1. Researched and Compiled by
THE
DEFINITIVE
GUIDE TO

2. CONTENTS PAGE
Executive Summary by Mike Saunders
LinkedIn Profile
Why LinkedIn?
Why create a 100% profile?
How do you create the perfect LinkedIn Profile?
Company Profile
Your Company Page/Profile
Company Page Tabs
Benefits of a Company Page/Profile
Get Connected
Now get connected!
Using your LinkedIn Profile
Mistakes to avoid
What is the difference between a CV and your LinkedIn Profile?
LinkedIn Etiquette
Using the LinkedIn iPad app
LinkedIn Recruiter: Corporate Edition
Thanks and acknowledgements
References
About DigitLab
LinkedIn Statistics: SA
LinkedIn Statistics: Africa
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
LinkedIn is by far the most useful business network on the internet. I say this
because LinkedIn has grown from a social network that connects professionals into a
powerhouse of business tools that can improve your bottom line.
The business of LinkedIn shows in its share price, currently at $98.52, compared to
Facebook, who is currently trading at $31,91. *
LinkedIn offers advertising solutions that help target business professionals to ensure
your content reaches the right individuals. It also offers services that help you connect
with the right people and strategically build your network. The real benefit and business
value comes in their main revenue driver, LinkedIn Recruiter.
LinkedIn allows people to brand themselves online and build a profile that will help them secure a great career in the future.
This means that the information available about candidates is rich and deep, helping employers get a better feel of the
candidate before calling them in for an interview. These branded business professionals reveal a new competitive advantage
to headhunt our employees instead of opening up all prospective positions to large amounts of ‘job spam’. Finally, we now
have a way to find and approach those hard to find passive candidates.
It has become clear that having a LinkedIn profile is no longer optional, but an imperative for the success of your career in
the future. That’s why we decided to put this guide together, to help business professionals profile themselves correctly on
LinkedIn. We hope you enjoy this guide and that it helps you get another step closer to realising your business and career
dreams.
Kind Regards,
Mike Saunders
CEO of DigitLab
* share price quoted from Bloomberg on the 29th May 2012
Mike Saunders

4. LinkedIn PROFILE

5. LinkedIn PROFILE
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
WHY LINKEDIN?
LinkedIn is a powerful online tool which allows you to
market yourself as a professional within your industry by
showcasing your accomplishments, skills, knowledge, and
expertise. This professional network, which is built around
your employment capabilities, allows you to connect with
others and learn from those in your field of work, by adding
them as ‘connections’.
The unique attraction to LinkedIn includes the offer to access
specific demographics – those interested in professional
networking. If your aim is to build relationships and grow
your knowledge of industry trends, you’ll need to join the
other 1,6 million South Africans who are currently ‘LinkedIn’.
Currently LinkedIn is ranked as South Africa’s 8th most
visited website by South Africans.
LinkedIn has grown by 45% in membership from 2011 to
2012 and it’s predicted this growth is only going to continue
over the next few years.
WHY CREATE A 100% PROFILE?
“Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely
to receive opportunities through LinkedIn. There is a
direct correlation between how complete your profile
is and higher search ranking. Yes, this is HUGE!” says
Donna Serdula, author of LinkedIn Makeover.
Your LinkedIn profile should be optimised with other
professionals, potential employers and clients, and even
existing clients in mind. What’s the big deal about a complete
profile? For one, it could affect your future job opportunities
as well as your overall identity on the internet. LinkedIn let
us know earlier this year that there is a new way to measure
profile completeness, and the following are the key areas you
should focus on:
• Your industry and location
• Up-to-date current position (with description)
• Two past positions
• Education
• Skills (a minimum of 3)
• Profile photo
• At least 50 connections.
Chris Brogan has also weighed in on how to make your
LinkedIn profile work for you:
• Fully complete your profile – leave no gaps
• Edit your profile to claim your public profile – your link
should be short and have your name at the end (http://
za.linkedin.com/in/yourname)
• Make your profile publicly available on all levels
• Make connections and request recommendations
• Register a company profile if it doesn’t exist already
• Make use of the three website hyperlinks – for example:
your website, company website, and your blog
• Join related groups
• Use LinkedIn Answers – to build reputation in your field
• Optimise your job title.
Mike Saunders suggests that one of the most valuable
elements to complete your profile is often overlooked.
The ability to request recommendations from your
connections is a great way to show credibility and store your
recommendation for future use in other documents.
HOW DO YOU CREATE THE PERFECT
LINKEDIN PROFILE?
The first step is to get prepared by researching profiles of
professionals in your field. Be sure to examine well-organised,
effective, and simple profiles.
Focus on examining your skill-set from the perspective of a
potential employer and/or client. Write your skills with the
intention of answering the questions, “Why should I hire
you?” and “Why do I want to connect with this person?”
Create an outline by noting positions you’ve held in
chronological order. Make sure you look through the above
lists and note some attributes that set you apart in your field.
The second step is building your profile. Now that you have
a clear idea of where you are headed and what you have to
offer – you can make your profile stand out. Here’s how:
• Display your photo
This needs to be done to firstly prove you are real and
that your profile is credible; not displaying a photo
raises questions. If you have something to hide, you
wouldn’t want to participate in this form of social

