Presentation delivered at the second annual PCC Employment Outreach Event, An all welcome, all community, all about getting employed free conference for PA and NJ residents. Presentation includes tips on improving your LinkedIn profile with specific changes and strategies to stay engaged with your network.
LinkedIn: Improving your profile on the world's largest business network
1. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Barrie Byron
More than 20 years in the professional communication industry
Active member and volunteer leader in many organizations
Society for Technical Communication (STC) Associate Fellow
STC Palm Beaches Chapter
STC Philadelphia Metro Chapter
STC Greater New York and Philadelphia Regional TechComm Competition
STC International Summit Awards
Toastmasters International
Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG), Advanced Leader
District 38 Public Relations Officer (150 clubs, 4,000 members)
Princeton Toastmasters VP Public Relations
LinkedIn
Enthusiastic participant, charter member
PCC Employment Outreach Event 1
2. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) is a social networking
website for people in professional occupations.
The world’s largest business network
2002: Founded
2003: Launched
2006: Profitable
2012: Reportedly worth $1.575 billion
2013: More than 200 million registered users in more than 200 countries
and territories (was: 135 million Nov. 2011; 175 million Nov. 2012 )
Are you in?
PCC Employment Outreach Event 2
3. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Networking is having 2-way conversations
Networking is simply having conversations with people that you know
As job seekers, networking might be perceived as looking for a job
As knowledge seekers, networking can be finding answers to the questions we
have
As professionals, networking is staying engaged with our connections
LinkedIn, and all networking, is a 2-way conversation
Respond and react
Initiate and customize
Personalize your communication,
always use a person’s name and
address their interests and
mention your common interests
PCC Employment Outreach Event 3
4. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
My favorite things that LinkedIn lets us do
Connect with former colleagues, even when contact
information and email addresses change
Communicate with relevant LinkedIn members, even if you are not
directly connected
Track relationships
Sort our connections by geography, tags, industry, company, and so on
Document our growing skill base (the stuff we know and are good at)
Verify our track record
Validate our reputation and articulate our individual qualities
One-click endorsements
Written recommendations
Clients, colleagues, presentations, publications,
and so on
PCC Employment Outreach Event 4
5. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
LinkedIn: it’s more than our connections
Profile
Contacts
Companies
Groups
Jobs
Questions
Discussions
Thought leaders
News, blogs, answers,
applications… and more!
PCC Employment Outreach Event 5
6. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Companies
Conduct advanced searches
Geography, industry, hiring, size, connection relationships
Review careers section, connections
Dynamics and staffing
Where did employees come from?
Where did former employees go to?
Check your prospective manager's recommendations
Research the company (news, new titles)
Find the person who had the job that you are
interviewing for
PCC Employment Outreach Event 6
7. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Your profile: enhance your search engine results
Do a web search on your name; then optimize your profile to improve
search results
Add your website, blog, twitter, and other links to your LinkedIn profile
Add your volunteer leadership roles to current positions
Include your name or descriptive terms in the link
Websites barriebyron.wordpress.com
not blog
not Personal website
Your descriptive link creates instant search-engine optimization
Ensure that your public profile setting is set to “Full View”
Use LinkedIn applications to share more information (blogs, slide shares,
publications)
PCC Employment Outreach Event 7
8. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Jobs: Increase the relevancy of your search
Jobs > Find Jobs
Sign up for email alerts
Look for jobs by company
Prepare for job or knowledge quest interviews
Find out about the people that you are meeting
Gauge the health of a company
See who is viewing your profile
Keep your status current
Participate and engage with your network
Read and participate in LinkedIn Job Search questions and answers
PCC Employment Outreach Event 8
9. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Search: for people like you, where do they work?
