LinkedIn Advanced - The Next 8 Weeks [Worksheet]

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LinkedIn Advanced - The Next 8 Weeks
LinkedIn is a professional-focused social media platform where individuals can set up
professional profiles, connect with peers and colleagues, enrich their profiles with
additional media and content and post updates about their professional activities.
The set of weekly exercises in this Advanced worksheet follows on from the LinkedIn
in 8 Weeks worksheet and builds on the foundation you set up as you completed the
introductory worksheet. This Advanced worksheet focuses on improving your profile,
helping you capitalise on sections you can add to your profile, additional features
you can take advantage of (inboxing, long-form posts, LinkedIn Pulse and more) as
well as encouraging you to evaluate outputs from your professional activities and
how you can capitalise on them in your LinkedIn profile.
Ingredients:
 A LinkedIn profile
 You've completed the LinkedIn
in 8 weeks worksheet
 30 minutes per week for 8 weeks
 An updated CV
Week 1: Improving Your Profile
Strength, Claiming Your Public
Profile URL
The LinkedIn Profile Strength Meter: you
can see the Profile Strength Meter for
your profile on the right-hand side of
your profile page.
LinkedIn rewards people who optimise
their profile and increase their profile
strength, with their profile likely to rank
higher in search results.
Image from LinkedIn Insights Why You Should Complete Your LinkedIn
Profile
LinkedIn Profile Strength
Be aware: as LinkedIn add more modules to the profile,
your profile strength may change. It's important you
check your profile strength occasionally to ensure you
are still at All Star Strength.
Articles of interest:
 LinkedIn Small Business: Tips on perfecting
your personal profile:
smallbusiness.linkedin.com/professional-
branding/linkedin-profile-tips
 LinkedIn Insights Why You Should Complete
Your LinkedIn Profile
www.linkedinsights.com/why-you-should-
complete-your-linkedin-profile/
 Design Resumes How To Boost Your LinkedIn
Profile Strength To Gain Visibility
designresumes.com/2015/08/how-to-boost-
your-linkedin-profile-strength-to-gain-visibility/
 CentreLyne LinkedIn Strength
centerlyne.com/linkedin-strength/
LinkedIn Help Centre resources:
 help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3
91/~/profile-strength
Reminder: LinkedIn Help Centre
LinkedIn has an excellent Help Centre where you can
browse popular help topics, search for answers from
LinkedIn and the LinkedIn community.
If you need information about how to do something on
your LinkedIn profile, such as:
 Adding rich media to your profile
 What a particular LinkedIn feature is intended
for (such as the different modules you can
add to your profile)
The LinkedIn Help Centre should be your first point of
contact: help.linkedin.com
Note: LinkedIn App vs LinkedIn Desktop version
If you are using the LinkedIn App on your phone or
tablet, you will notice that not all the features are
available via the App version of LinkedIn.
This may change over time, as new versions of the
LinkedIn App are rolled out, but in the interim you will
need to either:
 Go to the browser on your phone/tablet and
navigate to the LinkedIn site:
www.linkedin.com and decline any prompts
to send you to the app (it helps if you close
the app before you do this)
 Update your LinkedIn profile on a desktop or
laptop.

