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
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
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 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
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 six tips and the complete article
ByAmy Levin-Epstein
(MoneyWatch) Are you on LinkedIn? Whether or not you're looking for a job, if you're interested in career growth, it is probably part of your social media strategy. With more than 238 million members globally, it's the largest professional networking site in the world. This blog has covered various ways to maximize your LinkedIn presence, from building a great profile to using it more efficiently to avoid common mistakes people make when using it. But recently, I asked the folks at LinkedIn if people really get jobs from the site. Instead of just saying yes, they gave me these inspiring success stories. Have you gotten a job from LinkedIn?
Jacob Erlick/pricing analyst/Southwest Airlines/Dallas, Texas
Jacob had dreamed about working at Southwest Airlines for as long as he can remember. He applied and interviewed for internships and full-time jobs to no avail. But after each meeting, he connected with each Southwest employee and recruiter on LinkedIn. With a growing family to support, he eventually accepted a job at a B2B IT company. Then one day he noticed that Linkedin's "People You May Know" module suggested he connect with a Southwest recruiter he was linked to through another connection. He sent the recruiter a connection request and she responded asking if he had time to chat about a job opening. On Aug. 27, 2012, Jacob joined Southwest.
Rachel Abady/associate video programming manager/AOL/New York, N.Y.
Rachel used LinkedIn to get hired as an AOL associate video programming manager while she was a senior at Barnard College. The twist: She used her dad's profile -- not her own -- because she thought LinkedIn was only for "50-year-olds." Using her dad's profile, she visited his alma mater's (Colgate University) LinkedIn Group. There she noticed a posting by a recruiter who worked at AOL and was looking for a business development intern. She InMailed the recruiter, who found her to be quite resourceful, and the rest is history.
Read 3 more success stories and the complete MoneyWatch article
Jason FellLinkedIn is the social network for the professional crowd. It can be a fantastic resource for networking, hiring or finding a job, gathering sales leads, staying up-to-date on industry news and participating in the conversation.
But for entrepreneurs who are just starting up, or perhaps less social-media savvy than others, making the most of LinkedIn can seem kind of daunting.
It doesn't have to be. Below are some proven tips to help you use LinkedIn to its fullest potential for your business.
1. Fill out your page completely with all the important details of your business.
First off, an incomplete profile simply doesn't look good on LinkedIn. So make sure you fill out all the sections that apply to your business.
Be sure to put the most critical details about yourself or your business on top, so people won't miss them. Explain exactly what your company is, who your clients are and how you help them. Also showcase your products by filling out the "Products and Services" section of your company page.
2. Highlight your expertise.
One great way to connect with people is by positioning yourself as an expert in your industry. Others may come to you seeking professional advice and insight. Real relationships can be born.
One way to do this is to post articles you've written about your business and industry. Also be sure to share work samples or white papers to the "Pages" section. On your profile, note any honors or awards you have received. Also get endorsements and recommendations.
Ways 3-10 and the complete Entrepreneur article
by Jeff Bullas We all make mistakes, it’s just that some are bigger than others.
When it comes to online mistakes on the social web, they are amplified. This is because the “one to one” communication is now “one to many”.
One of those social media networks that multiplies mistakes as well as amplifying your connections and content is LinkedIn. With the recent opening up of its “publishing platform” to all of its members, the rising importance of Linkedin is now even more evident.
With Linkedin’s membership now passing 300 million professionals, not looking like a “dork” is important in front of that size crowd. LinkedIn mistakes to avoid
Here are 20 LinkedIn mistakes to watch out for if you want to look professional and succeed on Linkedin. - Dont send spammy messages to your connections
- Don’t over post – once a day is good
- Don’t ask people you don’t know for Linkedin recommendations
- Don’t criticize or comment negatively on posts in groups
- Do not post self serving content in groups that holds no value to members
Mistakes 6-20 and the complete Jeff Bullas post
An friend of mine emailed me the other day, irritated by a message she’d just received in her LinkedIn inbox. Sent by a recent college grad she had briefly met at a networking event a few weeks prior, the message read: I was wondering if you could introduce me to [name of very high-level contact]. I have just applied to a position at [company] and I see that she is the VP there. If you could introduce me to her ASAP that would be great.
I could see why my friend was irked. While the sender’s intentions may have been on the right track (“Ooh! I see that someone in my network knows the hiring manager at my dream job!”), she had broken one of the cardinal rules of LinkedIn: Being connected to someone on LinkedIn does not mean that you have a relationship with that person—or that the person would be willing to vouch for you, introduce you to his or her contacts, or otherwise help you unless there’s a pretty good reason.
In other words, there was no way that my friend—who had a closer relationship with her last checker at Trader Joe’s than she did with this woman—was going to go out on a limb to introduce her to one of her most important contacts just because they were connected on LinkedIn. She deleted the message without responding.
This story reminded me that this seemingly simple advice bears repeating: Before you ask for anything from someone in your network, you absolutely must build a relationship.
But what exactly does building a relationship look like, especially when you really need help, um, now? Here’s a LinkedIn message script you can use in similar situations for any of your not-so-close connections. While I can’t promise you’ll get a response, I guarantee your chances will be a whole lot better.
Read the script and the complete Forbes article
