The Power of Professional Social Networking
There are more than 350 million LinkedIn users worldwide. This means you have an
incredible platform to showcase your professional brand and connect with potential
hiring managers, clients, mentors, industry leaders and innovators.
LinkedIn by the Numbers
Here are some LinkedIn statistics that illustrate just how much the platform is used:
- LinkedIn has more than 350M users and 187M monthly unique visitors
- CEOs have an average of 930 LinkedIn connections
- In Q4 2014, there were 30 billion LinkedIn member pageviews
- Since Q1 2012, user numbers and unique visiting users have doubled and page views have tripled
While other major social channels’ growth rates have fallen, LinkedIn user numbers continue to steadily increase. (Source: by Jamie O'Brien, 09 Jun 2015, Why Consumer Brands Shouldn’t Overlook the Power of LinkedIn Ads, Sprinklr)
Bottom line? LinkedIn is a powerful tool to increase your visibility as a job seeker & professional in the tech. industry.
Getting Started with LinkedIn
1. Create an Account - It’s Free! (Or, you can opt for a Premium Account with a free trial and then for an additional monthly fee once the trial ends. I highly recommend the Premium Account when job hunting, the monthly fee is worth the extra perks!)
2. Add content to LinkedIn sections (You can copy and paste content directly from your resume).
Basic Information:
- Photo*
- Summary Statement
- Experience
- Volunteer Experience
- Education
- Advice for Contacting
*Adding a professional photo to your profile makes you 14x's more likely to be found on LinkedIn.
Advanced:
- Volunteer Opportunities
- Organizations (Affiliations)
- Honors & Awards
- Test Scores
- Patents
- Causes You Care About
- Supported Organizations
- Projects
- Certifications
- Interests
- Personal Details
Important tip: While adding content to your new (or existing) LinkedIn profile, be sure to turn off profile edit updates under privacy and settings. This means that every time you add or edit content in your profile, you’re not broadcasting these activities to your connections in their news feed.
How to Create a Cohesive Professional Brand:
As you develop your professional brand on LinkedIn through your profile, you’ll want to create continuity and cohesion for the user. Marketing professionals do this by using similar fonts and consistent color palettes, artistic themes and content. Similarly, when on LinkedIn make sure to usecontent that helps create the image you’d like to portray to potential employers and mentors.
3 Rules for a Cohesive Professional Brand:
1. Be Consistent: The content that you add to your LinkedIn profile should mirror the content on your resume and other professional profiles (or at least be very similar). You’ll want to be sure and use the same general tone and level of formality in all your content.
2. Know Your Target Market/Industry: As you add content like your summary statement and experience, you’ll want to consider the industry you’re trying to break into to create a profile that speaks to the people of that specific industry. In other words, make sure that you can speak the industry “speak” and translate the things you’ve done in your past in a way that people in your target industry can understand.
3. Put Your “Value-Add” Front & Center: In your profile, you want to make it easy for hiring managers and potential co-workers to see what you do and how you can add value to their companies/team. To demonstrate your value, under your “Experience” section, instead of having an exhaustive list of the tasks you did while you were employed, try selecting a few things to highlight using as much quantitative data as possible to translate the value-add.
Here’s an example from my LinkedIn page when I was a Training Manager at Goodwill Hawaii:
“Hired to establish Goodwill Hawaii's first ever employee training and development programs; in first two months of employment, created and launched company wide training plan, course catalog, and training calendar for 540 employees. Converted an 8-hour in person new hire orientation to a 1.5 hour virtual e-course.”
Tip: Think like a marketer, your value proposition needs to be clear, front and center. Don’t make the recruiter do the work. You want to make your profile employer friendly.
By implementing these tips and techniques, you’ll be sure to create a profile that attracts recruiters and gives employers a polished, professional first impression!
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