Well, you won’t be found on LinkedIn or any other social media, Google+, Facebook, or Twitter, without at least putting something in your profile. Every day I find someone trying to connect with people with a blank LinkedIn profile and I mean blank! All I find is their name, no personal details, no optimized value-driven accomplishment, not even a listing of where they worked.

The beginning of a profile summary

I wrote this start of a profile summary for a client recently:

I am an innovative and creative professional who built a reputation as a catalyst for implementing new ideas, designing learning tools, courses, and programs.

Throughout my career, I researched ideas from diverse business resources and found ways to implement strategies into the classroom. Examples of this are:

Note the “I” voice and if you read on you would see specific examples of what value this client would bring to the workplace.

What does your banner headline tell about you

Is your banner headline reflecting your last position or does it say something like this:

Versatile Executive Assistant with expertise in streamlining procedures and managing multiple projects.

Success in social media depends on other people understanding what you bring to the table. If all they get is an invite from you with absolutely nothing in it except your name, they may easily say “I don’t know you” which on some platforms can get you banned from the platform.

What is your message on LinkedIn?

Before you start connecting, take the time to figure out what you are trying to share. What is the reason you want to be there and what do you want to say. If you are using LinkedIn and you are lost, here are some of the LinkedIn posts I wrote to help you:

1. 3 easy LinkedIn tips to make you look like a pro

2. The top 5 mistakes LinkedIn users often make

3. The secret to getting calls and offers from employers

4. What’s wrong with “Duties” in your resume or LinkedIn Profile?

5. Are you underestimating LinkedIn?

6. Getting in the door: Using LinkedIn

7. My Journey with LinkedIn

and there are even more if you use the search engine on this blog in the navigation bar or select the category: LinkedIn on the right.

You will have plenty of time to connect once you have filled out your profile with your basic data and the value-driven accomplishments that make you stand out from the crowd. If you would rather have someone else do it for you, someone with expertise in writing LinkedIn and online profiles, check here.

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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image by Tomas Sobek

When I first started on LinkedIn, I followed the original directions very tightly. I only connected with people I knew well. After all, those were the guidelines. But as my network grew and time went on that changed.

Last night, I was reading a conversation thread on Career Director International’s e-list. Someone had asked about how people felt when people sent invitations without a clear connection and worse yet used the traditional LinkedIn invite: “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

The story of me starting on LinkedIn, my very first social network, is here. When Olympic Slalom Coach Bob Campbell sent me my very first invite it was the standard greeting but I wasn’t going to turn him down. Nor when Olympic Gold medal winner Joe Jacobi invited me with the standard greeting of “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” did I turn him down. Bob and Joe were friends and so I did know who I was connecting with but they used the standard greeting. I remember replying, “I don’t know what LinkedIn is but sure.”

My relationship with Joe actually grew much stronger because of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and loving social media networking. Joe’s in charge of USA Canoe/Kayak now, a role that I was excited to see him take on. He has used social media effectively to grow that organization too. I bet he still connects willingly with new people.

What is LinkedIn for?

While I was contemplating and reminiscing, Laura Smith-Proulx, an esteemed and respected colleague, vocalized what I was thinking. She said, “I’m always surprised when others say they won’t connect with someone they don’t know. How else do you expand your professional network or promote your business? What else is LinkedIn for?”

Exactly! I have had many people that I didn’t know at all connect with me on LinkedIn and other platforms. I can’t read their minds and I don’t know why they want to connect but I can tell you that I have landed clients from new LinkedIn connections that I know I would never have connected with without LinkedIn. I see it as an opportunity for them to get to know me and see if working with me makes sense. I both have my blog linked to my profile and I post blog posts as status updates on LinkedIn so being connected to me allows them to access my information directly.

The Standard LinkedIn Invite

Though I coach my clients to build effective invitations that are personalized to help them connect with people, I understand why people don’t always use the personalized version.

1. There are some places on LinkedIn like this screen on the left above. If you enter e-mail addresses here, you will end up sending the standard invite and it moves so fast that I can’t find the personalization option.
2. Some of us have been on social media for so long (well, in terms of a long time in social media worlds) and we don’t remember what it was like to be a newbie. We complain about people not personalizing their invites but honestly maybe no one ever told them the rules.

