and sometimes post jobs. If you join the right groups, you could learn about industry trends, and have current information about the industry for which you are interviewing. This will aid you in arriving to your interview prepared to discuss the work and ask good questions.

Research People and Follow Companies:

Another best practice for using LinkedIn while job searching is to follow companies which you plan to (or desire to) interview with to research the company. This is a strategy I have personally employed, here’s why:

• Companies will often share different information on their LinkedIn Company page than what is presented on their website.
• You can also see their current and former employees and read company status updates.
• Prior to the interview, find out whom you’re interviewing with
  • review their profile on LinkedIn

Most people go to interviews with no information about who they will be meeting; while the prospective employer has read your resume and likely Googled you. With the access that LinkedIn provides, this should no longer be the case. Go into the interview armed with a little knowledge about what led your interviewer to their current position.  You may even have a few shared connections!  Use the information you find about your interviewer to “break the ice”.  Should you make it to the second or third round of interviews this will prove to be helpful as you will be introduced to more people at-varied levels within the company. If possible, make a habit of finding out who you will be speaking with and get to know each person that will interview you.

LinkedIn is an invaluable tool that could be used to give you leverage as you job search, network or consider learning a new skill or career.  When using the site, think of it as a free career counselor with endless information, right at your fingertips!

Part Two: Learn Skills and Read the News  - Read about Part Two and the complete Simply Hired article

The World's Best Tips for Rocking Your LinkedIn Job Search

By Scott Dockweiler

We've said it before and we'll say it again—a LinkedIn profile is up there with a resume and cover letter in job search must-haves for our day and age.

But while making a profile is a great first step, it won't do you much good in your job search unless you know how to leverage it. So this week, we've scoured the web for some of the best advice on maximizing LinkedIn's potential to land you a job.

To start, read up on these 12 helpful ideas for getting more out of LinkedIn. (12 Most)

Understand the tactics recruiters use on LinkedIn in order to plan out your strategy. (U.S. News)

Learn which type of profile photo works best to attract recruiters. (LinkedIn Talent Blog)

5 more tips / resources and the complete TheMuse article

5-Step Quick Guide For Getting Started On LinkedIn

by Ariella Coombs

If you’ve never been on LinkedIn before, it can be a little overwhelming. That’s why we created a 5-Step Quick Guide for getting started on LinkedIn – Take a look:

Step 1: Update Your Resume

The first step is to make sure your actual resume is updated. Once you’ve done that, then you can transfer the data to your LinkedIn Profile.

Need help updating your resume? Here are a few articles that can help:

•  The 10 Key Components Of A Great Resume
• 20 Powerful Action Verbs To Kick Your Resume Up A Notch
• Make Your Resume Stand Out – More Numbers, Fewer Words

If you need further help with your resume, consider looking into a professional resume writer.

Step 2: Change Your Privacy Settings

Your resume is done – great! Now, it’s time to start adding information to your LinkedIn Profile. Before you add anything, make sure you change your Privacy Settings so your profile activity isn’t visible until you’re done filling out your profile. You don’t want your connections seeing every single change you make to your profile!

Need help with this? Visit LinkedIn Help for more information.

See all 5 steps and the complete Careerealism article

The 5 Latest LinkedIn Features You Should Start Using Today

William Arruda

The folks at LinkedIn are busy. They are rolling out refinements and new features at an unprecedented rate. Staying on top of these opportunities is the key to staying on top of your online personal branding. If you want your profile to stand out, start using my five favorite LinkedIn upgrades.

3. Profile Rank. LinkedIn now shows you how you rank among your connections based on the total number of profile views. It shows you rank among “professionals like you,” people in your company” and “your 1st-level connections.” This can help you understand who in your network is generating the most interest, and it will give you a feel for how you measure up against your network connections who are your peers or competitors. It also gives you an excuse to reach out to those in your network by congratulating them on their rank. If you are looking to make LinkedIn an important part of your personal branding communications plan (and you should!), you can use this to measure the impact of your status updates, long-form blog posts (see number 5 below) and posts/comments to groups. One easy way to increase profile views is to add a LinkedIn button to your email signature. Here’s how.

