So, you finally have a LinkedIn account. You connected with a few colleagues, figured out how to post your profile picture, and update your “status” once in a while! You are job searching and you may have even received calls from recruiters, good for you! Your effort is just beginning to pay off!
Well, LinkedIn isn’t perfect, but it can provide for opportunities, many of them untapped. It takes a little effort and time, but you can leverage even more opportunities by minding your on-line presence in many different ways via LinkedIn and beyond. Just think of how many people you can reach with a click of a button. LinkedIn promotes up to 35 million users, well maybe less, as there are a lot of people out there with duplicate profiles by mistake-make sure that you are not one of them!
Some tips on building a profile and utilizing different utilities to expand your network and show up in more “people searches”
Start with your regular network
Start by inviting those you already email or socialize with regularly. Caution: don’t send invitations willy-nilly via LinkedIn as spamming is a huge issue and you can get locked out early in the game. Use the tool that searches your MS Outlook or other major email address book (i.e. gmail, yahoo, etc) for direct email addresses and send personal invitations to folks that you would like to link to your profile. Bonus, by syncing your address book from some of the online address books that you have, you will be able to see who already may have a profile that matches that email address.
As your network grows, note the new people added to your extended network. A small list of 125 connections has the power to connect you to 4 million others encompassing a range of careers, employers, job titles, specialties, etc. You may even come across names of folks that you haven’t thought about in years by clicking into a new person’s connections. Visit your home page regularly or choose to have updates sent to you for “weekly” changes to keep track of your network’s activities.
Sending the invitation
Many folks are new to LinkedIn, others may not remember you immediately, while others are really strict about making sure that they REALLY know who you are before accepting an invitation or knowing the person that you have requested an introduction too. Always leverage the option for a personal message if you are sending a message to a fellow LinkedIn user. Be sure to describe how you know them or why you want to connect. In the message, ask them to select “archive” instead of “don’t know this person” so you don’t get locked out of sending invitations. LinkedIn will not return you to a favorable status if you get hit with too many replies of “don’t know this person”-yikes! Alternatively, you can still use the phone to reconnect with someone first and then invite them to your LinkedIn network as a follow up communication. Keep it personal whenever you can!
List the BEST “company name” in your work experience profile
After utilizing all of your email addresses that you have, increase your likelihood of connecting with past colleagues (and students) by adding the past employers utilizing the most popular “company name” within LinkedIn. Caution: because you are dealing with the human element of a social network, individuals from the same company may describe their employer or past employer in several different ways, especially if the company name is known by its initials, listing of partner names, use of “and” or “&” or if the company had a name change since you worked there. First, look for the description that links back to an official “company profile” by searching for the company or within the profile of a known employee. Within the individual profile, if the company name is “highlighted and underlined” in their work experience with a little icon to the right, just run your mouse over the highlighted company name to see if it pops up with corporate details and a website link. When you find that, be sure to use the EXACT name in your profile to be associated with that company profile. You can’t find an official company profile for any listing you’ve looked up via the people search! I recommend doing a ‘People Search’ using each variation you have found to determine which has the highest number of people associated with it!
My employer was acquired and the new company had a name change. Well, if you conduct a ‘People Search’ of your past employer vs. the newly formed company and the new company has MANY, MANY more people associated with it, then list the NEW company in your profile. Be sure to add the past company name within the employer description where you would put your last “job title”. For example, If you worked for XYZ Company and it was acquired by ABC company and is now known as A-Z company, list A-Z company in your work experience and within the job title restate the actual employer “Work Title for XYZ Company”. Remember, this is not your resume; you are trying to find and be found by the largest number of people!
Personal Information
Alternative Email Addresses
LinkedIn allows for you to have different email addresses associated with ONE account. If that is the case, think of all the email addresses that you use the most or email addresses you use as part of your profile on “other” social networks (i.e. email address associated with facebook). You don’t have to publicize it, but it allows you to be found with more than one email address that points to only ONE profile instead of creating duplicate profiles by mistake. Did you search for yourself yet to see if you mistakenly have more than one profile? You will need to contact LinkedIn for assistance.
