Archive for the ‘LinkedIn’ Category
5 Things To Do On LinkedIn Right Now
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
{This is a revised version of an article I penned for the American Marketing Association Career Update newsletter last month.}
You can like it, you can love it, but you can’t ignore LinkedIn. Arguably the most professional of all the social networks, having a polished and keyword-optimized LinkedIn profile is critical in the age of social recruiting.
If you haven’t logged in lately, here are five updates to make to your profile today. You can make all of the recommended updates by navigating to Profile > Edit Profile once you’ve logged in.
1. Optimize Your Headline
Your LinkedIn headline need not be your most recent job title. Instead, consider using words or phrases that describe who you are, what you do, and why you’re special. Talk about your skills and talents so recruiters and hiring managers can quickly assess your potential fit for jobs they’re trying to fill.
2. Add Skills & Expertise
The Skills section of LinkedIn is still in beta but it’s rapidly growing. This section allows hiring managers and recruiters to search on a keyword, such as “customer service representative,” to quickly uncover candidates who can get the job done. It’s also a clever way for you to benchmark your competition.
3. List Your Honors & Awards
No one can see that fancy Volunteer of the Year wall plaque hanging in your office but you. Now LinkedIn offers a designated place to list your honors. Don ‘t be shy – if ever there was a time to brag, this is it. Just out of school? Consider adding the Test Scores section instead.
4. Customize Your Public Profile URL
Did you know that Google indexes your LinkedIn profile? As such, each page has a unique URL, but you can easily customize it to underscore your personal brand. Mine is LinkedIn.com/in/simasays. Once you have a custom URL, drop it into your email signature. It’s a subtle way to encourage people to check out your profile and ultimately increase the size of your network.
5. Include Twitter (only if you tweet)
LinkedIn has a field for you to include your Twitter handle in your profile. This is perfect for people who tweet. However, if you are not an active user or you keep your tweets private, consider skipping this field altogether. For the socially savvy, there’s little worse than clicking that hyperlink to check out your Twitter stream only to hit a dead end.
Posted in LinkedIn, Social Networking |
Work Your Network!
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
By now, you’ve probably heard how important networking is to your career. You may even attend industry-specific networking events, speed-networking meetings, or get virtually introduced to new contacts by mutual connections. This is all great, but – what do you do AFTER you’ve met someone?
Networking contacts come in handy in the most mysterious ways. The person with an “in” at your target company may be someone you haven’t spoken to in 3 years – despite the fact that you’re connected on LinkedIn. If you’re an avid networker, the sheer size of your database may make you feel it’s impossible to stay in touch with everyone you’ve met. This isn’t necessarily true.
The key is staying in touch. This doesn’t mean dinner every month, just a brief “touch” to staying on someone’s radar. Of course, there will be other relationships you’ll want to spend more time nurturing. However, you can keep in contact with most people in your network fairly quickly and easily. For example:
1) Remember birthdays: It takes about 10 seconds to wish someone a happy birthday online, and Facebook even provides you with an alert. It’s a quick way to stay on someone’s radar AND brighten their day!
2) Offer congratulations on promotions: Same goes for job changes. LinkedIn sends a weekly update to members, with the career moves of those in their networks. Another 10 second interaction that will put a smile on someone’s face AND remind them about you!
3) Remember REAP: This acronym – Read, Events, Advice, People – suggests things you can either offer your contacts or ask of them. For example: “I met someone I think you’d find to be a valuable contact (the “P” in REAP). Would you be open to an introduction?” You’re adding value and building a relationship at the same time.
It really only has to take a few minutes each day to maintain your network – but a lot longer to build one from scratch. Cultivate the relationships you already have, and you’ll be more than prepared when opportunities arise!
Picture: chairs & coffee, by Murielle
Tags: building relationships, Networking, relationship building, social media, social networking
Posted in Facebook, LinkedIn, Networking, Social Networking |
New LinkedIn Feature Showcases Volunteer Work
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Volunteering in your industry is one of the best ways to enrich your resume and advance your career. While some people think of volunteering as a chore, savvy career climbers know that the rewards far outweigh the effort. I personally am serving my sixth year of the Chicago Board of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and my first year on the Chicago Board of the Business Marketing Association (BMA.) I also volunteer for the AMA International and serve on the Membership Committee of The Metropolitan Club. The rewards include:
- Meeting like-minded peers in my backyard
- Gaining access to hiring decision makers
- Growing my network of industry leaders around the country
- Learning about new advances in my field
- Practicing my networking skills at events
- Giving back to my community
Plus recent studies show that 4 out of 10 hiring managers consider volunteer experience to be as valuable as paid experience. And now LinkedIn, arguably the world’s most professional social network, has introduced a new section for you to showcase your volunteer experience on your public profile.
I just updated my own profile and it took less than five minutes. If you’re an active volunteer, don’t miss this opportunity to let recruiters and hiring managers see your commitment to your profession – update your profile today!
Posted in LinkedIn, Social Networking |
Job Success Spotlight: Kathryn Janicek
Monday, December 5th, 2011
Picture it: 2008, during one of the lowest points of the recession. Kathryn Janicek had quit her job in Minnesota to move to Chicago. Though she had grown up in the area, she had been away for more than 14 years and had only a small local network–with very few of those in the highly competitive television industry.
Fast-forward 6 months. Kathryn bought a condo in Chicago, rented out her place in Minnesota (despite an extremely dismal housing and rental market), and got hired as supervising news producer at WGN-TV in Chicago. How did she do this? Two words: social networking. Read on for some of Kathryn’s tips on how she used Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to find a great job in a city where she wasn’t even living:
1) She built a network FAST: By getting heavily involved with the three main social media sites, Kathryn quickly established industry connections in Chicago. Building a network this fast and from a different location simply would not have happened without these tools.