5. LinkedIn Publishing Platform. The opportunity to publish your content on LinkedIn is rolling out to all members. You no longer need to be an official LinkedIn Influencer to make your content visible. Once you have been granted access to this feature, you’ll be able to create and post long-form content (in addition to your brief status updates). All you need to do is click the edit icon in the “share an update” box on your homepage. When you mouse over it, you will see “create a post,” and LinkedIn will guide you from there. Your posts will appear in your profile. High-quality, relevant posts are organically distributed through feedback such as views, likes, comments, and shares. Your post may even make it into LinkedIn Pulse, which uses an algorithm that matches the right content with the right professional. You can view stats related to all of your posts to determine their relative popularity.

See all 5 features and the complete Forbes article

How to Stalk / Research Silently on LinkedIn

by Jo Saunders

When we view a LinkedIn Profile we leave a digital footprint behind, but did you know you have some control over the visibility of that footprint?

Before you make any changes, the default setting on a Profile is public and transparent. This setting means you leave a mark when looking at a Profile, this shows up in the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” section.

There are arguments for an against being transparent, and in most cases I do believe in showing that you are looking, but there are reasons to go into what one of my clients called ‘Stalker Mode’.  So if you were preparing for a meeting with a prospective client, looking at his Profile openly, shows you have done your research and are interested in knowing more.  On the other hand if you were sussing out a competitor, you may not want them to know.

Go to your account settings (via  your icon at the top right of the LinkedIn window) and select ‘Privacy and Settings’, then ‘Select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile’.


There are three modes to choose from; -  See the three modes and read the rest of the article

21 Steps To The Perfect LinkedIn Profile

by Melonie Dodaro

The key to your success on LinkedIn begins with a powerful and professional presence.  You must strategically write your profile with your ideal client in mind before you start connecting to maximize the impact of your first impression online.

I’ve outlined 21 different key points that I believe are important to fully optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Follow these 21 steps and you will have much greater success with LinkedIn!
Go to this link to see the profile used in the examples below.

LinkedIn Training: How To Create A LinkedIn Profile In 21 Steps

3. Your Headline Should Be Catchy & Have Keywords You Want To Be Found For – Create a headline that captures your target market’s attention to encourage them to check out your profile.


4. Connect With At Least 501 People – The reason I suggest this is because LinkedIn will show how many connections you have until you hit 500. People like to connect with “connected” people.

10. Write In First Person – Your LinkedIn profile is not your resume so make sure you are always writing in first person.

16. Keyword Load Your Current & Past Work History – Notice how in my profile I used keywords like “Social media speaker” and “social media trainer”.  These are some of the keywords I want to be found for.

See all 21 steps and the complete article

25 Resources To Help You Get Your LinkedIn Game On

From Cincy Recruiter

I'm an avid and daily user of LinkedIn and I'm always seeking to learn more about how to use it effectively for building relationships, networking, job search, recruiting, personal branding and business development. I also enjoy sharing what I've learned with others and regularly speak to groups, associations and corporate clients about how to use LinkedIn. At those events, I typically provide attendees a LinkedIn Resource sheet to take home. I'm in the process of updating my Resources sheet for 2009, and I thought I'd share the links that were provided over the past year with you. So here you go:

Why You Should Use LinkedIn:
Read All The Reasons You Should Be Using Linkedin And How -
http://www.cincyrecruiter.com/cincy_recruiter/2009/01/25-resources-to-help-you-understand-how-to-use-linkedin.html

Get Connected, Not Rejected, With Your LinkedIn Invitations

Des Walsh

No one likes rejection.

So why do so many LinkedIn users actually invite rejection instead of connection, by using one or other of LinkedIn’s pre-set, canned, boilerplate invitations, such as “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn?”

Anyone who is new to LinkedIn could be excused for thinking it is acceptable to use those pre-set formulas. But once we’ve been using the network for a while and receive one of those invitations, we are likely to assume that the sender is doing an impersonal, batch invitation to everyone on a mailing list.

Which means we are more likely to ignore or decline the invitation than to accept it.

Think about the LinkedIn invitations you’ve received lately. What proportion were genuinely personal? Did the boilerplate ones excite you? Or did most or all of those just leave you mystified and disinclined to know more?

The way I see it, it’s as if we were saying “Yes, I’m sending this invitation, but I couldn’t be bothered taking a few minutes to write something personal, so you are just getting the bog standard, boilerplate version. Take it or leave it.”

So for the want of a bit of care to craft something personal, the sender has in effect invited rejection not connection.

The Challenge of Making it Personal

All the experts will tell you to personalize your invitation.

But what does that mean? What’s the right way to invite? What do you say? Especially for someone who is not already a close friend or colleague?

