How to Create an Allstar LinkedIn Profile Social Talent Whitepaper Nov 2013

How to:Create an All-Star LinkedIn Profile

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IntroductionAccording to the 2013 Jobvite Survey on Social Recruiting, a whopping 94% of companies use LinkedIn to recruit new employees. Furthermore, a massive 97% of these recruiters and HR professionals use LinkedIn in their recruiting efforts on a daily basis. If you are a job seeker, improving your LinkedIn profile to wow and be found by recruiters should be one of your main priorities.

In 2013, 77% of all job openings were posted on LinkedIn, and 48% of these jobs are never posted anywhere else. While not having a LinkedIn profile in the first place means you are missing out on a large percentage of opportunities to land a new job, having a bad or incomplete LinkedIn profile can mean the same thing. Your LinkedIn profile will be used as a reference against your CV or resume (people tend to lie far less on their LinkedIn profile), so use this guide to vastly improve how you appear to recruiters online.

And as for Recruiters - this is a two-way street! You may expect a glowing LinkedIn profile from potential candidates, they like to see the same from you! Demonstrating your skills, professional background, affiliations and qualifications inspires trust and authority in you as a recruiter.

Chapters:

Part 1: Your Profile Essentials

1 Basic information 32 Profile Photo 43 Summary 54 Work Experience & Education 65 Skills & Expertise 76 50+ connections 8

Part 2: Enhancing your Profile

1 Adding Multimedia to your Profile 102 Customising your URL 123 LinkedIn Recommendations 13


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Part 1: Your Profile EssentialsTo achieve All-Star status on your LinkedIn profile, these seven elements need to be completed:

1 Basic information (name, country, industry, headline)2 Profile Photo3 Summary4 Work experience (a minimum of 3 jobs)5 Education6 Skills & Expertise (a minimum of 5 skills)7 At least 50 connections

1. Basic Information

It almost goes without saying, but you must include your full name, your industry, your country and a headline on your profile. Your headline can include or comprise of a number of things but the best headlines include your current job title, your key skill(s) and your companys name. For example, Recruitment Executive (Buying, Merchandising, Design and Production) at Acme Inc, or even better, I hire the best software development talent for [XX] in Palo Alto, CA.

Your headline is used wherever you post comments, in the People Also Viewed section of fellow LinkedIn members, in Search results and more. Make it stand out! LinkedIn say that you should not include an email address within your Headline, but you certainly can contain a web address of your company, or your Twitter handle.

If you leave your Headline blank, your current job title is used instead. Dont be a bore - add some personality and flair! Check out Claras headline for inspiration.


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2. A Profile Photo

Did you know, according to LinkedIn your profile is 7 times more likely to be viewed if you have a profile photo? Well now you do!

Your profile photograph should be of your face. Going for a shot that is shoulder-height is best. We all have phones with cameras on them these days - stand in front of a wall in good light and get a friend to take a quick snap. Your profile photo doesnt need to be taken by a professional, it just needs to make you look professional. This means looking directly at the camera, smiling, dressing appropriately and remembering that this is your profile - there shouldnt be anyone else in the photo.

Your profile image should be of high resolution quality, but LinkedIn will make the image a default square shape, at maximum 200 pixels. There are no restrictions around applying fancy Instagram filters, but you should avoid inserting your company logo or a watermark.

If you are currently working and you are using LinkedIn as a networking tool as part of your job, stand in front of the brass plate at your office door, or a sign where your companys logo is present. This branding is allowed, but as mentioned above, superimposing a logo on top is not.

Some examples of bad LinkedIn photos - you can guess why!

Like Hollys photo, go for a shoulders up headshot:


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3. Writing a Background Summary

Choosing to put little or no information in this section is just plain foolish!

The aim of the game when it comes to being found on LinkedIn is that your profile will appear at the top of peoples search results. This will only happen if the keywords used to find you are present on your profile! The summary section is a perfect opportunity to include these important keywords that potential employers, clients and customers use to find people like you. This is your opportunity to tell everyone what they need to know about you, what you do and what you can do for them.

