46 million students and recent college graduates make up a growing part of the membership. With more than 675M+ members, and a steady growth of 2 new members per second, and 20M open jobs, LinkedIn is an essential marketing and sales tool for anyone at any stage of their career.
Whether you are looking to start a business, become a consultant or seek employment, the decision makers, recruiters, and potential clients are already here. In fact, out of the monthly active users, 40% are reported to log in daily.
- Do you have a profile that stands out and backs up your career achievements and goals?
- Are you building a network of relevant professionals that could become important in building your career?
It is said that our attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. We have seconds to capture attention in a noisy network, so it is more important than ever to optimise your LinkedIn presence to capture attention, demonstrate value and engage your network.
Who Do You Want to Influence?
Think in the seat of the person making the decision about hiring you. Would you hire you?
With seconds to validate candidates, does your profile quickly communicate your value and encourage them to consider you?
Does your LinkedIn Profile….
- Represent the value you bring?
- Share your career story?
- Showcase your talents and bigger purpose?
- Establish credibility via experience and social proof?
- Show up in search?
ACTION: Conduct an incognito Google search for your name, where does your profile show up? Is it accurate and up to date?
The 5 Most Important Parts of Your LinkedIn Profile
- Visuals – Profile photo and background
- Copy – Headline, Summary, Experience
- Media – Documents, Video, Images and links to support your profile
- Social Proof – Skills endorsement and Recommendations
- Activity – Engagement, posts and articles that add value and credibility.
LinkedIn Profile Tips
Showcase your character through your profile and select the right photo that matches your career brand. If you find writing content for your profile challenging, refer to the framework I created for the LinkedIn Profile Blueprint.
Include volunteering, part-time jobs, work experience and internships in addition to your studies, to position yourself. Introduce yourself and share your vision in your Summary to allow your audience to get to know you, plus include supporting documents and video. Let your personality shine through. Add relevant skills and seek endorsement and if possible ask for recommendation from people you have worked with.
LinkedIn Career Networking
Aside from being one the best career branding profiles to optimise your presence, LinkedIn is the largest professional network, and a powerful research tool. It is a search engine for people, companies, content, and a place to list and find jobs.
In preparing your profile for the job market, research the roles you aspire to be in, and look at the language used, requirements and see how you can reflect in your profile. And follow the people who are where you aspire to be.
- Who are the decision makers that you could follow or connect to?
- Who works for the organisation that is worth following?
- Don’t forget to follow the company page.
Creating, curating and conversing on LinkedIn allows you to reach your network beyond your 1stdegree connections. Focus on posting content that adds value not volume, and put the rest of your focus into relationship building activities. Post and engage consistently to increase your visibility to start building authority, and take the time to join conversations and ask questions in your own content to invite engagement and build influence.
Get Help With Your LinkedIn Strategy.
Book a LinkedIn training workshop with Australia’s LinkedIn Demystifier Jo Saunders, for your faculty, student group, or alumni. Uncover why LinkedIn is important for making a great first impression in search, how it can be used to build your career brand, and build a network of relevant connections, to be found, remembered and chosen by your ideal clients, referral partners or decision makers.
Who is Jo Saunders?
Jo Saunders is a leading international LinkedIn expert, marketing strategist and social media educator who has been helping businesspeople confidently connect and communicate since the early 90s. Known as Australia’s LinkedIn Demystifier, Jo guides students, professionals and organisations through the complexities of LinkedIn and social marketing tools. She has over 20 years experience in communication and community engagement, personal brand expression and event marketing design and delivery.
Jo was named #2 LinkedIn Expert in Asia Pacific for 2018, is co-host of #TheLinkedInCouch and the co-author of Get Good or Get Off – A guide to getting it right on social media.
If you are seeking some guidance, book a LinkedIn Profile Review or ask your school, faculty or organisation to book a guest lecture or workshop with Jo Saunders, or take the 7 Day LinkedIn Challenge for no cost, which includes the LinkedIn Profile Blueprint to help you optimise your LinkedIn presence.