And if you want to build a suitably large network, i.e. large enough to have serious reach, aren’t you going to run out of ideas for being personal?

The fact is, not everyone feels confident of consistently writing attractive, genuinely personal invitations off the top of their head. And if you are sending out a lot of invitations the challenge becomes that much greater.

The good news is that if you can find a way to make it personal and not have that be so difficult that you won’t do it, you will immediately stand out from all the people (and they are many) using the boring old boilerplate.

That can only enhance your prospects of being connected, not rejected.

But let’s face it, not everyone feels creative when they sit down to send invitations.
So if we could have a system of inviting, a system that could be actually used, happily, by any LinkedIn user, no matter how creative or uncreative they feel, we would need something that was simple, easy to remember, and wouldn’t need special skill or training to use.

The system would also need to be flexible, so as to accommodate the different levels of association (or lack of it) we have had with each person we are inviting.

I looked everywhere for such a system, on the web, on LinkedIn expert groups, in multiple blog posts, in books on LinkedIn and found a mountain of advice on being personal in our invitations.
But I did not find anything simple or particularly easy to remember.

Which is why I created my simple, three option formula for LinkedIn invitations.

My Simple, Fun Formula for Invitations - See the Formula, examples, and the complete SocialMediaToday article

6 Steps to Find an “In” at Your Dream Company with LinkedIn

By Jenny Foss

You’ve heard the reports. Employers today are leaning more heavily than ever on their own employees to help them find and recruit exceptional talent. Why? Because in many instances, it’s faster, cheaper and, at least in theory, more likely to result in a hire who excels in the job and aligns well with the culture of the hiring company.

This is promising and cool news for those among us who seem to know everyone and aren’t afraid to ask our people to serve as an “in” for a dream job. But what about those of us who don’t know many people? Who are moving to a new city, changing careers, or just, well, aren’t dazzling extroverts?
How do you get in that pool of people who, in all likelihood, will be considered first, instead of having to tromp your way in with the herd of others via an online application?

Strap on your gumption, folks, we’re about to get down with a little networking here. You want to be in the “in” club? Well, then, you’ve got show up for the game. You’ve got to find someone at that company you adore, and quickly (and non-offensively) endear yourself to him or her.
Here are six steps to cultivating your “in” at a company of interest.

Step 1: Race Over to the Search Box on LinkedIn

We have no better tool available to us to help us find people working for the very companies we’d like to join than LinkedIn. So, take advantage of it!
Key the company of interest’s name into the search box and, when the results come up, refine the search by checking the box that only shows you people currently working at that company.
If you have a 1st degree connection, you’re in business. Contact your person and ask for an introduction. (Here’s how.)

Step 2: Assuming You Don’t Have a 1st Degree Connection, Try For a 2nd

If you don’t have a 1st degree connection, that's OK: Your 2nd degree connections can be equally valuable. When you discover that you’ve got a 2nd degree connection to someone working at your dream company, simply contact you shared connection (your 1st degree connection), ask him how well he knows this person, and see if he’d be willing to introduce you. (And here’s how you do that!)

Steps 3-6 and the complete TheMuse post

LinkedIn Launches Sales Navigator As Stand-Alone App

 For The Dedicated Salesman, A Powerful New Tool

In a world where interpersonal contact occurs primarily online, even more so in the world of business relations, it is easy enough to forget that the foundation of successful enterprise is the building of real relationships with both associates and customers.

LinkedIn’s latest move is a reminder of this. Last week they launched Sales Navigator as a stand-alone app, a tool designed for salespeople to take advantage of the professional social network’s 316 million members. While LinkedIn built its reputation as a recruiting tool, this move demonstrates an intention to become an essential aspect of all strata of business.  The question then becomes whether this development is a genuinely useful tool or simply another way for the company to encourage people to subscribe to their premium service.

In the ever-expanding world of globalised business it is not enough to be, in the words of Willy Loman, simply ‘well liked.’ One must be connected, and to see the potential avenue of new connection in every professional relationship. This is perhaps the most useful aspect of Sales Navigator: it leverages its vast database of employee information to let users know whether they have an existing connection with a potential sales lead. It will, for example, let you know whether anyone at your company is connected with anyone at a company you are targeting.