2) She reconnected with former colleagues: Kathryn was able to locate people she used to work with and put the word out that she was looking. This resulted in a friend calling the WGN hiring manager on her behalf – leading to an interview and ultimately an offer.
3) She created a strong brand: Proud to be from Chicago, Kathryn promotes the city at every opportunity. As one aspect of her brand, she’s seen as someone up to date on area activities – a strong selling point for Chicago news outlets looking for local stories.
It’s no question that social media helped Kathryn’s career, and she recommends staying conscious of the purpose of each site (i.e. LinkedIn is more professional than Facebook). This can help job seekers maintain a positive presence and also make the most of each network.
Kathryn Janicek is currently NBC-Chicago’s daypart manager/executive producer.
Tags: job search, Networking, personal brand, relocating, social media, social networking
Posted in Facebook, Job Search Strategies, LinkedIn, Networking, Personal Branding, Social Networking, Twitter |
Offline Networking
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
While the benefits of being able to connect with people online cannot be overstated, it shouldn’t be the ONLY way you spend your networking time. Of course, if you’re conducting a job search within an area where you’re not currently living, it may be the most realistic option. However, it can help to build some phone time into your schedule.
Connections are typically established much more quickly in person than among those that have only interacted online. That’s why so many “fast friendships” develop at conferences. The lead time for building these types of relationships is longer when you have never had that personal connection.
Ideally, online networking would serve as a complement to “real life” encounters. And, of course, sites like LinkedIn help when you have a wide network – there would be no way you could realistically spend the time connecting with so many people otherwise. Social media can serve as an easy way to stay in touch, keep up to date on each other’s lives, and remember exactly who they are and what they do.
Most of us use online networking as our sole source of meeting people, and with good reason – time. We’re simply too busy to go out to events each evening in an effort to meet new people.
Fortunately, there’s a middle ground. Consider building in regular time to connect with people in person (whether formal networking events, lunch or coffee meetings, etc.) as well as phone time (example, two 15 minute calls per week). And, be selective-you shouldn’t spend this extra time on just anyone. Follow the 80/20 rule – 80% of your network will likely stay acquaintances, but 20% have the potential to become very valuable contacts.
Photo: FOTOCROMO
Tags: building relationships, Networking, social networking
Posted in LinkedIn, Networking, Social Networking |
Will LinkedIn Replace Your Resume?
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Yesterday I watched LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner give the keynote address at the LinkedIn Talent Connect 2011 Conference in Las Vegas from the comfort of my office via Ustream. Weiner suggested that it was only a matter of time before LinkedIn replaced your resume, business card and Rolodex®. Let’s take them one at a time:
1. Your Resume
Earlier this year LinkedIn introduced an “Apply with LinkedIn” plug-in that enables you to submit your credentials for an open position with a few clicks of your mouse. Instead of submitting your resume, you’re submitting your LinkedIn profile. Once you apply you can manage your contacts within the company and even ask for a referral. LinkedIn reports that thousands of companies are already using the button so expect to see more of it in your future.
2. Your Business Card
Earlier this year LinkedIn acquired mobile app CardMunch. Now you when you exchange business cards you can easily add them to your mobile phone and then in just 1 tap, also add them to your LinkedIn network. A new and improved version 2.0 is already in the works.
3. Your Rolodex®
When you log in to LinkedIn you can easily see who in your network is doing what. Before you pick up the phone to make a call you can easily see if they’ve updated their profile, posted a status update or shared and new content. With easy integration to Outlook and other popular contact management systems such as Highrise, LinkedIn is quickly becoming part of every recruiter’s workflow.
And now for the big news. Yesterday LinkedIn announced a new product called Talent Pipeline which will allow hiring managers and recruiters to track all passive and active candidates directly via LinkedIn. So whether a recruiter finds your profile on LinkedIn or someone passes along your resume, it will be stored, managed and share via LinkedIn.
From a job-seekers perspective this is huge news because it means more and more recruiters will be ditching whatever outdated means they’re currently using to manage their candidate pipeline and turning instead to LinkedIn. Whether you’re on the job hunt now or expect to be someday, if you’re not yet on LinkedIn I have just two words for you: Get there!
Image credit
Posted in Job Search Strategies, LinkedIn, Recruiters, Resumes |
Luis Is Loving LinkedIn
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
Meet Luis, he is a LinkedIn job seeker success story extraordinaire! Here is his story, in (mostly) his own words:
“Sima, I noticed an IT contracting job on one of my LinkedIn mainframe groups under the jobs posting tab. I contacted the recruiter and sent her my resume. We scheduled an interview and it was a fit – I was offered a position the next day!”
(Sound too good to be true? The truth is, it CAN happen just like that! But Luis’ story is even more interesting – keep reading!)
“Before this opportunity there was a possibility with another company. Under the ‘who viewed my profile’ section, I noticed that a VP of a company checked out my profile. So I sent her an invite and she accepted right away. She followed up with a personal email about needing a seasoned IT person. She even said that the company would train me in a programming language that I didn’t already know – that is really rare these days. Unfortunately, the budget was stalled and the position was put on hold.”
The moral of the story? Keep an eye on who’s looking at your profile!
Epilogue
Congratulations are certainly in order but condolences too. Luis’ story has a bittersweet twist that reminds me no matter how much I think I’m in charge, sometimes there are larger forces at work in my life.
“The recruiter for the IT contract job contacted me on the day of my mother’s funeral. My mom had been ill for quite a while and I had the honor of taking care of her the last three weeks of her life. I feel very blessed to land a job after being out of work for 13 months, but if I had landed the job before she passed then I would have not been able spend the last few days of her life with her.”
Posted in Job Search Strategies, LinkedIn |