6. LinkedIn PROFILE CONTINUED
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
networking. Avoid using social snapshots, but rather a
standard/professional headshot is the preferred option.
• List your full name and create a public profile
Claim your unique public profile name and avoid the
long link. Be creative and use your middle initial or full
middle name if your name was already taken. If you
want to edit your public profile, click “Edit Profile” and
go to “Public Profile”, then click “Edit”. You will now be
able to delete that generic link and fill in your name.
• Create a professional headline
This is the space underneath your name on your
profile. Make sure you do not just put your company
name and job title here. The point of this is to
brand yourself and to create a way for people to
find you in search engines. It should be a marketing
phrase, not your job title. Remember to tell people
about the value you add, not just “what you do”.
• Write a professional summary
Introduce yourself to the world. Why would you want
to have a presence on a social networking platform, but
not introduce yourself? This summary needs to show
who you are, what you do, and why you are unique. It
also needs to convey something of your personality.
• List your work experience
And don’t forget details. Your profile is not complete
if you are only listing your current place of work,
and if you are not including details of your position.
It does not need to be a full resumé. Enough detail
is shown with a one sentence summary explaining
your role at each organisation you’ve worked for –
just enough for the potential reader to understand
where you worked and what your job entailed. It
is to your advantage to list as much detail about
your experience at each company as possible in
order to appear more frequently in search results.
• Include educational information
It is important to display high school and tertiary
education details so that people understand where you
have come from.
• Include skill set under Skills and Expertise
The more skills you can list, the better – but be honest.
One day you might work with the people who read your
profile and you need to follow through on what you are
promoting.
• Additional information
This is where you will include three websites and your
Twitter profile – a good opportunity to brand yourself
and your business. Link to your personal website,
company website, and blog. Also include your interests
and honours/awards.
Quick SEO Tip: If you have a blog or website, select the
option “other” under the type of link and then write the
preferred search term you would like to rank for, i.e. instead
of having the words “company website” linking back to
your website, you create the link “professional accounting
services”. It won’t miraculously push you to the top of the
Google rankings, but it will help.
• Personal information
Information about you, such as your birthday and
marital status.
• Contact settings
Why have you established your presence on LinkedIn
and what is your objective? If you want to be contacted,
say so. In order to network, it pays to be open to
potential opportunities.
The third step is to register your company profile, although
this only applies if your company is not on LinkedIn. Request
to create their profile if that is the case – this also makes it
easier when trying to connect with colleagues.