Maiden Name
LinkedIn allows for your maiden name to be utilized, again increasing your likelihood of being found by past colleagues.
Advertise an Email address in the NAME Section
Can you fit your email address after your last name within or your profile. This won't impact first and last name searches specifically for you. Most people searhes are initiated as "free text". If you like this idea but can't fit that email after your last name, try to fit your first and last name into the “first name” box and type in your email address into the last name box? This way when your profile pops up, the searcher can just cut and past or jot down your personal email address.
When you use a free account, you have limited “InMail” and Invitations to other people within LinkedIn. Providing your personal email address in this manner is valuable to someone who wants to connect, as the user can bypass some of the limits associated with connecting to people through LinkedIn. Uncomfortable with this, choose a free email system that you can monitor separately to see if it is a problem (create a short and sweet email address - firstname@me.com so it will fit in the "last name" box).
Headline
How does your headline read when you show up in a search or listed in someone else’s “list of contacts”? List what you do OR who you target! Don’t just have generic “Law Firm name” have something like “Expert Legal Advice for Pharmaceutical Corporations” for instance, if that is what your company does or you do!
Specialties
Have you added a list of specialties? This will definitely help your profile be found when people do “key word” searches. Can your list of specialities be found using more than one descriptor, well consider adding it! Think of this area as web page “tags” or filing folders based on “categories”.
LinkedIn URL
LinkedIn creates a profile URL so that you can send out a badge or a hyperlink to share your profile with folks. I suggest 1) customizing the URL with your name or if self-employed, your company name. 2) Add this URL to all of your “signature” stamps from the various emails that you use. “Ask me to LinkIn with you at http://www.linkedin.com/in/leappharma”.
Open Networking Ideas
Depending on your current situation and comfort level, open networking can build your contact list quickly. You can always go back and drop a connection (without them being alerted) in the future. But the idea is to generate as many 1º connections as quickly as possible. Look for open networking groups such as TopLinked.com. Joining groups is a fast and simple way to quickly expand your contacts and manage them later. When you show up in a people search, it will tell the searcher “how” you are connected, either through an individual or a group.
LinkedIn Groups
Looking for people with similar interests and work experience outside of your 1º network, congregate where they do! Join, join, join a group or two or three! Does your past employer or the holding company of your past employer have a dedicated group? Do you see groups that have an area that matches with your work experience? If your company is defunct but doesn’t have an Alumni group, then create a group. Don’t just stop with joining a group, leverage your new network!
Introduce yourself to the group! Formulate your introduction in a separate word document (no spell check on these message boards) and save it for future postings as you join each new group. Decide what you want to communicate regarding your “personal brand”, what your current goal may be regarding work, etc and don’t forget to ask people to connect with you. If you go this route and people send you invitations, always accept or select “archive” so you don’t negatively impact other people’s use of these increasingly important tools! Using LinkedIn in this manner is a give and take. Archiving a message is a “no fowl” way to take an action and file it for later.
You can also choose to display all the groups you join or only those groups that the person viewing your profile also belongs too. Sometimes this is good if you are concerned that others will think that you are a serial group joiner. I need to create a new word to describe this online behavior!
Lastly, don’t hesitate to make contact outside of LinkedIn. Pick up the phone, go to live mixers, ask others that you are linked to in other social networks (i.e. facebook (200+ million users), Plaxo, Ning, Ryze, Xing) if it is O.K. to send them an invitation to “LinkIn”.
At the end of the day, if you find that you are running of out InMail and invitation requests, then I would say that you are ready for a paid personal account that can run about $200/year! And if you are currently searching for a new job, best of luck to you in your job search! Remember to put your best profile forward figuratively and literally– don’t like how you look in photos, select an icon or photo of a place of interest with special meaning to you that you feel will visually set you apart in “people searches”.
Next blog: Advertising your personal brand through free social network tools and how to link all of this connectivity together!
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