Left out of LinkedIn? A primer on how to move from apprentice to journeyman. This presentation covers LInkedIn profile basics, customizing your URL, LinkedIn Connections, LinkedIn Groups, Recommendations, Endorsements, LinkedIn Search, LinkedIn and your Job Search, Personal Branding
3. AN INTRODUCTION TO
LINKEDIN
- Background
- How do I get started?
- How do I kick it up a notch?
4. WHAT IS LINKEDIN?
Founded in Reid Hoffman’s living room in 2002 and officially
launched in May 2003
Mission:
Connect the world's professionals to make them more
productive and successful. When you join LinkedIn, you get
access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help
you be great at what you do.
LinkedIn is the world's largest professional
network with 200 million members in 200
countries and territories around the globe.
5. WHAT CAN YOU USE IT FOR?
Through your network you can:
• Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and
partners who come recommended
• Be found for business opportunities
• Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close
deals
• Post and distribute job listings & search for great jobs
• Find high-quality passive candidates
[Source: LinkedIn]
6. WHAT CAN YOU USE IT FOR?
Through your network, you have the:
1) Ability to be known and enhance your personal brand
2) Ability to be found by recruiters or other hiring authorities
3) Ability to find others and make important connections
4) Opportunity to learn and share
5) Ability to connect with group members
6) Opportunity to show you are plugged in to current technology
[Source: "I'm On LinkedIn: Now What?”, Jason Alba]
7. APPRENTICE TO JOURNEYMAN
Creating a profile
Custom URL
100% Profile Completeness
Making Connections
Groups & Associations
Recommendations
Endorsements
8. LINKEDIN PROFILE BASICS
Upload a picture (please, nothing cute)
Edit “Basic Information”
Use industry keywords in your
headline
Write a thoughtful summary that
describes how you can help your
target audience (clients, etc.)
9. SETTING YOUR PROFILE
Make sure you
add a photo
(and SMILE)
Edit URL
(help search
engines find you)
Summary
If you’ve
(NOT RESUME)
had a non-
traditional
career, this can
make it easier for
others to follow
10. LINKEDIN PROFILE
Users with complete profiles are 40 times more
likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.
Your current position
Two past positions
Your education
Your profile summary
A profile photo
Your specialties
At least three recommendations
Your profile should be a rich description of
your skills, interests and career history.
11. WHAT‟S NEXT?
Complete your profile
Helps you find and be found by former (and future)
colleagues, clients, and partners
Add Connections
Current and past co-workers
Respected clients
Business partners
Trusted suppliers and vendors
Use your network
Find jobs
Find people
Find business opportunities
13. KNOW THYSELF (ONLINE)
vanity Googling
searching yourself
Ego- Ego-
surfing searching
Ego- Auto-
googling googling
Self-
googling
Think about how quickly you google others. That’s happening to
you. Make sure that what they find is what you’d like them to see
14. HAVE YOU GOOGLED YOURSELF LATELY?
I did not kill
Jesse James
I‟m not a
Canadian
politician
I‟m not a
sports
broadcaster I haven‟t
committed any
ethics violations
19. LINKEDIN CONNECTIONS
Contacts + Invitations = Connections
You make new connections by:
• Inviting Contacts
Manually entering names & emails.
• Importing Contacts
Load webmail address books (MSN, AOL, YAHOO, GMAIL) or extract /
upload address book (.csv, .txt, or .vcf files).
• Colleagues
Find past or present co-workers, based on employment history.
• Classmates
Find past or present classmates, based on education history.
20. LINKED GROUPS
LinkedIn groups are a great way to make
connections with peers and position
yourself as a leader in your industry.
Above all, be yourself. Be true to
your personal brand.
People hire and do business with
people, not manufactured
personalities.
21. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Recommendations can help your cause
Recruiters and hiring managers do read recommendations, treating
them like references
• Reach out personally when you ask for a recommendation
Do not use LinkedIn recommendation request, unless you have
already had an exchange with the person you’re asking.
• Only ask those who truly know your work
• Help the writer out
Jog their memory verbally, or in a note, or even offer to draft the recommendation yourself.
• Specificity is best
Ideally, recommendations should describe exactly what the person did, including the
outcome of the project.
• Get a range of recommendations
It’s best to have recommendations from a boss, a colleague and a subordinate, to give
readers a sense of how you work at all levels.
22. ENDORSEMENTS
• Considered by many as ‘recommendations lite’.
• Only 1st level connections can endorse you.
• Endorsements can be rejected or hidden.
• Interesting 360 degree feedback on how you’re
perceived by your network.
• If you want to use endorsements, you first need to build a concise and direct list
of your skills.
23. LINKEDIN GROUND RULES
Do try to connect with those you know.
Don’t try to connect with just anyone (spam &
IDK).
Do join groups.
Don’t spam groups with tons of offers, etc .
Do post useful and interesting articles
(appropriate for that group).
Don’t mention your cousin’s boozy
birthday bash.
27. LINKEDIN AND YOUR JOB SEARCH
Complete and update your profile (think of it as
your online resume)
Highlight your experience in the professional summary
Include all keywords and skills from your resume, for better
searching
Let people know what you’re looking for through the Contact
Settings (e.g. career opportunities, consulting offers, new
ventures, job inquiries, reference requests, etc.)
