LinkedIn: Advanced Profile Features

Last week’s CareerGlider post discussed three ways your LinkedIn profile is used: as an online resume, as a filtering mechanism, and as a way of being headhunted by recruiters. We talked about how to set out the essentials of your resume while avoiding basic mistakes.

This week, we talk about how to help people find you on LinkedIn—and how to impress them when they do.

First: Stop Changes Being Shared to Network

By default, LinkedIn shares with your network every change you make to your profile. So you don’t spam your network with small changes, move the slider on the right-hand side of your profile headed, “Notify Your Network?” to ‘No’. When you’re ready for people to see your changes, you can always switch it back.

Custom URL

Also by default, LinkedIn gives your profile page a random-looking string of letters and numbers as the URL for your profile page. A custom URL looks better, on screen and on a business card.

In the drop-down menu at the top of the page, select Profile > Edit Profile. Your current URL is underneath your photo. Click on it. On the panel on the right, you’ll see a heading: “Your Public Profile URL.” Click on the pencil beside it and change the URL to whatever you like—preferably a variant on your name that’s available.

Custom Headline

Your headline defaults to your current job title and employer, but you can change it. And there are good reasons to do so.

One is to impress people: if they like what they read, they’ll read on. Another is to impress search engines. Recruiters often use Boolean keyword queries—search terms connected by ‘and’s, ‘or’s, ‘not’s, etc. You want to show up on those searches. While LinkedIn’s search algorithm is a secret, headlines are said to rank second only to your name in importance.

There needs to be a balance, of course: LinkedIn’s search engine may like your profile, but a human is not going to be impressed if your headline is an unreadable sludge of keywords

What ‘keywords’ should you use? Job descriptions in your field will help you. Let’s say you’re looking for work in social media. Here’s a sample posting in that field from a recruiter:

The full posting is available here.

Let’s assume you are just the right fit for this kind of job, and this job is representative of what’s out there. (In reality, you might well apply despite not being a 100% perfect fit, and you’d check many, many more of these postings.) How do you ensure you’re found by recruiters looking for similar candidates?

The words ‘Social Media’ should be the first thing in your headline. The posting also focuses on content skills, so that should be in your headline too. Skills in community management are also being sought, and the idea of an online community might be a nice way to hang your headline together. Finally, the problem the employer is really trying to solve—what all these skills are required to do—is promoting and managing a brand online.

Let’s put all of that together within 120 characters (the limit for the headline). One way of writing a headline is more minimalist, just using a few descriptive phrases:

Social Media Associate | Content Writer | Brand Manager | Online Engagement Specialist

Alternatively, you might choose something that’s more of a personal branding statement, for instance:

Social Media specialist and content writer passionate about helping brands connect with online communities.

Neither of these is flashy, and you might feel something a bit more exuberant better expresses who you are—in which case, go for it! But buzzwords like ‘Ninja,’ ‘Guru,’ and ‘Maven,’ are best avoided—no one is searching LinkedIn for ninjas, and some of these buzzwords are making most-despised lists.

Remember that we’re assuming in this example that you have all these skills: don’t forget your obligation is always to be completely honest.

Keywords in your Experience section

In your Experience section, make sure to include other keywords you think might be searched, or secondary skills employers may want to you to have.

In our social media example, for instance, if you had prior experience with any or all of the social networks listed, you would want to make sure those networks were listed in your Experience section. And if you had PowerPoint or Photoshop skills, you would want to get those words into your profile, and into your Skills list too.

This post doesn’t cover everything, but these tips are some of the simplest and most effective ways of making your profile more visible. The other important thing you can do is reach out to others—which is what we’ll cover next week.

from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1EYCaL0 via small business marketing company

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