Find people with educational and work experience like yours to see
where they work
People > Advanced search
Zip code
Key words
Job title (current or past)
Company (current or past)
School
PCC Employment Outreach Event 9
10. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Apply for the job
Apply Now button
Use LinkedIn to apply
Add a personal cover letter
Reuse the same posted resume
Apply on Company Website button
Follow established company procedure
Track your activity and job applications
Spreadsheet: date, contact, title, what you
said in your letter
PCC Employment Outreach Event 10
11. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Participate: Comment on status updates
Send congratulatory messages for new jobs
and other status updates
Status updates appear on the Home > LinkedIn Home page
Enable or disable status update notification emails
All social media is (or should be) a two-way conversation
Comments and “like” are good ways to stay in touch
Don't be pushy about promoting yourself
It's more important to let your contacts know you're around and active
Make it about them, you are commenting on their status
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12. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Profiles: Models
Incomplete profile (my mom)
Only a few connections
Auto-generated URL
No: job title, job history, recommendations, groups
Complete profile (mine)
Connections, recommendations, groups, events,
discussions
100% complete
Current
Frequent status updates
Yours?
PCC Employment Outreach Event 12
13. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Complete your profile, add custom touches
Work to maintain a “100% complete” profile
Ask for, and give, recommendations (be specific)
Use a quality description in your title
(your “personal brand”)
Keep status current, post updates
Avoid mention of religion, politics, sex
Use a business-appropriate photo
Stealth mode job searching: Your name > Settings > PRIVACY
CONTROLS > Turn on/off your activity broadcasts
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14. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Invite and respond with a personal touch
Customize each LinkedIn invitation
Avoid the generic “canned” message
Craft a custom, personal invitation message, mention how you met
“It was great working with you at ABC Company. I invite you to join my
professional network on LinkedIn.”
After the invitation is accepted, send a personal response “I am pleased
to connect our professional networks on LinkedIn” and offer to help them
It’s about them, not you
Use the Contact Info > Contact Notes section for private memory-jogging
information to keep track of how and when you met, when you connected
on LinkedIn, shared interests
Create and use Tags
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15. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Action items to improve your profile
1. Strive for 100% complete
2. Customize your URL www.linkedin.com/in/barriebyron
3. Craft a qualified “title”
4. Write a detailed, current, personalized essence-of-you summary
5. Use results-oriented job descriptions
6. Grow your network: build your connections (30K max), communicate
7. Give one-click endorsements
8. Give detailed, thoughtful recommendations (give 25)
9. Ask for recommendations (strive for at least 25)
10. Join groups: at least 5, and up to 25
College alumni, hobby, past employers, school,
technology, industry, professional association,
networking, STC, and so on
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16. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Getting “in” and resources
LinkedIn levels of membership
Free is good! Free is great!
Job Seekers
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17. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Additional resources
LinkedIn Learning Center http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/
Answers http://www.linkedin.com/answers/
LinkedIn Maps http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/faq
Privacy http://learn.linkedin.com/settings/
Password: be secure! Unique password. Security breach June 2012.
Industry thought leader blogs
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18. LinkedIn Training: Improve your profile on the world’s largest business network
Other social media tools + keep in touch
Google+
Email
Provider-agnostic (gmail, ymail)
Professional
Self-describing address
Twitter
Facebook: ensure your profile is private or keep it G-rated
Pinterest, others
Questions?
Keep in touch. Connect and converse often!
www.linkedin.com/in/barriebyron
PCC Employment Outreach Event 18
Editor's Notes
Assets is the range of skills, abilities and expertise that you have acquired and developed in your life. They are part of your personal file:
Example: a programmer would use search keywords such as "Ruby on Rails," "C++," "Python," "Java," and "evangelist" to find out where other programmers with these skills work. Knowing that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, "I'm doing fine, thank you. “ Gauge health of company - Former employees usually give more candid opinions about a company's prospects than someone who's still on board
What you can do as an individual LinkedIn user Comment on status updates. This is a good way to stay in touch with current and past clients. Don't be too pushy by promoting your services. It's more important to let your contacts know you're around and active. Search groups related to your field. If you want a leg up before meeting with a potential customer or client, you can search forums related to your company. That way you'll know the kind of questions customers are asking in advance of a sales pitch. It also helps to stay active in those groups to get your name out there. (You can search for groups in the drop down menu located on LinkedIn's main search bar.) Ask for recommendations from clients. If you receive a complimentary note from a client, it never hurts to ask them if they would add that under your LinkedIn profile's recommendations. This will give prospective clients a good idea what it's like to work with you. Make sure your profile is complete. You never know if someone is searching for you. If your LinkedIn profile doesn't give visitors a full picture of your professional history, you could end up losing a new contact without even knowing it. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-crm-2012-1#ixzz1iVBvpbtW