Remember the FABs, aka the features and benefits associated with your skills. Describe what you do and what you are capable of doing by listing the Features of your skills, expertise or education, and phrasing them as Benefits. For example, how will you help your employer with the skills you possess, or how does your experience make you the best vendor to work with. Try not to waffle. If you are currently working, balance your corporate and personal information as half and half - half about you, and half about what your company does.

For example, I am a sales executive for Acme Inc, working as part of a dedicated team of 10 in the EMEA region. We provide accounts software solutions that can transform your business, ensuring that you can keep on top of your business finances with ease. I specialise in SMB accounts - talk to me today about how we can solve your accounting worries, no matter what your budget!

Half about you, half about your organisation. Keep this going as a theme throughout your summary. It isnt just for seeking work - this can help you win more business!

Heres an example of a summary which really does nothing to sell this persons expertise and skills!


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4 & 5 Education & Work Experience

To achieve All-Star status on your LinkedIn profile, you must have your educational background listed and a minimum of three job roles.

Its easy to add your professional and educational background - simply click on +Add to add any position to your profile. When you are listing where it is you attended school or worked, LinkedIn will (most of the time) prompt you with the company name supported by the company logo. Select this official name, and then the educational institution or comapnys logo will appear on your profile too.

Your profile can then be found by fellow colleagues or alums (past and present) when they visit the company or university page on LinkedIn.

When writing your job title, many LinkedIn members are tempted to simply write their title as they are known within their company. However, your job title influences your appearance in Search Results. Include Keywords that people really use to find you. Include Skills or your Industry sector. For instance;

Recruitment Consultant can become [Industry] Recruitment Consultant


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6. Including Skills & Expertise

The Skills & Expertise section of your LinkedIn profile is an opportunity for you to add keywords that describe what you do and your abilities. LinkedIn have developed a low-friction way for your network to endorse you for these keywords, which can show those viewing your profile that you are indeed skilled and experienced in your field.

To add skills keywords to your profile, simply start typing in your keyword and select from the prompt-list. Your network will be asked to endorse you for these skills, so make sure that they are relevant to you.

To endorse a specific connections skills, just visit their profile page and wait for the inbuilt algorithm to pop up and invite you to endorse your connection for a number of skills. In terms of soliciting endorsements, flattery tends to get you everywhere! Endorse the skills of the person you wish to receive an endorsement from and more often than not your kind endorsements will be returned. Endorsements are a nice soft way to try and coax others to reciprocate.


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7. Having 50+ connections

Being connected on LinkedIn is a must - and to get to All-Star, you must be connected to at least 50 people. So, get networking!

Begin with adding everyone you know: work colleagues, customers, friends etc. The easiest way to do this is by syncing your existing contacts from online sources, like your email. LinkedIn Contacts regularly syncronises with a number of contact sources such as: Google Gmail, Google Contacts, Yahoo! Mail, Evernote, and many others. To check if people you know are using LinkedIn, hover your mouse over the Network tab and select Add Connections. You will be prompted to enter your email address after which LinkedIn will display a list of contacts you know who currently have a LinkedIn profile.

Alternatively, click on the Any Email icon and choose from the More ways to connect section where you can invite by individual email or upload a contacts file from the likes of Outlook or Apple Mail.

Beyond your immediate circle, its important to keep other connections targeted. This is about quality, not quantity. Generally, LinkedIn advise you to only connect to people you know. However, if you want to expand your contacts into the wider industry that you are involved in, whether they be potential colleagues, clients or customers, be sure to include a personal note with your connection request. Explain why you would like to connect, and remember to be polite!


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Other ways to increase your connections: Invite others to connect with you!

Put your LinkedIn profile address on other social networks, your business cards, CV or resume, blog/website and more, but make it easy for potential connections to connect with you by making a one-click Invitation link. Simply follow these steps:

In your browser, go to http://bit.ly/inviteholly

This is a one-click invitation link to connect with Holly Fawcett, Social Talents Marketing Manager, but a rather long and complicated-looking web address:

Creating your own One-Click Invitation link is simple though. You just need to replace the profile ID number highlighted as 1 above with your own, and your first and last name as in highlight 2.

To find your own Profile ID number, go to your LinkedIn profile. Youll see your ID number in the web address between the id= and the &, as highlighted in green:

Make it short and sweet for people to find you - weve used bitly.com to shorten our web address and customised it to read a word thats easily typed into a browser.

