Are you making LinkedIn work for you?
When LinkedIn first appeared more than ten years ago, it was primarily a tool for job seekers to connect and with recruiters. Today, it is a tool for networking, personal branding, and advertising; it is the definitive social network for professionals and leading companies. That being said, most people do not utilize LinkedIn to its full potential. In fact, of the nearly 600 million people on LinkedIn, only about 3% of users maximize the platform's features. The other 97% of people are passive; that is a problem.
If you want to build your brand and your network, you need to be active on LinkedIn. What does that mean? It means engaging with other people by liking, commenting, and sharing posts. It means joining groups that are germane to your interests or your field. It means sharing original content with your followers. All of these things will increase your social currency.
Apart from engagement on the platform, your profile must stand out. Most of the profiles on LinkedIn are pretty much the same. Most people don’t write a summary, and they use their current or most recent job title as their headline. If you want to be different and compel someone to read your profile, it has to be exciting and different. Be sure you write a compelling summary that tells the reader something about you – what makes you different and what makes you tick. Expunge phrases like “leverage proactive synergies to drive long-term value” from your summary. This is word salad that communicates precisely nothing. As for the headline, this should convey your unique value proposition; you should not be using this prime real estate to advertise for your employer!
Ask for recommendations from clients, coworkers, peers, and managers. Merely having someone endorse you for a checklist of skills has become meaningless. Recommendations are especially important when you are building your brand. It is also crucial that you log into your profile regularly. Doing so makes you appear more frequently in recruiter searches. You’ll see notifications from your connections, and you’ll be the first to know about new jobs at companies you’re following.
Lastly, I want to share a truth with you all: your coworkers and your boss are probably not stalking your LinkedIn profile. I’m amazed at how many clients don’t want their boss seeing a revamped LinkedIn profile out of fear that then the boss will think they’re looking for a new job. This is not likely to happen. And if it does? So what? No one goes to work at a company, stays for 40 years, and retires with a gold watch and a pension anymore. Don’t you think that your boss assumes that everyone is always looking? Don’t you assume your boss is looking, too?
LinkedIn is no longer some stuffy career website you use as a last resort in your job search. It’s the largest professional network with millions of job postings and nearly 10 million companies. Seventy-nine percent of recruiters use it to source candidates. Get the most value out of it you can. Engage, lather, rinse, repeat!