Set your own rules!

Lighten up, people! You can set your own rules. I do connect with people I don’t know because I don’t know where my next client will come from. Working with people from throughout the world, LinkedIn is a great tool to help people find me and trust me.

I wrote a LinkedIn profile for someone who connected with me and then asked me to write his profile. He was in Saudi Arabia. Just like with my other clients, we connected, then we set an appointment and used Skype to write the profile in real time. But if I had said no to his invite, would I have worked with him at all? Probably not.

I also connect with colleagues. It makes no sense to me to avoid connections with colleagues and many of my colleagues have become my friends precisely because we talk or connect on social media. I think often people fear connecting with those in the same business because they think they will lose their slice of the pie. I find that my clients choose my services because of the connections we build and my colleagues add value to my life through the information they share and the friendship we exchange.

Everyone will have different perspectives but since I am building a business one client at a time, I welcome new connections. I love the ripple-effect!

The SeaFarer

You want LinkedIn to work for you but you are not sure how.You have heard people buzzing about how great LinkedIn is for job search or building your business. Unfortunately, no one taught you how to use LinkedIn correctly.

Don’t let these common LinkedIn mistakes ruin your networking

1. You don’t use your banner heading effectively. The banner heading needs to feature your goals and objectives. Here is mine:They can be changed at any time but if you don’t set the banner heading in this top section, it will default to your most recent job. At no point do you want to say currently unemployed. Sell your value. If you search other people who have spent some time developing their banner headings you can see that the keywords and value they are selling will come up in searches. Don’t waste this space!
2. You aren’t connecting with anyone. Two to five people in your network does not make a LinkedIn network. With more than 131 million people on LinkedIn, don’t tell me you can’t find anyone to connect with. College professors, alumni members, former employers, former coworkers, community service connections. Your assignment: connect with 60 people right now. Grow that to 100 as soon as possible. Then keep going. LinkedIn will suggest people for you as you build the network. Think about connecting with the people who checked you out and watch who is watching you.
3. You haven’t set your name. You look like a newbie when you leave those numbers hanging off your name. Claim your name now. Specific instructions here.
4. Make sure that you leave a trail behind you. Set your settings so people know when you visit their profile. It could start a conversation. For one client, it was the secret to getting calls and offers from employers.
5. Never assume. Fill out your summary – 2000 characters waiting for you to write a compelling case for the value that you offer to them as a new employee. Complete the description below each position with clear accomplishment-driven statements. Don’t assume that they know what you do.

These tips should help improve your profile immediately. If you struggle with this, there are people like myself who can walk you through the process painlessly and get you up and running so you can use this tool to effectively market yourself.

It can be very advantageous to know who is watching you! It seems there are more ways to keep track of people every day.

On LinkedIn, you may want to periodically check who is watching you. On your home page of LinkedIn, you will see a section called:

LinkedIn for Networking

If you have the free version of LinkedIn, you will only be able to view a few of the people who have checked out your profile. I have not decided to upgrade yet but I still find this section valuable. Sometimes it may be new connections stopping by before they offer an invitation and if this is the case, you should make sure your profile is filled with content that will encourage them to connect with you.

LinkedIn for Jobseekers

Other times, those people viewing your LinkedIn profile may have been attracted by the keywords in your profile. It could be recruiters searching for a specific skill set or perhaps even a hiring manager who needs an employee with your skills. Again this is a reminder to make sure your profile has enough value to make them want to explore working with you.

LinkedIn for Entrepreneurs

Another possibility if you happen to be an entrepreneur, is that someone is checking you out on LinkedIn before hiring you. No matter what field you are in, the results on LinkedIn come up very high on Google for your LinkedIn profile and if someone is Googling your name or even company name, they may find your LinkedIn profile before they find your website or company website.

These are all good reasons to make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized, filled with keywords and value-driven accomplishments. When I write a LinkedIn profile, I evaluate the keywords my client needs to get the positions he is targeting. While the LinkedIn profile shouldn’t be a clone of the resume, you do still want it to have powerful verbiage to help the reader understand the value you bring to the table.

People will watch you in this very social media world we now live in. It is up to you to decide what kind of image you want to project. So, are you on LinkedIn and what do you look like to those who are watching you?

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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