1. Go to your profile: what is your
profile strength?
2. If it's not All Star Profile Strength,
it's time to get your profile to All
Star Profile Strength
3. To do this, you need to ensure
you have done the following:
a. Added a profile picture
b. Experience section:
added 2 positions (at
least), and written a
description of each role
in the fields provided
c. Listed 5 skill
endorsements on your
profile
d. Summary: added a
summary about yourself
e. Add the industry you
work within and your
location (e.g. postal
code) to your profile.
f. Education: added where
you went to University,
College and/or School
g. Have 50+ connections
Claiming Your Public Profile URL: gives
you a nicer looking URL for your
LinkedIn profile that you can share on
business cards or link to elsewhere.
e.g. au.linkedin.com/in/natachasuttor
which redirects to
www.linkedin.com/in/natachasuttor
instead of
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-
valli-3409175
4. Go to your public profile and
claim your public profile URL:
www.linkedin.com/profile/publi
c-profile-settings
Regular Tasks:
1) Accept / Ignore connections you
have received
2) Initiate a couple of requests to
connect with people on LinkedIn
3) Review recent posts and updates:
a) by companies you follow
b) by universities you follow
c) in groups you're a member of
d) In your news feed
e) By your connections
4) Posting:
a) Post a status update: You did
something great this week,
share it
b) Post something into one of the
groups you're a member: either
initiate the post, or contributing
to the discussion by
commenting on someone else's
post
Claiming Your LinkedIn Vanity URL
7/~/customizing-your-public-profile-url
Which Industry Do You Work In?
LinkedIn has ~147 pre-set industries for you to choose
from.
This field will be used to drive advanced searches by
industry, so consider which industry anyone searching for
you is most likely look for you in.
As an example: If you work at a university, and your job is
a researcher, where you complete research in the
Exercise & Sports Science discipline, are people more
likely to look for you in:
o Health, Wellness and Fitness, or
o Higher Education, or
o Research
While this is a personal decision: there are ample other
ways to communicate your place of work (experience),
and your job title (experience) so it might be worth
selecting the field you research in. That will be more likely
to make you findable for peers, practitioners in industry
and demonstrate where your professional focus lies.

Week 2: Optimising Your
Profile, Being a Good LinkedIn
Citizen and Thinking About
"Collateral"
Remove buzzwords from your profile:
LinkedIn review information members
add to their LinkedIn profile
information, and summarise the Top 10
buzzwords (over)used each year.
1. It's time to review what you've
written in the Summary,
Experience and Education
sections and ensure you are not
using (or overusing) these
words.
LinkedIn recommend practices to
avoid when optimising your profile for
search: it's time to review your profile
and make sure you are being a good
citizen and correctly using your profile
fields
2. Review all sections you've
added content to in your profile
to and ensure you are not
misusing fields as these may
breach LinkedIn's Terms of
Service (you agreed to these
when you became a LinkedIn
member) and could cause your
profile to be in violation (and
there are consequences):
help.linkedin.com/app/answers
/detail/a_id/51499/kw/Practices
+to+Avoid+When+Optimizing+Y
our+Profile+for+LinkedIn+Search
Updating your headline: By default,
your headline will be your current job
title. You can change that (if your
headline is the same as your current
position, your current position won't
display in the top section of your
profile)
3. Review what's in your headline:
it will appear in search results.
Make sure it's a great call to
action for your profile and
current professional objectives
(and don't forget to avoid
buzzwords).
Reordering and rearranging sections
of your profile: you can change the
order of sections on your profile page
(e.g. Summary, Education,
Experience).
4. Rearrange your profile until you
are happy with the order:
a. ensure sections that are
important to your
professional profile and
current professional
objectives are at the
head of your profile
5. If you have added several
current positions to the
Experience section, and several
entries to the Education section,
you can rearrange the order
within sections:
Editing your profile (includes information about editing
your headline)
LinkedIn Small Business: Tips on perfecting your personal
profile: smallbusiness.linkedin.com/professional-
branding/linkedin-profile-tips
/kw/editing+your+profile
LinkedIn User Agreement
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement
Overused Buzzwords
 LinkedIn's 2014 list of overused words:
blog.linkedin.com/2015/01/21/brand-you-
year-how-to-brand-yourself-without-sounding-
like-everyone-else/
blog.linkedin.com/2013/12/11/buzzwords-
2013/
2012/
redux/
blog.linkedin.com/2010/12/14/2010-top10-
profile-buzzwords/