Read the rest of the SocialMediaFrontiers article

4 Ways LinkedIn Publishing Can Help Your Job Search

By Lauren Riley

When you think of job seeking using social media, what is the first network that pops into your head? If you didn’t think of LinkedIn immediately, then you’re probably in the minority. The professional network is a great tool that recruiters and job seekers use to look for candidates and jobs respectively.

There’s loads of ways you can use LinkedIn to your benefit during your job search, but now there’s a new feature that can really make you stand out from the job-seeking crowd and show off your expertise.

I’m talking about LinkedIn Publishing. The social network has been providing a publishing platform to its global influencers since 2012, but announced in February this year that they were rolling out the feature to all LinkedIn users. (If you haven’t been invited to publish yet, you can apply for it here if you have an existing LinkedIn profile.)

This is great news to professional bloggers who now have an extra platform for their content, but how could it benefit you during your job search? Here are four ways it will!

1.) Show Off Your Expertise

The best way you can use LinkedIn Publishing is to write articles about the industry you’re looking to get a job in. Not only will this showcase your knowledge, it will also show off your writing skills and your ability to communicate – great soft skills to possess!

Another great thing about LinkedIn Publishing is that your connections get a notification whenever you publish a post, meaning that if you’re connected to a lot of recruiters, you and your posts are always on their radar!

3.) Grow Your Reputation
It goes without saying that recruiters and hiring managers are more likely to go with the candidate that has the best possible reputation, and this is yet another perk of using LinkedIn Publishing to its full potential. As long as you’re creating consistently high-quality content, which gets people talking, you’re already on your way to building a good reputation.

Also, it’s not just LinkedIn users that will see your content. Depending on the type of keywords used and the amount of views and engagement your post receives, these LinkedIn posts can gain search engine traffic, giving yourself an even better change of growing your reputation outside of the boundaries of the LinkedIn site – exposing your personal brand to recruiters off-site.

Read all 4 ways and the complete B2C article

6 Tips for Writing Successful LinkedIn Articles

Amanda DiSilvestro

Back in February, publishing articles on LinkedIn was the hot topic. LinkedIn had finally opened up their publishing platform to all users, which would help them showcase content and improve their credibility. Unfortunately, many are still having trouble making this option really work and getting that visibility that every article needs to thrive.

LinkedIn is a great place to publish articles, it just isn't a great place to publish any old article you have lying around. You should have a strategy and consider what types of content work best for LinkedIn if you really want to find success.

How to Write Articles that Will Succeed on LinkedIn

LinkedIn sends nearly four times more people to your homepage than Twitter and Facebook, according to a report on Buffer App. It doesn't necessarily win when it comes to the social sharing of your stories, but it does when talking about direct traffic to your site. In other words, the benefits of publishing here are worth your while.

A few tips for writing for LinkedIn include:

1. Pick Topics the LinkedIn Audience Wants to Read

It's a good rule of thumb to write what you know, but people tend to forget that sometimes what they "know" doesn't quite fit in with the LinkedIn demographics. If you have a very successful gossip blog, that doesn't necessarily mean that your great story about Lindsay Lohan's move to London is going to succeed. For some, LinkedIn actually isn't the right platform.

The same can be said for those who are trying to simply copy and paste a blog post that they have already written. Although LinkedIn's algorithm won't hurt you just yet, this could hurt you if the voice and tone of the post isn't right for social. LinkedIn's audience is typically professionals (which is why a gossip column might not be your best bet), but it's still a social network where people want an opportunity to engage and learn something as opposed to reading the news.

2. Publish Posts Once Per Week and Be Consistent

There is no evidence yet if the frequency that you post articles has anything to do with your chances of being displayed on someone's network updates, but most are following past influencers' once-per-week routine.

You want to make sure you're consistently publishing in order to build a following, but putting too much out there could be overwhelming and hurt your chances of success. Again this isn't proven, but based on the success of past influencers the once-per-week rule seems to be a good one to follow.

3. Try to Limit Your Posts to 800 Words

Again, remembering the platform where you're publishing is key. People who are reading articles on LinkedIn are usually looking for something quick, informative and/or entertaining. If they wanted a long-form article or were trying to research something thoroughly, LinkedIn probably wouldn't be the first place they would check.

Tips 4-6 and the complete SearchEngineWatch article

6 Recruiter-Recommended LinkedIn Tips

by Kyra Mancine

Many recruiters and staffing managers rely on LinkedIn extensively when sourcing candidates. Whether you're employed or looking for a job, keeping your profile up-to-date is important. Maximize your profile, target your activity and you WILL get noticed.


