Category Archives: LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn Profile; Do it Right

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Alison Doyle of About.com recently wrote a wonderful article entitled “Don’t Waste Your Time On LinkedIn.” Let me rephrase: If you’re going to be on LinkedIn, do it right so you’re not wasting your time and the time of others who visit your profile, including employers who are searching for talent.

What I like about her article was that Alison tells it how it should be. I also like the article because she confirms what I’ve been telling my LinkedIn workshop attendees about not engaging in LinkedIn in a half-baked way. It’s better they hear the truth then spend the time starting a profile only to forget about it and take up space on the many servers LinkedIn use s to host over 100 million users.

“If you’re not going to do it right, there is no point wasting your time (and everyone else’s) on LinkedIn,” Alison writes. “LinkedIn is ‘the” site for professional networking.’”

Amen. Furthermore, she explains that when she is invited to connect with people on LinkedIn and goes to their profile to glean information on them, only to find their title or, worse yet, a “Private Profile,” she’s not likely to connect with them.

I sense her frustration and understand the reason for writing her article. She’s absolutely correct. What motivation would I have for connecting with someone who is unidentified? And for you employers, why would you pursue someone who has a profile that gives you very little information in terms of their skills, accomplishments, and related experience? The answer to both is a resounding none.

The bigger dilemma. This leaves the LinkedIn newbies with a dilemma. Should they join LinkedIn and put themselves out there if they’re not going the make the investment needed to succeed in networking on LinkedIn—let alone identify themselves? The truth is a poor LinkedIn profile will do more harm than good. Here’s why:

No photo will send a message to employers and potential networkers that you have something to hide—namely age. Whether we like it or not, LinkedIn wants us to be visible. While , business people have no reason to fear age discrimination, jobseekers might. Jobseekers simply have to bite the bullet and have faith that their age will not hurt their job search.

An undeveloped Snap Shot is the quickest way to turn someone away from your profile. I’m referring to more than the photo; there’s the name and title, as well as potential blog or website URLs, that visitors see when they visit your profile. A developed Snapshot includes a full name with a descriptive title. Don’t be vague and announce yourself as a “Public Relations Professional,” when you’re a “Strategic, bilingual HR leader/business partner who achieves strong results through innovative solutions.”

The Summary section is often neglected by people who simply copy and paste their four-line résumé Summary statement. Folks, we have 2,000 characters with which to work. Let’s use them to craft a creative, descriptive Summary that states our value proposition and showcases our attention-grabbing skills and experience. Have fun and use the first person narrative, or even third person narrative if you’re accomplished.

The History section is also an area where visitors like to learn more about your identity. Simply listing your job title, company name, and dates of employment says, “I’m too lazy to give this any effort.” This laziness will get you nowhere. List three, four, or five major accomplishments at your companies.

The last section I’ll address are recommendations, which do a tremendous job of telling visitors who you are through the eyes of your former supervisors, colleagues, vendors, partners, etc. Ask for and write at least five or six recommendations. This is especially important for jobseekers who need to deliver a quick punch.

Alison Doyle’s article had a little bite to it—I imagine because so many people with poor profiles asked to connect with her. I took a gamble and asked Alison to be in my network. Within half an hour I was accepted and also invited to join her group. Thank You, Alison. I’m glad I passed the test.

Update at least Weekly…at least

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Weekly, you ask? Yes, weekly. Better yet, daily. What have you been up to? What articles have you read that were particularly helpful in your job search? Read any good books? Did you have a great interview? Did you get a job? Do you have any leads for people? Is your business thriving?

Update often. The more you update, the more people will see you and keep you in the forefront of their mind. This is an important part of networking, staying fresh in peoples’ mind. Most people have a tendency to remember those who they see often. With frequent updates, you’ll appear on your contacts’ Home Page, hopefully with your sharp photo and key-word-rich title.

When is too much? Please don’t treat LinkedIn as though it’s Twitter. A daily update would be great, but four in an hour can be a bit much. When I see someone’s face too frequently, I Hide them. This is a great feature that allows you to turn off tweets…I mean Updates…without having to delete the offenders completely. Before I learned of the Hide feature, I deleted a few contacts because their presence on my Home Page became annoying. I wish I had known about this feature.

Practice networking etiquette. I like to post an update once a day if I can, but I don’t want the information to be frivolous. If I have nothing of value to share, I’ll skip a day…or two. I also like to see my contacts on my Home Page. I never thought I’d say this, but I look forward to opening my Home Page to see what’s going on in my contacts’ lives. I have to say that the information my contacts share is usually relevant and useful, and I think this is because LinkedIn has provided a platform for professional individuals, both business people and jobseekers.

I miss you. When I haven’t seen someone in weeks, I wonder what’s happening in their professional and daily lives. Please take the time to send an update. I’m feeling old and want to enjoy every day as it comes. No, I’m not being a wise guy. I enjoy seeing people come out of hiding and sharing their news.

Here I Sit Wondering about Online Networking

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I ponder this question, “Are people who are ridiculously active on social or professional networking sites equally or more social in personal/professional life?” I, thus, answer:

I believe that people who are extremely active on social networking sites, e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, are less active in their personal interactions. I see it as a matter of time spent dictated by one’s personality type, namely introversion.

