During the past year or so LinkedIn has emerged as a powerful means of marketing yourself using the draw of social media. By virtue of its inherent design there is a great deal of faith in how any material posted on your Profile on LinkedIn has high credibility. How you are connected to others and how well, the number and quality of Recommendations on your Profile, and whom you have Recommended all synergize up to enhance your own brand more than most realize. Most people pay attention to their résumé only when they are in transition. Although this is not a good strategy, it can be deadly when you practice this for your LinkedIn message. This is why paying attention and spending time on your LinkedIn material are important in building and maintaining your brand, constantly, not just during a transition.
The following list of suggestions can help you with your efforts to burnish your LinkedIn message and to always keep you market-ready:
- Make a special effort to build your Profile through a great Summary. There is a 2,000- character limit, so use it to concisely paint a picture of your professional abilities using some compelling language.
- Find a great Headline to describe you. Most use the prosaic job title they currently have. This is a mistake. You can put that title in the Chronology part of the write-up down where you list your stints. But, a great, pithy headline can make a difference in how people perceive you. So, instead of saying an IT Manager, say A Technology Wiz with a Business Penchant! Be clever and creative here and keep playing with that Headline until you get it right!
- Have a professionally taken headshot and post it as a part of your Profile. Some worry about their age, looks, and their photogenic appearance. This is why you want to do this well and have a picture taken by someone who can make you look your best. Don’t post your baby picture!
- Specialties is the areas where you insert the right search words so that you can be found based on how you want to market yourself. Make sure that the main theme in your Summary is synchronized with your Specialties.
- Get Recommendations from those who matter. Friends, relatives, and those close to your are easy targets from whom to cadge a Recommendation, but those are not as useful as the ones from customers, suppliers, previous and current bosses, peers, and direct reports. Also, reciprocal Recommendations are not that effective, either. So, focus on the quality of Recommendations than merely their quantity.
- Take the necessary license to describe your functional roles in your Chronology so that the titles accurately describe what you did. Some companies have titles that are generic and do not really convey the import of what you do or did. For example, I had a client who was a Product Manager, but she was responsible for the P&L of the entire product line. So, the right choice for her job description would have been to say, “as the general manager of the entire product line increased revenues and profitability in double digits, three years running.”
- Have a link to your blog or a website that allows visitors to see your other professional interests. Save the Facebook Profile for your personal stuff. Use the Facebook to occasionally update your professional status so that your friends are current with your status.
- Once you have the changes made to your message make sure that it is thoroughly checked and edited. One person had his title as “Principle” instead of “Principal,” so take care of such errors by a careful review.
- Keep track of the numbers that appear on your LinkedIn Home page on the right side middle. These numbers tell you how many people searched you and how many saw your Profile during a certain period. Keep tweaking the Specialties and your Profile until you are satisfied with the number.
The tone of your message should be, I am not easy to get! If you do that well, just see how many will try calling to recruit you!