Use Links to point to your web site, blog, etc.
Make your profile public
Use status field - it acts as a tickler to your network, keeping
them informed of what you’re up to.
Update your profile regularly, so your information is up-to-date.
28. LINKEDIN AND YOUR JOB SEARCH
Search for jobs on LinkedIn
Check both tabs (‘LinkedIn’ & ‘The Web’)
Research, research, research!
Company
Job Poster
Current Employees
Former Employees
Use Browser Toolbar (IE / Firefox)
Quick search from anywhere
Direct access to LinkedIn
See your inside connections at any hiring company
29. LINKEDIN AND YOUR JOB SEARCH
• Look for (and give) referrals
• Builds credibility
• Provides insight into experience / character
30. LINKEDIN AND PERSONAL
BRANDING
Personal Branding
• “Just as a brand represents others perceptions of a
product, a personal brand is others' collective view of
you.”
• “A personal brand is the summation of the strengths
that you exhibit and the commitment to certain aspects
of your job/life.”
• “Personal branding is the conscious and systematic
process where people and their careers are effectively
marketed as brands in virtue of their competences,
distinctive personality traits, abilities and skill sets, with
the goal of promoting and building a solid reputation
and a well-gained prestige”
[Source: LinkedIn Answers]
31. PERSONAL BRANDING TOOLKIT
• LinkedIn Profile
• Web page / portfolio
• Blogs
• LinkedIn Groups
• The Brand Called You
• Personal Branding
“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we
happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding.
We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today,
our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”
[Source: Tom Peters]
33. HOW TO NAVIGATE GROUPS
Use the search function.
D o n ’ t i n t e r r u p t t h e g r o u p ’s c o nv e r s a t i o n f l o w b y a s k i n g q u e s t i o n s t h a t s e a r c h
c a n a n s w e r.
Get to know the lay of the land.
A s t h e y s a y, f o o l s r u s h i n . Ta k e t i m e t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e g r o u p d y n a m i c s .
Find and develop internal champions.
I t ’s a l wa y s g o o d t o h a v e p e o p l e i n y o u r c o r n e r. T h e y ’ r e y o u r c h e e r l e a d e r s a n d
you theirs. Support them and they’ll be there when you need them.
Don’t tick off the moderator or group admin.
K n o w w h i c h s i d e o f t h e b r e a d y o u r b u t t e r i s o n . I f t h e r e a r e a ny m i s g i v i n g s , e r r
on the side of being professional and cordial.
Know when to move on.
As with most things in life, sometimes we outgrow things. Ke e p y o u r
g o a l s i n s i g h t a n d r e g u l a r l y r e - e va l u a t e i f t h e g r o u p i s
meeting those needs.
Understand the medium.
Email and online posting do not afford you the
b e n e f i t o f t o n e a n d i n f l e c t i o n . Ta k e t h i s i n t o
account when posting to groups .
34. HOW TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Stop, read and understand.
Pay attention to how others communicate with the group. Is there a
particular format that you need to follow ?
LinkedIn groups are not Facebook .
Don‟t leave cute private messages or requests to chat
unless you really have a real reason to connect
Lurk.
Silence is golden. Sit for a little while and watch the
activity.
Get to know the key influencers.
You need to know who the centers of influence are and
to the extent that their work or personality resonates
with you – get to know them.
Your signature shouldn‟t be longer than your posts.
Your name, email address, phone number and web site address are
PLENT Y. If people want the long story, they can visit your web site .
35. HOW TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Be a g iver.
Don‟t just visit the group to ask for help. Assisting other s to find solutions
builds goodwill. Build this kind of networking into your annual marketing
“spend”.
Dig your well before you‟re t hir sty.
Lack of preparation on your par t does not constitute an
emergency for other s.
Share your resources.
No one likes an information hog .
A lways have your m anners „on‟.
You never know who‟s lurking and watching to see how
you handle your self. How you do anything is how you do
ever ything.
Be scarce.
If you‟re always available, when do you work? The assumption is that
people who are not always available are impor tant. This may or may not
be true but, impressions are impressions .
36. HOW TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Know when to take it of f -line.
Don‟t bog down the rest of the group with personal exchanges.
Don‟t be desperate. There‟s a fine line between seeking referrals
and trolling for dollars. Learn the difference.
Don‟t blatantly self -promote. Many LinkedIn
groups have rules against this
Don‟t flame or curse.
It really is OK (and preferable) to agree to
disagree.
Never ask people whom you don‟t know to refer
clients to you or to recommend you.
It‟s desperate, tacky and a waste of a perfectly
good opportunity to connect.
37. HOW TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Learn how to connect with people.
Really connect. Be genuine. If you don‟t have anything
authentic to share, wait for a time when you do.
Don‟t cross-post.
If you post a message in one group, don‟t post
it in other similar groups
Create a contribution schedule.
You want to be scarce but you also want to
appear available and helpful.
Be clear.
Remember, the people reading your message do not have the
benefit of knowing the back story of your post.