Optimising individuals’ abilities to lead their personal and professional brand assets

1. LinkedIn: A Guide to Creating
an Effective profile

2. Presentation content
• The LinkedIn Factor
• Researching and setting goals for your profile
• Best practices in enhancing your profile
– Networking
– Personal branding
– Developing your regime
– LinkedIn mistakes
• Hands-on work
• Q & A session

3. LinkedIn – what is it?
• A Business and Career Tool
• P2P/B2B Social Network
– Professional to Professional
– Business to Business
• Using LinkedIn to maximize your opportunities
in your career

4. Discussion
Answer the following in groups or individually:
• Who am I?
• What do I do best?
– Tells us about your last successful project?
– Which strengths/competencies/values are presented through the story?
– What digital assets do I have right now?
– What digital assets do you NEED and WANT to have?
– Can they be added to your profile as skills

5. “It’s no longer enough to simply have a solid
resume. Students now need a professional online
presence.”
- Holly Paul, US Recruiting Leader
PricewaterhouseCoopers

6. LINKEDIN
If you are serious about your career you
need to be on

7. LinkedIn Facts
• LinkedIn is the world’s largest
professional network with 277 million
members in over 200 countries and
territories
• LinkedIn.com is visited by more
than 50 million visits each week
• The average user spends 7 minutes
and 22 seconds on the website.
• Professionals are signing up to join
LinkedIn at a rate of more than two
new members per second

8. LinkedIn key users and stats
• Executives from ALL fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members
• Top industry recruiters from IT, Finance, Marketing, Real Estate,
Healthcare, Telecommunications and Education
• Estimated over 50% of them access their profiles daily or few times a week
• 82% are more confident with the information received on LinkedIn than
any other social network
• 42 % of all recruitments in 2013 in the UK happened through LinkedIn
• LinkedIn growth in Denmark 54% in 2013 compared 2012 and the 7th most
visited site in Denmark
Source: Forbes, Jacco Valkenburg, Mattias Berg

9. Why YOU need to be on LinkedIn
• Branding (personal branding)
– You control other people’s perceptions of you
• Career Strategy
• Networking
– Worldwide reach
• Nepotism
– Friends and family are always there for you
• To stay relevant and current
YOUR PROFILE MATTERS

10. In your opinion what are some of
the mistakes LinkedIn users make?

11. Five of the biggest mistakes on LinkedIn
Mistake 1
• You aren’t connected to recruiters
and anyone barely connected to anyone else
Mistake 2
• You don’t have a profile photo
or it’s a blurry shot of from ten years ago
Mistake 3
• You have a boring and generic headline (brandline)
or your job title
Mistake 4
• Your profile lacks the right keywords
so you never show in search results
Mistake 5
• Your profile isn’t public
or you’re not on LinkedIn at all
Source: Trendhunter.com

12. Things to avoid on LinkedIn

13. Things to avoid on LinkedIn
• Your profile should not be a copy of your resume
• Wording matters
– Think keywords not buzzwords (Rocket scientist)
• Do not become stale
• Connections (quality over quantity)

14. Connect in a Meaningful Way

15. Benefits of Personal Branding
• Why is Personal Branding important
• Growing your network (next slide)
• Attract opportunities
• Establish TICAV™
• Securing work or new personal and business relations

16. Connections are key
3rd degree
Those connected to
your 2nd degree
connections
2nd degree
The people your 1st
degree connections
know
1st degree
Co-workers, friends
and others you can
connect with
directly through
invitation on
Linkedin
Recruiters can find you
through group connections
or even at the 3rd degree
level
Join LinkedIn Groups
Your LinkedIn connections
can connect you to
“friends” of”friends”
(including recruiters,
managers, etc.
Get introduced
Your LinkedIn connections
can connect you to
“friends” of”friends”
(including recruiters,
managers, etc.
Build your
professional network
The larger your network on
LinkedIn (not just people
you know directly or those
they know but third degree
connections too), the
greater the chances of
connecting to people who
can help your career
USE THE 3 DEGREES OF SEPERATION ON LINKEDIN
Source: Trendhunter.com

