There are numerous ways to use LinkedIn, such as for job seeking and recruiting. During this morning’s Social Media Breakfast – Twin Ports, we learned about how important it is to develop your personal profile — also known as your personal brand.
Andrea Chartier, career counselor at The College of St. Scholastica, taught us that there are four sections everyone should start with.
- Photos
- Make sure these are professional
- Headline
- Create a catchy statement that draws LinkedIn users in and showcases your professional goal(s)
- Summary
- This is a chance to showcase your goals, expertise and interests outside of what is displayed in your experience and skills’ sections
- Customized URL
- Rather than a random set of numbers, add your name to the URL
After you’ve checked off the four steps from above, just take it one day at a time. There is a lot to LinkedIn and it would be a challenge to take it all in at once.
Here are a few additional things to consider when improving your LinkedIn presence:
- Set a weekly or monthly reminder on your calendar to spend one hour improving your LinkedIn profile and knowledge, or engaging with your groups and connections.
- Replace your nightly Facebook scrolling with the Pulse. You can like, share and comment on things, or even publish your own content. And you might just feel a little smarter once you put the phone away.
- Upload your work and showcase all that you’ve accomplished with real examples supporting each position. (Trust us, recruiters like to creep on your profiles before considering job candidates.)
- Give a recommendation for a few of your previous co-workers’ pages and they might want to return the favor.
- Actively join and engage with groups and discussions—you never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll learn by connecting with like-minded folks.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can become a member of the Duluth/Superior LI Learning group on LinkedIn where users can share resources and discuss successes and questions revolving around the platform. Click here to join.