b. Review the order of
those sections, and
rearrange until you are
happy with the order
c. Ensure
positions/experience/pu
blications/projects that
are important to your
professional profile and
current professional
objectives are at the
head of these sections
Start thinking about "collateral": For this
series of exercises, start to think about
your professional activities, and the
outputs from them, as collateral:
 Do you give presentations to
the public: do you have
presentation slides or videos of
you guest speaking (or are they
available online)?
 Are there photos of you acting
in your professional capacity or
undertaking activities you want
to show to your professional
connections and/or
prospective employers?
 Do you create documents or
designs that you can share with
the public?
 Have you written or co-written
publications, and are these
available online (i.e. within your
institutions digital repository or
on an online journal's site)?
Start identifying potential collateral
that you could use to enrich your
LinkedIn profile and capitalise on to
build your professional profile:
6. Compile a list of URLs where this
information is.
7. Where the content isn't online
but is in electronic format,
collate it into a folder.
Regular Tasks:
have received
4) Interact with your connections:
a) Like or comment on an update
from one of your connections
5) Posting:
share it
groups you're a member, either:
i) initiate the post, or
Be careful what you gather as collateral
Make sure it's not confidential or commercially sensitive
information. And it must be material you have the rights
share with respect to Copyright law and Intellectual
Property rights*.
And your role in creating the material should be clear
and obvious in the file/item itself*.
Plus you should ensure content you share works within
other parameters, e.g.:
 Media and Social Media Policy at your
workplace
 Code of Conduct at your workplace
*see Week 5: Adding Rich Media for more discussion and
suggestions about this.
Rearranging sections on Your LinkedIn Profile
904/~/rearranging-sections-on-your-profile
838/ft/eng

ii) contributing to the
discussion by commenting
on someone else's post
5) Continue to identify potential
collateral that you could use to
enrich your LinkedIn profile and
capitalise on to build your
professional profile:
a) Compile a list of URLs where this
information is.
b) Where the content isn't online,
Week 3: Enrich your profile:
adding Publications, Projects
and Volunteer Positions
Publications: if you have authored, or
co-authored, publication(s) relevant to
your professional profile: it's time to
add these to your profile.
1) Add each publication to the
Publications section of your
LinkedIn Profile
a) if a copy is online, i.e. in a
research repository or online
journal, add a link to the
document
b) if there are co-authors, tag
them
c) if you have publications
accessible elsewhere online,
consider adding links to these
too
d) Make sure you add an abstract
or description about the
publication
e) Don't forget: You can change
the order of publications within
the Publications section
Projects: if you have been involved
with projects, it's time to add them to
your LinkedIn profile.
2) Add each project to the Project
section of your LinkedIn Profile
a) If there is a website for the
project, add the URL
b) Indicate the start and end date
(date range), or the month and
year of the project
c) Add team members to the
project: tag other LinkedIn
members who were involved
d) Make sure you add a
description of the project
Volunteering Experience: if you hold
Projects
3524/~/adding-and-editing-projects-on-your-
profile
Publications
Articles of interest
 Impactstory How to become an academic
networking pro on LinkedIn:
blog.impactstory.org/linkedin-networking
6598/~/adding-or-changing-publications-on-
your-profile
838/ft/eng
Reminder: When you're sharing research publications
If you're sharing research output (papers etc, make sure
the content you share (and how you refer to it) fits within
parameters which may dictate who/what/where/how
that publication gets shared such as:
 Research Publications policies
 Grant Agreements etc with external parties
If you're a postgraduate student or researcher on staff
with a University, you should submit your research output
to the digital repository for your institution.
The Repository Librarians will ensure you are uploading
the right version of papers into the repository (particularly
important where you've submitted that paper to a paid
access journal).
Once it's in the repository:
 You can add the URL to the publications
section of your LinkedIn profile (and other
professional profiles)
 Your publications will be retrieved for searches
on your organisation's Library system and/or
research repository
 You will normally get access to readership
reports, views and other analytics for your
publication in the repository: those are
important metrics to help you evaluate how
effectively you are promoting your research ;)