1) Make the most of stealth mode. If you're updating your profile and DON'T want people to see every change you make, go into settings and click on "Turn on/off your activity broadcasts." This is highly recommended if you're employed and looking for new opportunities. It can look suspicious to your current employer and colleagues if they start to see you making additions to your page.

5) Make your status updates count.  Don't be "me" focused. Even though your LinkedIn page is obviously about you, it's better to offer your connections information that's relevant to THEM. You don't have to create the content yourself. Search Google and Yahoo for industry articles, career related content, etc. Don't be controversial. Safe topics can include workplace satisfaction, how to be more productive during the day, interview advice, etc. Remember, any time one of your connections comments and likes your status update, all their connections see it as well.


See all 6 tips and the complete Social-Hire post



Kyra Mancine is a member of the recruiting team at Oldcastle, North America’s largest manufacturer and distributor of building products and materials. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for career and job search advice, as well as job opportunities. We're here to help!

4 Keys To Scoring Amazing LinkedIn Recommendations

The Muse

How do we as humans make purchase decisions? In large part, we make them based on social proof.

What do others say about this product or that? Does someone we admire and trust rave on and on about it? Think for a moment about Yelp. How many times have you gone right over to Yelp.com—not company websites—before trying out a restaurant, a new hair stylist, or a resume writer?

My guess is plenty. You do this because you want to see what others are saying, and you’re going to base your decisions, at least in part, on these reviews.


The same exact thing goes on with hiring decisions. The “consumer” in this case is a hiring manager, recruiter, or HR person. Only, they’re not looking on Yelp; they’re over on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn recommendations provide you with the perfect opportunity to share third party endorsements—or social proof—of your talents with people trying to make purchase (in this case, hiring) decisions.

Don’t squander this opportunity.


Instead, follow these tips to score some amazing, relevant LinkedIn recommendations.

1. Find the “Ask to Be Recommended” Page
I’m not being a smart aleck. If you’ve never asked anyone for a LinkedIn recommendation, you may not even know how to find the page.

Here’s what to do: Hover over the tiny picture of yourself in the top right corner of the screen, and choose “Privacy & Settings.” From this screen, choose “Manage Your Recommendations” and then “Ask for Recommendations.”

2. Pick People Thoughtfully

This is no time to be willy-nilly with your requests. Your goal is to secure powerful recommendations that support your professional brand (more on that here) and the skills you most want to highlight. Ideally, you want to approach people who know your work well and can speak intelligently to the capabilities that will matter the most to your future employer.

Keys 3,4, and the complete Forbes article

How to Use LinkedIn Publisher to Get More Visibility

By Viveka von Rosen

Do you want more visibility on LinkedIn?

Are you using the new LinkedIn publishing platform?

Publishing content on LinkedIn Publisher can give your content and your reputation a boost.

In this article I’ll share the best practices for publishing your posts to LinkedIn for more visibility.

Why Use Publisher?

Posting articles to LinkedIn with Publisher makes the content searchable by keyword in LinkedIn’s post search box.

What you need to know for more visibility on LinkedIn with Publisher.

It’s a great way to showcase your knowledge and expertise in any given area, and that’s a big part of content marketing!

Beyond visibility in search, both your connections AND your followers see your published posts just like on Facebook.

If your post is viewed enough times, it’ll get picked up by LinkedIn’s newsreader, Pulse. At that point, you’ll get exponential views, comments and shares.

Your Publisher post can be picked up by Pulse.

Here’s a quick example showing just how powerful LinkedIn Publisher can be.

Wendy McClelland wrote an article called, “Why I Say NO to Coffee Meetings.” On LinkedIn Publisher, that single article got almost 60,000 views, 2,100 shares on LinkedIn, 515 comments, 218 Facebook likes and 93 tweets. I don’t know about you—but that’s usually more visibility then I get on my own blog!

This one article generated huge results for its author.

Wendy’s results?

• Over 10,000 views in two hours after being published
• The article has also been republished on over 60 other sites/blogs
• Over 150 new connections
• 2 radio interviews
• 2 new coaching clients
• Numerous joint venture offers
• 2 speaking gigs and a number of other future dates to be booked

Here’s how you can get started on Publisher and reap some of these rewards for yourself.

Read the rest of the Social Media Examiner article

Breakthrough Tips for a Sexy LinkedIn Profile

I'm hoping the click bait title worked...
There is actually some good advice in the article...