Put your one-click invitation link everywhere - your email signature, Twitter bio, on your CV/resume, your blog etc.


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Part 2: Enhancing your LinkedIn Profile1 Adding Multimedia to Your LinkedIn Profile

Lets face it, LinkedIn profiles do have a tendency to look a bit well, boring. However, like with any old piece of furniture, applying a bit of elbow grease to your profile will transform the look and feel of it for the better. Adding videos and multimedia to your profile will do the trick!

In 3 easy steps, heres how to add multimedia to your profile:

Step 1: Click on Profile > Edit Profile from the top navigation bar

Step 2: In the first multimedia editable section of your profile, Background, you can add multimedia to enhance your profile. Simply click on the little + sign next to the pencil.

Step 3: Paste in the link to the piece of multimedia youd like to add it can be a video from YouTube or Vimeo, a presentation from Slideshare etc. Simi-larly, you can add photos to your profile by uploading them using the +Add feature. Look at the examples on the next page of LinkedIn profiles that have been brought to life using multimedia.

Each link you add to your LinkedIn profile, when clicked, opens up in whats termed Your Professional Gallery. This is a large overlay over your profile that shows off your video, images and more to reveal all their glory!


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2 Customising your LinkedIn URL

An uncustomised LinkedIn URL is an ugly thing - lots of nonsense stuck at the end of your name when all you want is something easy to type in! Solution: customise your URL.

Follow these really easy steps:

Step 1: Click on Profile > Edit Profile, and in the first section underneath your photo you should see your current URL, and the word Edit beside it in Blue. Click on this.

Step 2: Along the right hand side of the page, you will see a section where you can customise your Public profile. Towards the botton, see Customise your LinkedIn URL

Step 3: Click on Customise and type in what you would like - your full name, for example. Hit Set Custom URL and youre done!

Now you have a customised URL that you can add to your email, blog, bio, CV and more. This also helps you to be found in Google searches, and push your profile above people with a similar name.


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3 Soliciting Recommendations & Endorsements

Do not underestimate the power of a personal recommendation when it comes to finding great potential employees or the next vendor to supply your business. We trust personal recommendations much more than we trust advertising.

Creating your LinkedIn profile is not the time to be shy, especially when it comes to asking for recommendations. Youve hopefully already bragged about your skills (and rightly so), so gather up the courage and go and ask someone you work with or used to work with for a written recommendation.

Great recommendations can be the difference between getting the offer of a position over someone else, so having them on your profile is a major bonus.

Think of it like booking a hotel - wed all agree wed prefer to stay in a hotel that came highly recommended. Linkedin.com/recommendations lets you manage the recommendations youve sent and received. This is the only place (apart from a longwinded journey through the Edit Profile process) where you can explicitly solicit recommendations for positions you have worked in from your connections. The Ask for recommendations tab will get you what you want: a way to solicit recommendations for certain jobs from specific connections. All you need to do is choose the position you wish to be recommended for and who you wish to recommend you, and compose a nice message to encourage that person to do so.


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Social Talent are a world-leading Recruitment Training company, turning Recruiters into Sourcing Ninjas through our Black Belt in Internet Recruitment programme.

Weve trained thousands of recruiters since 2012, and now our certified training is available online!

Visit www.socialtalent.co/training for more information.

Go to www.socialtalent.co/cool-tools for more free resources

Whitepaper Authors:

Siofra PrattHolly Fawcett

Additional Resources & References:Jobvite 2013 Social Recruiting Survey: http://web.jobvite.com/Q313_So-cialRecruitingSurvey_LandingPage.htmlInfographic 77% of All Jobs are Posted on LinkedIn http://socialme-diatoday.com/leaderswest/1440796/infographic-77-all-jobs-are-posted-linkedinPaul Maloney, Executive Chef at the White House profile: www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-maloney-cec-personal-chef-estate-manager/45/16/655Aisha Campbell, Freelance Makeup Artist profile: www.linkedin.com/pub/aisha-campbell/42/1a8/310

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How to Create an Allstar LinkedIn Profile Social Talent Whitepaper Nov 2013