7. COMPANY PROFILE

8. COMPANY PROFILE
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
YOUR COMPANY PAGE/PROFILE
Over 100 million professionals are following more than 1.9
million companies on LinkedIn. The reason for following
companies on LinkedIn is to stay in the loop with new
developments, compare products and services, track
potential business opportunities, and keep an eye out for job
openings. Members are notified of such developments via
network updates or emails. When members want to know
more about your company, they look to your Company Page
on LinkedIn.
COMPANY PAGE TABS
• Overview
A friendly introduction to your brand.
• Careers
A unique opportunity to interact with millions of passive
and active job seekers on LinkedIn.
• Products and Services
Highlight products and services that are relevant to
your target audience.
• Analytics
This is visible only to you, as an administrator of your
Company Page. Use this tab to begin understanding
your followers.
BENEFITS OF A
COMPANY PAGE/PROFILE
• A powerful way to reach millions of professionals
through word-of-mouth recommendations and trusted
testimonials
• An opportunity to reveal the human side of your
company
• Provides a peek at the individuals behind the brand
• Highlights how members use your products in their
daily lives to solve real problems
• Provides tools to bring your brand to life
• A Company Page can answer the following questions –
What is the company really like? Who has recommended their
products and why? Should I work for them?
• Grow and engage your followers – this is done by status
updates, blog posts, Twitter updates, YouTube videos,
special offers, and more.
• Benefit from the buzz about your products. Each
time a member endorses your product or service,
their recommendation becomes visible to all of their
connections and could spread virally.
• Promote your employment brand by creating and
updating your Careers Tab. You will need to upgrade
your LinkedIn account to Premium to have the full
advantage of this extra feature.

9. THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedInTHE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
GET CONNECTED

10. GET CONNECTED
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
NOW GET CONNECTED!
Once your profile is set up, you need to get connected and
find people that you network with both on and offline. Find
your connections from the past, as well as your present
connections. Be intentional with your connections – make
a point of connecting with people you met that day, or at a
conference last week.
The LinkedIn ‘profile completeness’ rule used to require
that people receive three recommendations in order to get
to 100% profile completion, but this is not stipulated in the
new rules. Getting recommendations is still important to
include in your profile though, as it shows other professionals
opinions of you, your work, and your character. You should
get at least one recommendation for every position that
you’ve held.
USING YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE
A stagnant social profile does more harm than good. Once
your profile is complete, focus on the following:
• Post frequent but relevant status updates
• Be active on LinkedIn Answers and demonstrate your
business acumen by answering questions from other
members. When questioners choose another user’s
answer as best, that user gains points of expertise.
These points rank members on the Answers leader
board, titled “This Week’s Top Experts”
• Make connections – actively seek to grow your
professional network
• Join groups related to your field of work and interests
• Get recommendations – one or more per position
• Create a LinkedIn signature to use in your email footer
• Constantly update your profile – especially when you
change positions or companies
• Use LinkedIn to job search when you are in the market
for a new position
• Re-arrange the order of your LinkedIn profile by
clicking “Edit Profile”. Drag any section to where you
would like it to appear. For example, some people
may prefer their education to appear closer to the
top (usually because this is what lures people to
hire you) or you may want to highlight your work
experience. Watch the video for an explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG6nJ_SVgjo.
MISTAKES TO AVOID
There are common mistakes that many people make in
setting up their LinkedIn profile. Things to avoid include:
• Blurry or ‘weird’ profile pictures, or not displaying a
picture at all
• Poor punctuation
• A half-written profile – make sure you list enough
previous work experience and schools attended
• An unbranded professional headline – this appears in
search results next to your name so don’t just put your
company name and job title here
• Boring status updates
• Less than three recommendations
• Too few connections
• Not listing three websites, which is a good way to
provide even more information to potential employers
and to your connections
• Not claiming your unique URL
• No branded summary rich with keywords
• No job descriptions.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A
CV AND YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE?
Usually your resumé or curriculum vitae wouldn’t be more
than two pages and might only be viewed by potential
employers that you have specifically sent it to. A LinkedIn
profile however can be as long as you want and it’s in the
public eye for everyone and/or anyone to see. When people
search for anything in relation to your professional headline
or your name, you could potentially appear in the search
results.
LinkedIn profiles are used primarily for networking, whereas
resumés are used to land employment.
LinkedIn profiles have headshots, whereas the majority of
CVs do not.
LinkedIn profiles should provide a good overview of your
professional experience, whereas resumés and CVs should
be tailored for each specific job you apply for.