17. How do I brand myself?
Like any other brand ask yourself 3 critical
questions:
• What makes me great?
• What makes me unique?
• What makes me compelling?
Source: William Arruda

18. The unofficial rules of LinkedIn
• Be yourself
Have a story, even if it's still unfolding
• Share yourself
• Value your capital/expertise
• Value the capital of others
• Cultivate your brand
• Empower others to do the same – think of the Golden
Triangle – ASK, GIVE, THANK
Source: Roxanne Hori, Jan Vermeiren & Bert Verdonck

19. Networking tips
• OFFLINE to ONLINE: Add the people you meet at events,
dinners, courses etc.
• ONLINE to OFFLINE: invite people of interest, from your
LinkedIn connections to have a coffee and/or a chat
• Join GROUPS and invite to connect with people who are
relevant for you and your interest

20. Build a Professional Online Presence
1. Add your summary (Task: start working on a draft by using storytelling, using OMC etc.)
1. Answer these questions: Who you are, what added value do you offer and what you what to achieve!
2. Think keywords - Consider it for endorsements (Task: Add your relevant skills to your profile)
2. Upload a current professional photo (Your profile is 9 times more likely to be viewed if you have a Photo)
1. Let them see your face
3. List your most relevant jobs & complete educational facts
1. Convey your successes and responsibilities concisely
4. Receive geunine recommendations and endorsements
1. Ask your friends, colleagues etc. – Careful though!
5. Put your flavour on it, It’s ok to be social here ”I”
1. Highlights their involvement in non-paid projects related to their field (open-source, community,
volunteer, conference), list of interests, hobbies, information related to your life outside work
6. Be active relevant content get you noticed
1. Add value with links, articles, blogs etc. and have fun

21. Profile optimized!
Then what?

22. Getting the most out of your profile
• Setting your goals
– Being clear on what your goals are
• Business intelligence
– Look at company suppliers, partners, clients, recruiters or employers profiles
– Research and analysis
• Showcase yourselves – brag a bit
– Previous work samples and much more
– 20% of hiring managers made hiring decisions based on volunteer experience
on LinkedIn
• ABT – Always Be Testing

23. LinkedIn Groups
• Why Join a Group
– Connecting with like minded people
• Building a following
• Collaborative learning and discovery
– Researching for work or business venture
• Choosing a group
– Look for well moderated groups
– Look for groups that your current network are
– Choose wisely as Groups are listed on your profile

24. LinkedIn Groups
• Why Start a group
– Influence like minded people
– Be seen as a thought leader in your field
– Build your database for business venture
• Promoting your group
– Look for well moderated groups
– Look for groups that your current network are a part
of

25. LinkedIn Companies
• Why Follow a Company?
– Stay ‘connected’ to companies you are interested in
– Be notified of job vacancies
• Starting a Company Listing
– For the business venture/entrepreneur
– A part of your company content strategy

26. The 7 Value Points of LinkedIn
• Establish your professional profile and control one of the top search
results for your name
• Build and maintain a broader network of professionals you can trust
• Find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates
• Learn about other companies
• Leverage LinkedIn to find and reach the people you need
• Tap into the knowledge of your network
• Discover new opportunities
Source: LinkedIn

27. What should you do after today?
• Decide what you want, why and how!
• Rewrite your profile so it educates your target audiences about
what you bring to the table
– Improve your headline (“brandline”)
– Add presentations/videos or other material to cultivate your brand
– Update e-mail address & photo
• Develop a connection strategy that suits you and leverage groups
• Evaluate the benefits of upgrading to a paid service

28. LYNN KUMON

29. Examples of Strong Profiles
Donna Serdula Jomar Reyes
Jolene Merica James Bellew

30. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
Thank you for your time and
attention