The power and importance of technology in making and keeping relationships is undeniable. I use LinkedIn all the time, run my life through Outlook and can check emails remotely. As I am sure you would all agree, this hardly marks me out as a techie!
With our sister business FreshNetworks, a top social media agency, going from strength to strength and everyone being aflutter with social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I’ve started to think about the impact this has on recruitment from a candidate and client perspective.
The rules for Facebook are basic – set your privacy settings to maximum and sense check your profile picture (let’s face it, you should have removed those hen/stag-do pictures anyway!).
As a candidate, promotion rather than privacy rules apply for LinkedIn – the name of the game is attracting the right people to your profile. There are lots of simple changes you can make that can have a massive effect on how your profile is viewed and perceived. There are numerous guides available with a little help from Google but here are a couple of LinkedIn top tips:
Get a picture – it makes your profile much more personable
Your websites – Do you write a blog? Add links to your company website and personal sites or organisations you are involved with. When you go to add a site in the edit settings pages, click on “Other” and you will be allowed to type in something customary like “FreshMinds Talent Blog” rather than simply “My Blog”.
Personalise your LinkedIn URL – you can change it so do it! For example, mine is www.linkedin.com/in/wrbdawson
Summary – the search engine uses the summary for searching keywords so it’s worth spending a bit of time giving a concise overview of your career (emphasis on concise).
Recommendations – a virtual seal of approval. Best if you can get a mix of colleagues and clients to give a more holistic view of you as a professional.
A word of warning though on confidentiality – the ‘what are you working on’ tab can be interesting and shows you are using your profile regularly, but many of you reading this will be working on confidential and sensitive projects so be careful, as this Times Online article illustrates!
Online networking is great but ultimately nothing will ever replace meeting people face to face. Social media is fantastic for facilitating relationships and staying in touch with your network, but I personally believe that nothing can replace meeting someone in person. You don’t hire someone without meeting them?! Get out there – meetings, coffees, conferences are crucial of making and strengthening your personal network. It takes work, but don’t forget that making connections can be fun!
Read more here:
- More tips on how to stand out on LinkedIn,
- and some more!
- Using your network in these uncertain times
About the author
Will Dawson is an Account Manager and Consultant in the FreshMinds Select team. He looks after our clients and senior candidates in the Energy, Sport, and Online sectors.
on Oct 8th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
[...] Networking: How to improve your LinkedIn profile (blogs.freshminds.co.uk) [...]
on Oct 9th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I always used to worry about was my online presence – is it good? Is it bad? You are always aware that the moment someone receives your CV, they will Google your name. To prevent companies from finding out too much about me, I always use an alias on open communities, and make sure I use 2 different emails for professional vs. personal, as email address are just as useful search terms for finding out about someone.
However I don’t think it’s necessarily a BAD thing that your online existence is traceable. Indeed if your potential employer finds out you’ve helped charities, been in sporting teams, won awards, play in a band, have a really good Flickr site, etc. it’s almost like you can use the internet to your advantage as an extended CV.
on Oct 10th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Hi Will,
This is an important topic. I think “search” is the key word to bear in mind. If you want interesting jobs and employers to find you then you have to think about how they will search for you.
So a couple of extra tips:
1. Ensure your job title fits the industry’s standard classification of your role, not just your firm’s. e.g. perhaps your title is “International Head of Marketing”. Great, but no good for search if employers are searching using “Global Marketing Director”.
To find the names employers are using for your job role spend 10 minutes searching for job roles on a job board (e.g. Reed.co.uk) using a variety of titles and see which are used most frequently. NB this is not an invitation to misrepresent what your job entails.
2. Connections - if you’re not linked to loads of people, you’ll not appear in searches. Your connection strategy is your own business. Personally I link to very few people on facebook or ASW, but I link to loads on linkedin. That’s because linkedin has little value for me (the way I use it) unless I have a big network.
I also link to people in specific sectors/industries of interest in Linkedin to build my network where I need it.
As a final aside, I’m not a fan of recomendations. Being a researcher at heart, I know the bias in what people write is extreme (consious and unconsious). Thus I never trust them and have never used them as a reason to interview someone.
Just as a verbal reference, over the phone, where you get to ask challenging questions is far more valuable than a written one. but maybe that’s just me.
on Oct 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 am
[...] Networking: How to improve your LinkedIn profile (blogs.freshminds.co.uk) [...]
on Jan 30th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
[...] How to use Web2.0 for recruitment Social Media and the forefront of the job market How to imporve your Linkedin profile [...]