LinkedIn isn't just a recruiting platform, it's a place to network, research and learn. Here are some top tips on how to get the best out of LinkedIn, especially when your job hunting:
First things first...
- Let's start right at the top of your profile. Make sure your profile pic is a recent one, clear and professional, showing your head and shoulders. When uploading your photo, you'll get an option to add an 'open to work' frame if you want to.
- Don't waste an opportunity and make sure your cover/background photo is also populated, if you don't have something that's relevant, chose a nice abstract arty photo and edit in Canva for free, so the size is right.
- Activate creator profile and add a short 30-second video to your profile which introduces you to potential recruiters and employers.
- Use the record your name feature to verbally introduce yourself to your audience. There's enough time allowed to say hello, your name and what you do.
- Spend time crafting your headline. This is really important as it shows up almost everywhere alongside your name, so it needs to have impact, clarity and personality. Use emojis if that suits your character and job function, but there's no hard and fast rule, it's totally up to you.
- Update your contact info, if you're currently employed and looking for a new role, make sure you have your personal email address here.
The middle bit
- Make sure your About section is up-to-date. The first 3 lines should be snappy and clear - spelling out exactly what it is you do. When someone is viewing your profile, the first 3 lines are shown as an excerpt, and so they need to be eye-catching.
- Experience should be up-to-date, accurate and match your CV.
- Remember that when you comment or like a post on LinkedIn, your activity is posted to your profile for all to see, so make sure your engagement is positive, varied and professional.
- When it comes to education, we don't need to know which primary school you went to, but including where you went to college-aged 16+ is OK.
- Ask for recommendations, if you can't ask your current employer for one, who else in your network could give a credible account of you? It doesn't have to be an employer, just someone who has some experience working with or alongside you and is willing to write a recommendation.
Showing up
- If you're not happy with the content in your feed, think about what you'd like to see instead and then find people who talk about what you're interested in, then follow them. You don't have to connect when you're in creator mode.
- If you're keen to post, do so 1 - 2 times per week for good visibility, 3 times per week for great visibility, but posting more than once a day can play with the LinkedIn algorithm and do more harm than good.
- When posting, don't tag lots of people in your post if they're not relevant, the algorithm will sniff this out and will suppress your post.
- Posting in the morning is best, and posting Monday - Thursday works well.
- If you don't feel up to posting, then like and comment on other people's posts instead. When commenting, think of something engaging and relevant to say, avoid 'nice work', or 'well done' LinkedIn sees straight through this kind of engagement, and it won't benefit you.
- When you post, make sure you're around for a couple of hours afterwards to engage with those who engage with your post, this brings about the best results when using LinkedIn. If someone comments on your post, thank them and make a further comment back. This helps to keep your post in your connection's feeds and encourages more interactions.
Research and learning
- Use LinkedIn to research your potential employers. They may well check your profile out, so do the same and make sure that prior to an interview, you've checked out the profile of who is interviewing you and also look at some of the team members. It's a great way to find out what the company culture is like.
- For more LinkedIn learning, follow some of the LinkedIn trainers out there, we like Alice Fewings, Lea Turner, Richard Van Der Blom, and John Esperian.
I hope you find this useful and as ever I'm here to support my candidates; if you need any help or advice with your job hunting, please do get in contact with me.
Sending very best wishes for the New Year.