BY - Rosa E. Vargas, Resume Branding Strategist

Transform your LinkedIn profile into an inviting, influential, and irresistible digital communication tool. C’mon…I know you can. Then watch your profile views and invitations to connect triple!

Visual presence matters because it is true that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. With prospective employers and clients navigating the sea of online social networking profiles, it is important to carefully frame your brand’s presentation. Don’t you think?

LET’S BEGIN WITH THE MATTER OF YOUR MUG. IT IS MORE THAN A HEADSHOT — IT’S ABOUT YOUR BRAND!

Contrary to what your friends might have told you -- no, your LinkedIn picture isn’t great.

If you’re not in professional or business casual attire, it’s not good!

If the picture is too dark or there are other faces in the background, it’s not good enough!

If you’re not nicely polished and if the picture is more than five years old—it definitely isn’t good!

Please make sure you’re up to snuff. Your LinkedIn headshot is not something to take lightly. Here are excellent tips, which will help you glam it up at your next photo shoot:

• Color Choices. Avoid patterns; select solid colors that complement your skin tone. What colors do others always like to see you in? That color you wear that stops folks in their tracks and they say, “That is your color!”

Recommendations: People with fair skin and light eyes look great in blues, pinks, and pastels. People with darker complexion should try brighter clothing such as white and warm colors, staying away from colors that match skin tone. By the way, black and white headshots are still very sexy! And, almost everyone looks great in black—just be sure the background offers enough contrast.

• Industry Relevance. Remember your target market. Choose clothing you are comfortable wearing and that is on-brand with your value offer and acceptable in your industry. For example, if you are a CFO you might want to wear conservative attire. As a Life Coach, you can exude a more relaxed demeanor by choosing more casual clothing. As an Executive Chef, brandishing your chef coat would be completely on brand.
  
• Radiate Health and Happiness. Drink lots of water before your photo shoot. Water will help your skin look vibrant and will help reduce dark circles. Get a little closer to the camera and smile. Close-ups are welcoming. Remember that it’s about making a connection.
  
• Your Face Is Center Stage. Darker backgrounds are usually better, driving the eyes to your face. White backgrounds can work with darker outfits. Natural backgrounds are also very inviting and don’t distract. So grab a camera and a friend and head to your nearest park on a sunny day. Please make sure you are the only face in the picture. Don’t distract your network with images of others in the background.

ENTICE THEM WITH A ‘WOW’ HEADLINE - Read the rest of the article for more great tips!

5 Effective LinkedIn Features You Probably Don’t Know About

Lisa Rangel

You probably know the basics of making your LinkedIn profile work for you, but did you know that LinkedIn has tons of new features that will help your job hunt?

LinkedIn has come a long way in streamlining the job search process and adding amazing features to their interface. The problem is that often times these features aren’t really announced (unless you read the LinkedIn blog) or they get lost in the shuffle.

Below you’ll find some effective LinkedIn features you should be using, but probably didn’t know about.

 1. Stay in the know with Pulse.

Pulse is the totally customizable news feature on your LinkedIn homepage. It’s primary function is to let you in on industry news and show you what some of the top companies are recommending.

Pulse grabs information from your LinkedIn profile and curates your page according to your professional interests. You can then share these industry related articles across social media platforms in order to position yourself as an expert in your field.

2. Get “Introduced” to Connections.

LinkedIn Introductions let you contact members in your extended network through the people you are already connected to.

If you want to contact someone who is two or three degrees away from you, you can request an introduction through one of your connections. Your connection will then decide whether or not to forward the message.

This is a nice way that you can avoid the awkwardness of cold calling or emailing when looking for new connections.

See features 3-5 and the complete article

10 Vital LinkedIn tips for Professionals

by Burriss Consulting, Inc.

#1 Vital LinkedIn Tip You must have a LinkedIn Profile Regardless of your business, industry or career aspirations, a LinkedIn Profile helps you to be discovered and we all want to be discovered.

#2 Vital LinkedIn Tip Include a Profile Picture on your LinkedIn Profile. It’s a great way for people to recognize you and remember that you are a good person and potentially a great LinkedIn connection

#4 Vital LinkedIn Tip Your LinkedIn Headline is not your Title Your LinkedIn Headline is the statement that says “WHO AM I” Don’t use “at”..the name of your company either.  

