Don’t be afraid to solicit recommendations from colleagues and friends, but make sure you offer to reciprocate. Recommendations can give your profile added credibility.
Should the authors struggle to cast your skills, personality and work ethic in the best light you can always feed them a sample script. Sounds phony, but a former colleague or employer might struggle with details. Follow these simple rules to get started.
It’s been over three years since I printed, read, proofed or shared an offline copy of my resume. I don’t even have digital copy I can share. LinkedIn does all that for me, includes recommendations, links to my company or other information.
No need to reinvent the wheel. Give that future employer a link to LinkedIn. If they expected a paper copy odds are they won’t say anything for fear of coming across like a technical neophyte. Or, they might just think you didn’t care enough about the job to print a resume. Tread lightly.
Time to get agressive? Is your goal to rack up as many contacts as possible? If so, consider this LinkedIn tip. Add your email address to your last name in your profile. For example, Michael Simmons(mosimmons@yahoo.com) allows anyone to send you a direct connect invitation. LinkedIn figures that if they have your email address they know you well enough to make the request. You can always put the smack down on any requests you get, but consider the implications of denial after denial after denial. You might get a reputation.
FYI: People with fewer than five connections are 34 times less likely to get job offers than those with 20 or more. I’m just going to trust Guy on that factoid.
LinkedIn rolled out a soft launch of its application append feature. If you weren’t looking for it, there’s a chance you missed it. The success of embedded widgets/applications within LinkedIn is still up in the air. Your reader will need to scroll all the way to the bottom of my profile to see a feed from your blog–not exactly front and center.
It’s unlikely adding the WordPress app is going to give your blog a bump in traffic. LinkedIn apps aren’t quite there yet, so our LinkedIn tip number seven is take a pass on this one with no regrets.
Here’s an easy way to enhance your LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t already, consider adding outbound links to your profile. It gives you a chance to cast yourself in a whole new light. Don’t stop there. LinkedIn defaults to some basic headers when you add links, but you don’t have to settle for generics. Choose “other” when adding links to define your links.
Give your reader a reason to click with a custom title. Use tr.im, or similar tools and you’ll be able to track aggregate clicks within your profile. If you’re titles aren’t getting it done, switch up your titles or outbound links to improve click-through and get more out of your LinkedIn profile.
How do you tell people you’re on LinkedIn? When you sign up the folks at LinkedIn encourage you to send invitations to everyone in your YahooGoogleHotmail address book to build a network quickly. Next you might run through all your colleagues at your current job, then move on to your previous job, to college and on and on. That’s when you hit a wall.
Instead of building your network five to ten contacts at a time you end up with one or two here or there. Your network grows organically. Happy hours, trade shows, club meetings, group meetings, conferences and weddings help you meet people you can add to your network. There is one way to build your network you might overlook: LinkedIn branded paraphernalia. That’s right! Everything from shirts to hats to mugs and even, I kid you not, a LinkedIn lapel pin.
Now you can wear your network with pride. Strangers will approach you to join your LinkedIn network. “Are you in LinkedIn?” There’s no need to ask; I see that you are. Ready to team up with a little LinkedIn gear? The store is located here. Happy networking!
LinkedIn is a pre-requisite for business networking. Sure, Facebook is great for catching up with old high school and college chums, but it lacks the buttoned-up, professional feel and usability of LinkedIn. Seriously, do I want my customers, vendors and business associates checking out my high school yearbook pics. No, not really. Silly pics in our VLG fan club that reveal a little of our creative personality, yeah, okay.
However, if you are able to divide your network into business (LinkedIn) and pleasure (Facebook) it opens the door to a great two-pronged approach to networking. It allows you to cast the net a little further than you might otherwise to build a larger network of peers on LinkedIn. Don’t give up an opportunity to grow and develop your business, because you haven’t played golf with someone, or worked with them, or gone to university with them. You can open yourself up to new relationships, professional relationships. Could you have leveraged this ten years ago?