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Advanced LinkedIn Profile

How to Brand Yourself Online

Being on LinkedIn

Your profile at LinkedIn is your first job interview—if

employers don’t like what they see, you won’t hear

from them again. Is your LinkedIn profile the best it

can be? If you’re not on LinkedIn and looking good,

you don’t exist to most employers. David Perry and Kevin Donlin

Co-Creators, "The Guerrilla Job Search System”

Purpose of the Profile

The Snapshot

Update Box

The Summary

Experience

Recommendations

Skills Feature (Fairly new)

Media (New)

Answers

Additional Information

Agenda

Purpose of Your Profile

Your profile is not your résumé

Résumé—short and tailored to each job

Profile—narrative more personable; offers more

Build your online Personal Branding

Help you connect for a job

Reaching 100% Completion

Chance of being contacted increases 40% than if only 90% of profile is complete

Necessary components: Industry and postal code Profile photo Profile summary Current work experience with description Past work experience – minimum 2 positions Education Specialties/Skills – minimum 5 Connections – minimum 50

How Much People Value Their Profile

The Snapshot Area

Photo

Your photo—the first thing a visitor seesInclude a photo

Help brand you People recognize you What would you prefer to see,

This

Or Oreven

What Type of Photo

Headline

It’s another part of you branding

Similar to your résumé branding headline

Limit 120 characters…Schucks

Must contain

Headline Examples

Poor Headline Poor Branding; LacksKeywords

What do People Look at First?

Experience Box

Briefly explains your current and past experience Eliminate Current Experience if not working

Volunteerism counts as current experience

Education Similar to résumé

No dates necessary

Your Public Profile

This should be customized to better brand you

The default is: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmcintoshhtpx.ee1

Leave a bad impression on your résumé and business cards

Better: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmcintosh1

Shows you’re aware of how to use LinkedIn

Update Box

It’s how you network with your 1st degrees

Share information; ask for advice

Update frequently, at least daily

Found under Activities

Can link to Twitter

Summary

Some believe is the most important part of the Profile

Allows for creativity, e.g., using 1st or 3rd person

Debate over 1st and 3rd person

Limit, 2,000 characters—résumé typically 1,000 or less

Important Tips on Your Summary

Summarize your experience, tell your story

May include a branding statement

Make sure to include industry keywords

Find keywords on Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, other job boards

Delivering trending job search strategies

Sample Summary (1st Person)Tells a Story

Hum

orou

s In

tro

Sample Summary (3rd Person)Li

st o

f Acc

ompl

ishm

ents

Changing Your Career

After successfully navigating a rewarding career, including landing a dream job in the NYC magazine world and building a thriving freelance writing business, it is time for me to "pay it forward" and help others make THEIR career dreams come true. To that end, I am working on an M.A. in career counseling…..

Experience

Provide detail, but not too much—ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Treat it like your résumé—employers may not call for résumés

Recommendation links under each job

3 different jobs are required on your way to a full profile

Limit, 1988 characters for EACH position, similar amount on résumé

What’s More Important?

Sample Work Experience (One Job)

Project Manager ABC CompanyProgram Development industry September 2008 – January 2011 (2 years 5 months)

Project Manager, unifying the processing of multiple books of business into a single system, eliminating a five year legacy of manual entry and work-arounds.

Created customized processes, plans, documentation and templates for implementing company’s first project management system, including planning, scope, communications, change, risk, scheduling, resources, auditing, and closeout.

Mapped workflow simultaneously to SDLC and Project Management schema.

Experience Example

Experience (continued)

Volunteerism counts as experience

Community Volunteer, Networker and Administrative Assistant (position)Bob Jones (company)Program Development industry (industry)August 2008 – Present (2 years 7 months)

Engineer at Hampstead Community Access Television: bringing 28-year-old cable TV station up to date. Member of Hampstead Cable Television Advisory Board.

Founder of PMI New Hampshire Chapter’s networking group – netPM. Facilitator/advisor to Acton Networkers, NHnetWORKS, Nutfield

Networking, Nashua After Hours Networking and Dynamic Networking groups.

Participant in project/program/product management webinars on a weekly basis.

Recommendations

Enhances your branding

Demonstrate to employers how “others” perceive you

Write recommendations to show your understanding of key skills, as well as your values

Recommendations can be used in your written communications

Skills Feature

Select skills that apply to you

Another way for employersto find you—keywords

Groups you may join, people you may want to connect with, and more

Endorsements

Media

Replaces many applications, e.g., Polls, Events, WordPress, Box.net

Now SlideShare and Box are the big palyersSlideshows, videos, and audioUnder Summary, Experience, Education

Additional Information

Websites: link to a personal blog, company website, etc

Link to Twitter

What are your interests?

Groups and Associations

Honors and Awards

Polls

Return

Thank You

Are there any questions?