See all 10 tips and the complete article

8 Simple Steps to Build Your LinkedIn Profile

Chelsea Newton

 I LOVE LinkedIn. I’m a total junkie and think it is more powerful than a resume. Why?

• A resume is a flat document that requires regular updating.
• LinkedIn is a breathing professional presence. Your contacts can endorse your skills and recommend you. It has built in social proof that you are a great hire.

More than 300 million professionals around the world in over 200 countries and territories agree with me. The growth of this platform is mind boggling.

When it first launched, LinkedIn was aimed at professionals with extensive work experience. Over the last few years, they have added new profile components to help students build an online professional presence including the ability to list courses and extracurricular work.

Students are the fastest-growing demographic with over 39 million students and recent college graduates on the platform.

8 Tips to Build Your LinkedIn Profile:

1. Choose the Right Photo

Have a clean, crisp, and simple background and professional attire. Ensure you are solo in your photo and smiling. Don’t crop a photo from a party or social event (honesty I see this all the time!).

Pro-Tip: Don’t be afraid to dress up and ask a friend/roommate to take a photo. With today’s photo apps (i.e. instagram/photo app editing software) a smart phone photo can look amazing.

2. Have a Relevant Title

The title of Student at XXX University is just plain boring and useless in indicating your goal job.
Your title, photo and location are what show up in a search. Ensure you highlight what you are after.

Example: 4th Year Marketing Student Seeking a 4 Month Co-op 

Steps 3-8 and the complete article

7 Ways College Students Can Benefit from LinkedIn

Considering the excellent benefits that connecting with professionals on LinkedIn brings, college students can never ignore this social networking platform. In fact, your networking on LinkedIn should begin as early as possible. LinkedIn can help you find jobs as soon as you graduate from college.

However, it’s a regret that college students spend very little time on this professional social networking platform, as compared to the time spent on other popular social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Given below are some key tips on how college students should use LinkedIn and how they can reap maximum benefits by connecting with professionals on this social networking website.

1. Getting Job Email Alerts 

Once you have created your professional profile on LinkedIn, you can set email alerts to receive notifications of recommended jobs. Students and jobseekers will be able to see the notifications on their homepage as soon as they log into their LinkedIn accounts.

2. Connecting with Professionals

If you have a look at LinkedIn, you’ll be surprised to find out the large number of professionals who choose to connect here. In fact, you can find your friends, co-workers, colleagues, classmates and family members on this platform. And it’s never a tough job connecting with them all. What’s more, you can even import your email list to find out who among your friends is present on LinkedIn.

3. Conducting Company Research

One of the biggest benefits LinkedIn offers college students and jobseekers is that they can check out the pages of their targeted employers. By visiting company, pages, you can conduct a research on the whereabouts of the company, the hiring process and what people have to say about that organization. This kind of company research on LinkedIn can always keep a stay ahead of your competition and increases your employability.

Ways 4-7 and the complete Undercover Recruiter article

8 Secrets for Using LinkedIn to Land Your Next Job

by Michael S. Seaver

Career advancement in the 21st century looks drastically different than it did even a decade ago. Climbing the proverbial corporate ladder isn’t as much of an option as organizations outsource, offshore and flatten their hierarchies. Instead, you have to continually develop your personal suite of skills by taking lateral moves, and sometimes steps backwards, that help you move towards the fulfillment of your larger personal mission. There are thousands of online portals that allow you to look for meaningful work, but the most important piece of professional online real estate you can have is a LinkedIn profile. Here are eight (8) insider tips to ensure your profile is robust and noticed daily.

1. 85% of Job Opportunities Come Out of 2nd Level Connections – A LinkedIn employee shared the research at an event I attended recently. I encourage you to review your connections’ profiles, learn about who they’re connected to and ask for appropriate introductions. There is a high probability that your connection’s connection will help you land your next job.

2. Success Patterns of Other People – If you review the profiles of five people that currently hold your ideal job, look back at the progression in their careers to help you craft your story and resume. Attempt to use their keywords or phrases in the development of your resume and LinkedIn profile. The steps in their careers will open your eyes to paths that you may not have considered before. 

5. Your Top 5 Endorsed Skills = Your Personal Brand – There is significant power in how people perceive you. If you are struggling to identify your personal brand message, review your profile to see the top three to five skills that others have endorsed you for. If others perceive you as already having specific strengths, be sure to leverage those ideas in your cover letters, 30-second commercials and when interviewing.

