Ways to Increase the Value of LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the staples of the professional business world. The network is purported to have more than 8½ million members, all professionals from around the world in no less than 130 industries. It is held in very high regard and recruiting managers use its platform to head hunt their next superstars.
It is important to optimize your visibility if you want to use LinkedIn for your benefit. Make sure that you treat your profile as if it were your resume or CV. Don’t skimp on any of the details and fill out your profile as carefully as you would write a resume for distribution. To add to your visibility insert your profile’s URL within your e-mail signature, allowing you to break ice more effectively when you mail some new business prospect or other professional. Add as many connections as you possibly can and work on your network membership to increase your footprint as much as possible. Your aim should be to appear as high as you can on the list of search results relevant to your specialty.
You should definitely allow your profile to be available for search engines to index. As Google highly rates LinkedIn profiles they are likely to be ranked well when people search. Select “full review” and make sure that your actual name appears in your profile’s URL.
When talking about visibility, don’t forget to promote your personal blog or website by entering the details in the relevant categories. Remember to enter your name and appropriate keywords to help you achieve the best search engine results.
To narrow down your job search features, don’t forget that you can use this network’s advanced search option by entering your relevant keywords to find out where others with your skill set currently work. When you are focusing in on a prospective new employer, use LinkedIn to study profiles of their current employees. This will give you a good feel for the makeup of the company and should you get the job, help you to fit in more quickly.
While on the subject of getting to know people at the company, do some research to find out more about your interviewer. Wouldn’t it be great if you shared some passion in common, went to the same college or enjoyed similar sporting activities?
As your goal is always self advancement, check out the health of the company and the industry that you are targeting. LinkedIn’s advanced search enables you to enter company names and you should focus on former employees who may well be willing to give you a candid opinion about your target company and its key personnel.
As with any network, the major benefit comes from being able to interact with other members. Ask pertinent questions and you should receive high-value answers from those people who are “in the same boat” as you, can talk from experience and may be more than willing to pass on their advice.
Do you use LinkedIn? Tell us about your experiences.
Matthew Toren
I always check out people on LinkedIn when I meet them. I want to know their past jobs, their successes etc. But I never forget to go beyond LinkedIn, because as this article depicts; LinkedIn will show you the good, but not the bad, because it is censored by the person themselves.
So in addition to LinkedIn, I usually also perform some searches on Google, Facebook and other sites. That sometimes reveals ugly stuff.
If you put much effort into your LinkedIn profile, you might also want to make sure that your party photos aren’t publicly available on Facebook, or that other information you don’t want people to see is not open online. So do a search on your own name from time to time and see what pops up.
Really good advice, I do use LinkedIn at the moment but not to the potential that it is currently used by you and from the suggestions you have made I will definitely go back and update my profile. I agree about the facebook comment from Jesse always portray yourself in a good light especially if you are making money on the internet – it helps that people take you seriously
In addition to the social media outreach benefits of LinkedIn, it is a great way to make a follow-up contact after meeting someone in person, telephone or online. I use it as an online rolodex of sorts and it helps us remember each other.
A couple of tips – Make sure you have a good photo so people can remember you! Join industry groups and add in the odd comment. Also change your caption of what you are doing occasionally. This goes out to all your contacts.
I use LinkedIn to find leads. We have to sort out the final list by searching background date and personal evaluation through Google. Searching some one’s reputation through Google is a good idea which saves us from any future problems.