(or have held) volunteer position(s)
with a recognised organisation, it's
time to add these to your LinkedIn
profile.
3) Add each position to the Volunteer
Experience section of your LinkedIn
Profile
a) If the organisation you volunteer
with has a company page on
LinkedIn, made sure you tag
their company page.
b) Indicate the start and end date
(date range), or the month and
year of your volunteer role
c) Add the role: where you have
fulfilled different roles for a
single organisation over a
period of time:
i) you should add these
separately
ii) differentiate by role title and
date range of each position
d) Make sure you add a
description to each position
Regular Tasks:
have received
5) Posting:
share it
information is.
Week 4: Enrich your profile:
adding Certifications, Test
Scores, Courses etc
Certifications: if you have professional
certifications either from official
LinkedIn Partners (such as Microsoft,
Coursera, lynda.com, Hubspot, edX
and etc) or from another certification
provider, you should add this to your
LinkedIn profile.
1) Add the certifications module to
your LinkedIn Profile and start
adding any certifications:
a) Add the name of the
certification (official title of the
certification you achieved)
LinkedIn Certifications
 LinkedIn Blog Showcase your Professional
Certifications on LinkedIn
blog.linkedin.com/2014/11/20/showcase-your-
professional-certifications-on-linkedin-in-one-
click/
4644/~/adding-or-changing-certifications-on-
your-profile

b) Add the certification authority
(who you studied with)
c) Their license number (if
available)
d) A URL to the certification
e) Dates for the certification: start
date and end date (if it expires)
f) Some providers, like edX have
buttons that automate adding
your certifications to your profile
(you can edit this after it has
been added).
Test Scores: primarily aimed at students
who may not have professional
experience but who have performed
well at standardised tests. Can also be
used by people who have sat industry-
recognised tests.
2) Do you have test scores for
particular industry tests and/or from
standardised tests that you want to
publicise on your LinkedIn Profile? If
so: add them to the Test Scores
section.
a) Add the title of the test, the
date you sat it and the score
into the fields available
b) You can indicate which position
you occupied in this section too
c) Make sure you add a
description of the test score
Courses primarily aimed at students
who may not have professional
experience but who have completed
specific units and want to display them
on their profile.
3) Are you currently studying towards
a university or post-secondary
course? Have you added the
course itself to the Education
section of your profile?
If so, you could profile specific units
you have completed to
prospective employers and your
professional connections? If you
want to highlight specific units
you've studied - in addition to
adding the course itself to the
Education section of your profile -
add the units to the Courses
section.
a) Add the title of the course and
the course
b) You can associate it with an
active course that you have
listed in your Education section.
Regular Tasks:
have received
5) Posting:
share it
LinkedIn Courses
LinkedIn is a US platform, what they refer to as courses
would be units within a course e.g. Marketing 101 in the
Bachelor of Business, where Marketing 101 is the unit and
what LinkedIn mean by course.
You can read about courses, and some of the other
fields aimed at teens, on the LinkedIn Family Centre
section of the LinkedIn Help Centre:
help.linkedin.com/app/safety/answers/detail/a_id/38598

information is.
Week 5: Adding rich media
What can we do with collateral: You
should have been identifying and
gathering "collateral" since Week 2,
outputs from your professional
activities you may be able to use to
additionally demonstrate your skills
and abilities.
1. Go through each item, and:
a. consider what you can
do with it in the light of
the What to do with Rich
Media on Your LinkedIn
Profile flowchart below
Image from EllipticalPointOfView.com Resources:
What to do with Rich Media on Your LinkedIn Profile
[Flowchart]
b. Based on the chart:
where you can upload
the item directly to your
profile, do so.
c. Based on the chart:
Where the item is more
appropriate as a status
update, post a status
update to share that
item
Supported 3rd Party Providers:
Sometimes it's preferable to host rich
media content elsewhere, on a
supported 3rd party provider, and link
in to your LinkedIn Profile:
 Builds your profile on an
additional platform geared
towards featuring, displaying
and propagating that type of
content
 Analytics for views and other
actions are available from the
3rd party provider
Reminder: Be careful what you upload to LinkedIn or
other sites as part of your professional portfolio
Make sure it's not confidential or commercially sensitive
information. And it must be material you have the rights
share with respect to Copyright law and Intellectual
Property rights*.
And your role in creating the material should be clear
and obvious in the file/item itself*.
Plus you should ensure content you share works within
other parameters, e.g.:
 Media and Social Media Policy at your
workplace