11. GET CONNECTED CONTINUED
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
LINKEDIN ETIQUETTE
Part of LinkedIn’s own philosophy is that you should know
your contacts personally before deciding to add them as a
connection. LinkedIn’s view is that your connections are a
reflection of who you are as a professional.
As with any social networking though, there are always
extremists. LinkedIn’s extremists are called LIONs i.e.
LinkedIn Open Networkers. A LION adds anybody and
everybody as a connection, regardless of whether or not
they actually know them.
USING THE LINKEDIN IPAD APP
Akhilesh Gupta, Software Engineer at LinkedIn, shares some
light on the new iPad app for LinkedIn:
“LinkedIn just released a brand new iPad app built
using HTML5, backbone.js, and underscore.js. The
app includes a rich stream of information which is a
combination of network updates, group posts and news
articles. The user can also switch to specific streams like
Co-Worker updates or news articles from a
specific category.”
The first LinkedIn iPad app, launched on 26 April 2012; it
brings a brand new look and feel to the social network. New
features include the calendar widget on the left hand side of
your home updates screen.
“It pulls in appointments from your iPad’s calendar
(with your permission of course) and displays the
LinkedIn profiles of the people you’re going to meet
with,” says Steve Kovach.
It’s a great new layout, with your stories and updates
appearing in a similar way to that of Flipboard.
Many people are shocked when they hear that 95% of the
LinkedIn iPad app is mobile web and not native.
“Only one screen in the entire LinkedIn iPad app is
actually native. The rest is good ol’ HTML5-based
mobile web technology, running in the browser and
leaning heavily on Node.js,” says Jolie O’Dell.

12. LinkedIn RECRUITER

13. LINKEDIN RECRUITER
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
CORPORATE EDITION
Learn how to find the world’s best passive talent by viewing
this video: http://talent.linkedin.com/Recruiter. Wondering
how to find and contact your ideal passive candidates?
• Get unlimited access to names and full profiles.
• Find the best candidates, much faster. Zero in on
the best passive candidates using powerful search
refinement filters which target candidates precisely
based on company, skills, industry, or keywords.
• Boost your recruiting productivity. Up to 50 search
alerts let you spot new talent automatically.
• Manage your pipeline by using the Project Folders to
stay on top of each search. Set reminders on profiles to
follow up with candidates of interest.
• Keep your team on the same page. Team members
will get visibility into their colleagues’ projects, notes,
and communication history with candidates, avoiding
duplication of effort.
• Contact candidates using InMail (LinkedIn’s trusted
messaging environment).