I’ll use myself as an example. Here I sit typing away when I could be talking on the phone, at a social gathering, or in the next room with my children watching their mind-numbing TV programs. I freely admit that I spend too much time on LinkedIn, answering questions and reading responses.

I’m an introvert, and spending time networking online suits my personality type more than social interaction, especially after a day of leading workshops to numerous people. It’s my downtime and opportunity to recharge my batteries. More to the point, I thoroughly enjoy answering questions and reading answers posted by others.

Other introverts have told me that they enjoy the non-personal interaction that LI and the others offer. This is their form of mental stimulation, as it is mine.

That said, it’s a mistake to think that doing all your networking online will build your business or aid in your job search. I’m not implying that all introverts conduct their business this way. Introverts also have the capacity to personally interact with other business people and jobseekers; it just requires more energy to sustain a whole day of being around people.

I’m sure many people who read this will assume I believe this true of all introverts. I do not believe this to be true of all introverts; nor do I believe that extraverts avoid online networking sites. But I believe on a whole that time spent on networking sites can be dictated by one’s personality type and that this affects their social interaction.

Note: I spend on average two hours a day on LinkedIn, often more time during the weekends. Despite the amount of time I spend on LinkedIn, I am by no means as addicted to this application as other LinkedIn users.

A Strong LinkedIn Profile and the Answers Feature Go Hand in Hand

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Do you have an outstanding Linked profile? Are you working on improving it? Or is it blank and forgotten? If the answer is the former, I salute you. Even if you’re making daily strides to make it better, there’s hope for you. On the other hand, if your profile resembles something found in the attic and needs to be dusted off, then close down your account. That’s right, close it down. The miniscule space you’re taking up on the Internet is too much.

A vast majority of LinkedIn.com aficionados will concur that the most important investment you must make in your LinkedIn involvement is your profile, as it presents you as a serious jobseeker and business leader. Your profile is essentially your most potent online branding tool and how people measure your accomplishments, based on a number of components: Photo; Summary; (Work) History; Education; Interests; Recommendations, Connections; and some extras like a blog, website, reading list, slideshow, and more. Without an effective profile, you’re wasting your time and possibly hurting your chances of getting an interview or enhancing your business.

LinkedIn offers some pretty neat features that require a strong profile in order for an LI user to reap rewards from them. There are notable features like Jobs, People, and Companies search. But if you want to utilize any of these features, such as apply for a job on LI, locate a long-lost person, or network with someone at a particular company; a terrible profile will get you about as far as the front door. Consider visiting an LI member’s profile and seeing a blank page. Would you, as an employer or just a curious visitor want to contact said person for an interview or join her network? The answer is a resounding NO. Further consider that your main objective is to network with as many quality contacts as possible. This applies to business people as well as jobseekers. Poor profile, small quality network.

Many LinkedIn members see Groups as very valuable feature and have joined as many as 50 various groups. (I know this is true because 50 is the limit, and people have complained that they can’t join more.) Still, when people in your groups see profiles without cause, they won’t want to network with those people. Do you want to be excluded because your profile is deemed unacceptable? An incomplete profile indicates lack of both conviction and effort; it yells, “I don’t care how I present myself either for business or for a job search.” So what value would you be to someone in your groups if your profile is poorly done? It’s as though a person is guilty by association for connecting with someone who has a shoddy profile. No serious LI member wants this.

There’s one feature on LinkedIn that has drawn my attention, one in which I participate a great deal. This is the Answers feature, which can be found under the More link. The idea is for LI members to ask questions related to a particular category or subcategory, such as Education, Job Search, Project Management, Technology, and hundreds of others. Other LI users who see the thousands of questions asked a day have the opportunity to answer them. Mainly I participate because I enjoy writing and like to think that some of the information I impart is helpful to those asking questions. Question like: What is your idea of a great vacation? are ones I steer clear of.

Oddly enough, posting a question draws a lot of people to your profile because in order to answer some questions, it behooves the respondents to check it out. Some questions are meant to specifically draw LinkedIn members to a poster’s profile. For example, a question I answered once read, “How would you rate my profile from 1-10?” When he drew me to his profile, I could have been compelled to invite him to my network. In this case, the poster’s profile was weak at best. My answer wasn’t scathing, but I was honest. I think I rated it a 5 out of 10. Needless to say, I wasn’t tempted to invite him to my network.

I asked a question a month ago that I hesitated asking but one that garnered some great answers. It read, “If you read my profile would you contact me?” Not only did I receive some valuable advice, particularly regarding my Name and Title, I received a business opportunity…on which I have yet to follow up. If my profile were lame, sloppy, cruddy, terrible, inexcusable, a waste of everyone’s time—I wouldn’t have prompted such great answers.

LinkedIn’s Answers feature occupies much of my time. In other situations, I might be visiting Companies or Jobs, or searching for People or Groups. I fancy Answers, but I believe in the value of a good profile to both assist in answering questions and receiving great answers to my questions. If you want to utilize the best features LinkedIn has to offer, put some effort and care into your profile. People everywhere are looking.