The next step is to look at content you
are hosting, or can host, elsewhere
and leverage that on your LinkedIn
profile:
2. Where you have an account on
a third party provider, go
through each item you didn't
upload directly to your LinkedIn
profile, and:
a. Ensure you've uploaded
to that account
b. Link in that content to
your LinkedIn Profile, or
c. Based on the chart:
Where the item is more
appropriate as a status
update, post a status
update to share that
item
Regular Tasks:
have received
5) Posting:
share it
professional profile.
Week 6: Other Profile sections
to consider
Explore the other sections you can
add to your LinkedIn profile: add them
as relevant:
1) Interests: if you want to outline
specific professional and/or
research interests that you have
not mentioned elsewhere in your
profile (i.e. in your Summary), this is
the place to list them. You can also
include personal interests, where
you want to display those to your
professional connections.
2) Advice for contacting: you can
add information about
opportunities you're interested in
hearing about (i.e. research or
professional collaboration, job
opportunities) as well as your
availability.
Adding rich media content to your LinkedIn profile or in a
status update
 Formats & File Sizes supported by LinkedIn
help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3
4327/~/supported-providers-and-content-
types-for-work-samples-on-your-profile
 Third part providers supported by LinkedIn ,
see full list embed.ly/providers
 Sharing a file in a status update:
help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4
34/kw/add+photo+to+status+update
Editing your LinkedIn Profile and sections you can add
/kw/editing+your+profile
284

3) Languages: where you speak
several languages
4) Organizations: are you the member
of any professional associations or
industry bodies i.e. ALIA, ACS and
etc? Add them to this section.
5) Patents: if you've applied for or
received a patent, add it.
4) Causes you care about: if you
have specific not-for-profit causes
and/or organisations you support
and you want to display this on
your professional profile, add them
to this section. If the organisation
you volunteer with has a company
page on LinkedIn, made sure you
tag their company page.
6) Supported Organisations: Similar to
Volunteer Experience.
7) Volunteering opportunities -
(separate to Volunteering
Experience): if you're interested in
promoting yourself to volunteer
organisations
8) Personal details: allows you to add
a birth date. Suggest you do not
take advantage of this feature.
Regular Tasks:
have received
5) Posting:
share it
professional profile
Week 7: Inboxing and
Revisiting Your Contact
Information
Inboxing: LinkedIn has its own internal
messaging solution, so you can
privately message connections.
LinkedIn's inbox has more in common
with an email inbox, than Facebook
messaging does (which operates more
like chat).
You may also find you receive
messages from recruiters, or EDMs from
other companies via the LinkedIn
inbox.
1. Go to the inbox icon (top
menu, looks like 2 talk balloons):
Personal Details
Think carefully about what you want visible to the public
and/or your connections, suggest only email address
and never publish your birth date or highly personal
information.

a. If you scroll over it, you'll
see a drop down with
recently received
messages.
b. You can also click on the
talk button, to go to your
inbox to see all your
messages.
Revisiting Your Contact Info: Now
you've had 15-16 weeks to experience
LinkedIn and to see how
communications happen within the
platform: via status updates &
comments, messaging to your inbox,
within groups etc; it's time to revisit the
contact information you've associated
with your LinkedIn profile.
This contact info may be different to
the contact information you have set
for your LinkedIn account:
 Contact info: what you want to
show the public and/or
connections. You access this
information via your LinkedIn
profile page.
 Privacy and Account Settings:
this contact info determines
how LinkedIn contacts you and
authenticates you. You access
this information via the Privacy
& Settings drop down at
account level
2. Review the Contact info
associated with your profile, on
your LinkedIn Profile page and
confirm:
a. you are happy with the
information you are
sharing with the public,
and
b. the information you
share to your
connections only
Regular Tasks:
have received
5) Posting:
share it
Editing Contact Info on your LinkedIn Profile and how it
works
4986/~/profile-contact-info-button---overview