See all 8 secrets and the complete article 

10 Tips For Effectively Using Your LinkedIn Status Update

by Andy Robinson

One of the features of LinkedIn that tends to be underutilized is the “LinkedIn Status Update” (also called your “Network Update”) in your LinkedIn Profile. Your status update “block” is a white box located just below your picture on your “View My Profile” page. If you don’t see such a block, then you’ve not posted a status update.

From your LinkedIn home page or your “Edit My Profile” page, you can change your status update as frequently as you desire. EVERY time you update your status, the home page of ALL of your network connections is “pinged” with your status update. Status updates are also distributed to your network via email when LinkedIn sends you your weekly “Network Update.” Your latest status update is always displayed on your LinkedIn profile.

Your status updated is limited to 140 characters – just like Twitter – so keep that in mind, particularly when cutting and pasting information into your status update “window.”

Updating your LinkedIn status is a great way to communicate to your network on a frequent and ongoing basis. I update my status at least once each day with different types of information. 10 tips for effectively using your status update to distribute useful information are presented below:

1. Insert the title and a “shortened” URL link to one of your recent blog articles. Bit.ly is a great resource for shortening URL’s.

2. Insert the title and a “shortened” URL to a blog article you read and really liked. Particularly one that is timely, informative and relates to your “brand” or area of specialty in some way.

3. A link to a newsworthy web posting or news item. Include the title and a shortened URL. Alignment with you brand “voice” or area of specialty makes it more powerful. I like to focus on POSITIVE news as opposed to negative news.

Tips 4-10 and the complete Careerealism article

How To Use LinkedIn To Get Discovered By Recruiters - Webinar

In resumes, job applications, and cover letters, keywords (when used properly) will differentiate you from every other candidate. Keywords are used to categorize you based on your skills, expertise, experiences, and talents. LinkedIn Skills are these Keywords in your LinkedIn Profile.

LinkedIn Skills are a vital part of your LinkedIn profile. It’s important to pick Skills that exist in LinkedIn that represent who you are and what you do. During this webinar, we will show you how to pick the best Skills for your career and business goals as well as how to remove Skills that are irrelevant to your career goals and why.

Proper use of LinkedIn Skills will help your LinkedIn Profile to be discovered and reviewed by recruiters, hiring managers, HR professionals and even business owners searching for new team members.

You don’t just put LinkedIn Skills in the LinkedIn Skills area. This will minimize their power.

There are at least nine different areas of your LinkedIn Profile where your top LinkedIn Skills should show up. We will show you where to put them and why.

In this webinar we will show you how recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates and why properly used LinkedIn Skills can position you above other candidates in the search results. Having a great LinkedIn Profile and using your Skills properly gets you numerous advantages over every other candidate.

Is being found before other candidates important to you? If you don’t put extra efforts into being found over other candidates, you’ll be just like every other candidate, average and at the mercy of the merciless Applicant Tracking Systems.
Attend this webinar and learn:

• Where LinkedIn Search actually searches
• What key areas of LinkedIn Profile to add your Skill words/phrases
• How to get your LinkedIn Profile found first

Watch This Webinar!

Attend this webinar and create advantages that other candidates don’t have. Join us for this special webinar on Wednesday, July 30 from 1-2pm EDT to find out how to use LinkedIn to get discovered by recruiters!

Register for the webinar

LinkedIn debuts new Job Search iPhone app for finding your dream career

LinkedIn has been busy over the past few months redirecting its mobile and feature initiatives after it launched then pulled its Intro service for iOS and replaced its own CardMunch app with integration with Evernote’s business card reading feature.

LinkedIn’s news continues today as it launches a standalone iPhone app for dedicated to job hunting. The iPhone app is called LinkedIn Job Search and it joins the primary LinkedIn app as well as LinkedIn Pulse, LinkedIn Contacts, and the social network’s other existing mobile applications. The app takes advantage of location data and push notifications to keep job hunters updated with relevant opportunities based on a set criteria. LinkedIn describes the app as follows:

LinkedIn Job Search puts the job-finding power of LinkedIn in the palm of your hand with:
· Quick and easy search based on title, location, or keywords
· Recommended jobs based on saved searches, jobs you’ve viewed, and your LinkedIn profile
· Notifications when new jobs match what you’re looking for
· A super-simple application process using your LinkedIn profile
· Total privacy – your network won’t hear a thing about your in-app activity

Read the rest of the original article