14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & REFERENCES

15. THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Putting together a report like this is the work of number of people and organisations. We would like to take this
opportunity to thank those involved.
Corporate Recruitment
Mandi, Darren, Meegan and Steve for all the blood, sweat and tears put into this project.
REFERENCES
• Serdula, Donna. 2011. LinkedInMakeover.
• Brogan, Chris. 2008. Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You.
URL: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/make-your-linkedin-profile-work-for-you
• Worthington, Sue. 2010. 10 Steps To The Perfect LinkedIn Profile.
URL: http://www.sueworthington.com/socialmedia/linkedin/10-steps-to-the-perfect-linkedin-profile
• Myers, Grace. 2011. Get Noticed: 5 Steps to Writing a Perfect LinkedIn Profile.
URL: http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/get-noticed-5-steps-to-writing-a-kick-ass-linkedin-profile
• Gibbons, Kevin. 2009. 10 LinkedIn Tips to Optimise your Profile.
URL: http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/09/10-tips-to-optimise-your-linkedin-profile.html
• Schaffer, Neal. 2009. LinkedIn Profile Tips: The 10 Mistakes You Want to Avoid and Why.
URL: http://windmillnetworking.com/2009/08/11/linkedin-profile-tips-the-10-mistakes-you-want-to-avoid-and-why
• Doyle, Alison. LinkedIn Profile: Use Your LinkedIn Profile as a Resume.
URL: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/networking/a/linkedinprofile.htm
• LinkedIn for iPad.
URL: http://engineering.linkedin.com/mobile/linkedin-ipad-using-local-storage-snappy-mobile-apps
• LinkedIn launches A Killer New iPad App.
URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-launches-new-ipad-app-2012-4
• You’ll never believe how LinkedIn built its new iPad app (exclusive).
URL: http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/02/linkedin-ipad-app-engineering/#s:1-linkedin-ipad
• Top 20 websites in South Africa 2012.
URL: http://www.mikesaunders.com/2012/03/13/top-20-websites-in-south-africa-2012/
• LinkedIn Corporate Recruiting Systems.
URL: http://talent.linkedin.com/recruiter-professional-services

16. ABOUT

17. THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO LinkedIn
ABOUT DIGITLAB
DigitLab is a Digital Marketing and Social Media Agency
who believes in breaking past the technology on the internet
and engaging directly with customers with great value
propositions.
DigitLab has a wealth of experience working both nationally
and internationally for some of the world’s leading
organisations.
We have helped businesses navigate the world of digital and
social media through our robust process of clear strategy,
flawless action and insightful research.
STRATEGY
This division, headed by our CEO Mike Saunders, designs
strategic engagement plans to reach customers in various
markets including Business to Business and Youth Marketing.
Our strategic minds have also been instrumental in helping
business move into the social age by building employee
engagement models to build an organisation’s return on
investment through social media technology.
ACTION
Our skilled team of digital artists ensure that every aspect of
your project is implemented flawlessly right down to the last
line of code. Our focus remains to use technology to connect
with people so our action is always directed to creating great
experiences that lead to predetermined objectives.
RESEARCH
DigitLab has a fully fledged research department that focuses
on analysing client projects and finding opportunities to
improve on the positive impact the project is making. We
are also dedicated to growing the industry’s knowledge by
providing research reports to the public.
A few of our fantastic clients:
ABOUT MIKE SAUNDERS
Mike Saunders is the CEO of DigitLab
and his interest lies in how people use
technology, believing that technology
is only useful if people use it.
Understanding how people use
technology helps business use
technology to build value into peoples lives. Creating better
experiences, more useful products, deeper relationships and
more engaging ideas.
An international speaker, Mike has an entertaining, relaxed,
personalandengagingpresentationstyle.Hehasworkedwith
some of the worlds most prestigious organisations. Along
with his experience in business, Mike has also contributed
to leadership programmes for Gordon’s Institute of Business
(GIBS).
Mike has been at the forefront of business transitioning
into a world of social technology and has been a key part of
important projects looking into the use of social technology
in marketing campaigns, internal communications, social
learning, leadership development, knowledge management,
collaboration, project management and enterprise social
media.
Acknowledged by his peers as one of the Top 20 South
Africans to follow on Twitter, Mike has won the respect of
business by his determined approach to helping business
navigate a diverse and complicated world of people and
technology.
Mike is often called on by business magazines and websites
to comment on technology, social media and Generation Y.
He blogs at www.mikesaunders.com and can be found on:
As an entrepreneur and businessman, Mike has built
DigitLab into one of South Africa’s premier digital marketing
companies and he is a partner at TomorrowToday where he
contributes to the future world of work as a speaker and
consultant.

18. WANT TO KNOW
ALL THE STATS ON
AFRICA?
EMAIL US:
info@digitlab.co.za