Week 8: Posts and LinkedIn
Pulse
Posts: LinkedIn has added the ability to
write long-form posts (like a blog post)
for users (NB: it's not available in every
location as yet).
If you have access to post, you will see
the "Write A Post" button next to the
"Share an Update" and "Upload a
Photo" buttons.
1. If you click on the "Write a Post"
button, you'll see the Your Posts
screen:
2. LinkedIn will list your posts (and
drafts) as well as suggested
writing ideas
3. Writing posts:
a. LinkedIn provides a
simple WYSIWYG editor
for you to write the posts
- you can embed
content from supported
providers, format text
content, add links.
b. You can add a header
image, suggested
dimensions: 700 x 400
pixels
Writing Long Form Posts on LinkedIn
7445/~/long-form-posts-on-linkedin---overview
Writing posts
People who write posts, generally do so in one of 3 ways:
 Drive traffic to their professional blog: write a short
overview and provide a link where people can
read more (normally there are richer analytics on
the blog side)
 Drive traffic/views to content they have on other
sites: Write a small post with content embedded
from supported 3rd party providers
(presentations, video etc) (normally there are
richer analytics on the 3rd party provider side)
 Write a complete post within LinkedIn: where it's
too much work to establish and maintain a
separate blog and the features provided by the
simple WYSIWYG editor and/or ability to embed
will enable the content to be posted (without the
additional workload of managing content
elsewhere).
As stated elsewhere: don't write about not confidential or
commercially sensitive information.
Plus you should ensure content you share works within other
parameters, e.g.:
 Media and Social Media Policy at your workplace
 If you're sharing research output (papers etc,
make sure the content you share (and how you
refer to it) fits within parameters which may
dictate who/what/where/how that publication
gets shared such as:
o Research Publications policies
o Grant Agreements etc with external
parties
And your post should be yours: material you have the rights
share with respect to Copyright law and Intellectual Property
rights*:
 Where you reference others work, you should
appropriate acknowledge the owners of the
material.
 Where you intend to include others' work, you
should seek permission to do so from the rights
holder for that work.
Before you post
Be aware: Posts are not edited, peer reviewed,
approved or curated and you are writing for a wider,
professional audience from many different backgrounds
and opinions who do not necessarily have an academic
background in the area.
Where you are writing on a contentious topic, you
should prepare for commentary from an audience from
many different backgrounds and should have a strategy
in place for acknowledging, responding to it and/or
rebutting with relevant facts as required.

4. If you've published a post:
a. You will see in the Posts
section at the head of
your LinkedIn profile
section
b. You will have access to
statistics for the post(s)
LinkedIn Pulse: LinkedIn collates posts
from LinkedIn Users - including yourself
if you decide to write posts - and from
LinkedIn Influencers into its publishing
platform: LinkedIn Pulse.
You access LinkedIn Pulse under the
Interests menu in the top menu.
 You can find posts, follow
people who post (including
LinkedIn Influencers) via
LinkedIn Pulse.
 See the different topics
(curated for you based on your
profile) via the Pulse menu:
 NB: you can also write a post
from this screen too.
It's time you find posts and people to
follow:
1. Look at the topics suggested to
you (as well as the wider list of
topics in the menu)
a. Read a post or two in the
topics that interest you
b. Like/Comment on a post
c. Follow a topic (also
called channels)
2. Look at the Influencers
suggested to you (as well as the
wider list of influencers)
a. Read a post or two by
influencers
b. Like/Comment on a post
c. Follow an influencer
Regular Tasks:
have received
Channels and Influencers
 LinkedIn's Top 10 Influencers of 2015
lists.linkedin.com/2015/top-voices/influencers
 LinkedIn Pulse: Top 10 Influencer Posts 2014 (by
page views):
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/most-
popular-influencer-posts-chip-cutter
 LinkedIn Blog: Best of 2013: The 20 Stories That
Mattered Most to Professionals This Year:
blog.linkedin.com/2013/12/05/best-of-2013-
the-stories-that-mattered-most-to-
professionals-this-year/
008/ft/eng
4732/related/1

a) By companies you follow
b) By universities you follow
c) In groups you're a member of
f) From LinkedIn Pulse
5) Posting:
share it
groups you're a member.
Networking on LinkedIn
 Impactstory How to become an academic
networking pro on LinkedIn:
blog.impactstory.org/linkedin-networking
 Harvard Business Review: An Introvert's Guide
To Networking hbr.org/2012/01/the-introverts-
guide-to-networ

LinkedIn Advanced - The Next 8 Weeks [Worksheet]

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