LinkedIn 101 - Ten Tips to Help You Ace the Power of LinkedIn

I just finished reading Liz Ryan's book Happy About Online Networking which offers some great tips for leveraging the power of online business and social networking tools to build relationships and an online professional identity. Liz makes some great points about how to build credibility on several sites and I particularly liked her comments about building authentic relationships on LinkedIn. She reminds us that users should not just use the LinkedIn database to find people, but they should also share enough information about themselves to indicate how they might help others. Liz and I are on the same page when it comes to making the most of LinkedIn. Here are some of the tips I recommend for optimizing the benefits of LinkedIn.

1. Take the time to create a robust profile. Write a summary section that clearly outlines your personal brand and value add and gets readers jazzed up about what you do. Build out the specialties section and make it keyword rich and industry relevant. Many profiles on LinkedIn are just a shell with a name and an abbreviated chronology. You would never submit a resume to a potential employer that only listed the names of the companies you worked for with no supporting information, so why would you use this tactic online where your information is available for millions of people to see?
2. Use the endorsements feature to request and offer endorsements. People are more likly to contact you if you can showcase that others have been satisfied with your work. Adding endorsements can expedite the decision making/hiring process.
3. Keep your profile up to date. People who use LinkedIn for a job search campaign often abandon the tool after they find new employment. By keeping your information up to date, you are more likely to keep your network strong and be able to reciprocate to others.
   
4. Educate your connections. If people join LinkedIn and don't invite others, they won't get as much out of the tool and will remain several degrees apart from the people they want to meet. When you introduce friends and colleagues to the tool, take the time to explain to them how to maximize its utility.
   
5. Remember that LinkedIn doesn't replace traditional networking, it facilitates it. Always supplement your online efforts with face-to-face networking.
   
6. Use the questions and answers feature to start conversations, create community, and position yourself as a subject matter expert. By answering questions, you are simultaneously endorsing your candidacy and expertise.
7. Don't add a connection that you would not feel comfortable introducing to someone already in your network. Having 500 connections doesn't have much value if you can't "share the love".
8. Avoid the "invitation to connect" templates. They lack authenticity and are inferior when compared to a personalized message.
9. Create a public profile. This is an easy way to start building an online presence for yourself, since LinkedIn ranks high in the search engines.
10. Take advantage of available resources about LinkedIn including I'm on LinkedIn...Now What???, Linked Intelligence and LinkedIn Blog.
    

Have you Googled Yourself Today?

I just finished reading Career Distinction by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixon. The authors stress the importance of proactively and continuously building professional credibility, visibility, personality, and professional style to build and nurture your personal brand. This strategy is one of the most important components of an effective career management strategy. Arruda and Dixon speculate that in the future, employers will be actively looking for candidates with greater frequency than candidates will be looking for employers. Therefore a strong on-line presence will be key to a candidate's future job search success.

One of the best ways to assess the strength of your current brand is to monitor your on-line identity via a regular Google search. Arruda and Dixon recommend Googling yourself every Monday morning to stay on top of your identity metrics. Keep track of the number of times your full name (enclosed in quotes) is listed and the relevancy of each listing. If you have no Google presence or if you share your name with others, don't despair. It's never too late to start building your own unique on-line brand. Check out tools such as Zoom Info, Ziggs, and Naymz to get started. Everyone will need at least "15 minutes of fame" (or at least three relevant pages on Google) to compete for jobs successfully in the 21st century.

Posted by Barbara Safani

Down and Dirty

Recently a colleague of mine was recruiting for a fairly entry level supervisor role managing a team of telemarketers. After reviewing the resumes, only one stood out and my colleague was seriously considering bringing the candidate in for an interview even though he currently lives hundreds of miles away in another city.

Since she could tell from the experience level on the resume that the candidate was fairly young, she decided to conduct a Google search on the candidate, assuming he probably had some sort of on-line presence. Despite the fact that the candidate had a very common name, she was able to quickly locate his MySpace page. What she found there was less than flattering. The page was filled with several derogatory comments towards women and accounts of recent drinking escapades. My colleague never called the candidate in for an interview.

I recognize that living your life out in front of people is part of the Millennium culture. Maybe the culprit is You Tube or reality TV. But how will young job seekers cope with an interview where the goal is to maximize accomplishments and minimize blemishes? How will their MySpace page reflect on them if a hiring authority chooses to conduct an on-line search?

If you find that your job search is compromised by a questionable on-line persona, there are tools available to help. Ziggs, ClaimID, Ziki, Naymz, and Zoom Info help people manage their on-line presence by creating new, cleaner listings that can overcome the positioning of the less flattering ones . But since it's probably easier to remove a tattoo than to clean up a damaged on-line identity, make every effort now to proactively manage your on-line identity and keep it dirt-free.