Advanced LinkedIn is a seminar presentation focused on the deeper functionalities of LinkedIn and how to leverage it effectively as part of a strategy for networking and job-hunting. This is not a how-to-use-LinkedIn presentation, but rather a why-use-LinkedIn and what-to-do-with-LinkedIn. In effect, if you are a LinkedIn user and want to get real impact out of it, this presentation will give you some great ideas.
3. Assumptions You have a LinkedIn profile at 100% You want your LinkedIn actions to make a difference You are prepared to invest some time in your LinkedIn efforts
4. Latest data Execs from all Fortune 500 companies 1 Recruitment by 75 of Fortune 100 companies 1 Total of 120m members 1 80% of recruiters already use for recruiting 2 LinkedIn 87%, Facebook 55%, Twitter 47%2 Spend less on job boards and 3rd parties2 Source: 1) LinkedIn website, 2) Jobvite, Inc
7. Find (LinkedIn as a research tool) Job searchand Application Find someone with Advanced Search in a company, in a city, with a title, having a keyword, looking for a business partner Find people with common interests in Groups Researching companies and their competitors Follow companies to get notified Find Events Finding out what Sarah’s hobbies are Combine it with Google Search, Twitter… for extra power
9. Found and not Filtered (LinkedIn for SEO) KEYWORDS SEO and search friendly Industry relevant Profession relevant Certifications Skills Degrees Memberships “seeking” & “looking” Projected position BE “READABLE” Easy to read, concise summary But not too short Make it interesting to read Your profile is not your resume Write for the reader 9 Credit Håkan Söderbom, http://KonsultPartners.com/presentations
10. How do we figure out the keywords? LinkedIn Job Search: “cloud virtualization” Senior Technical Alliance Manager, Brocade- San Jose, CA Technical Alliance Manager, Vmware, Isilon Systems- San Jose, California Virtualization Architect, Huawei- Santa Clara
11. How do we figure out the keywords? www.textalyser.net
12. How do we figure out the keywords? www.textalyser.net
13. How do we figure out the keywords? www.textalyser.net
14. How do we figure out the keywords? www.textalyser.net
16. Appreciated (getting to the top of the pile) Show your personality (project who you want them to see) Show off your expertise Engage with people Help people Thank people Start slowly, find your voice, understand the etiquette, don’t be a dork
17. Appreciated (your profile matters) Idea #1: Use a photo that draws attention, & re-use it to ensure recognition across tools Idea #2: Give yourself a title that speaks (not just the default title of your current position) Idea #3: Cheat – use the fields for something else… Idea #4: Use your Websites links as keywords Idea #5: Use your personal profile link in a creative way Idea #6: You can have several concurrent jobs/activities
18. Appreciated (activities get noticed) Idea #7: Share regular business updates, they appear in your contacts’ Timeline Idea #8: Build a list of top 5 Groups based on your interests and/or objectives. Spend some time every day reading up and participating Idea #9: Integrate Twitter, blog, Slideshare.net and other Applications to create more activity Idea #10: Ask and Answer in Answers it shows your expertise, willingness to help and adds to your timeline as well as SEO
19. Appreciated (go the extra mile) Idea #11: Give Recommendations Idea #12: Ask for Recommendations. Consider providing some starter-text. Idea #13: Never use the boilerplate, add some personal text. Remind people where you met you or why they would want to stay connected
20. Appreciated (reach further with Messages) Idea #14: Use messages to all 1st level contacts and members of shared Groups Idea #15: Buy InMail messages ($10 each) or Premium Subscription to reach beyond network. Can make a huge difference. Idea #16: Have a purpose, try to align it to their benefit. E.g. “I am looking for person at your company to interview for an article concerning…”
22. Building Trust The foundation for a good reputation Takes time, consistency and persistence Can be ruined – you should monitor yourself Lasts forever
24. Connections 1st level available 2nd level Through 1st level 3rd level Through 1st and 2nd level Alternative Use InMail (beware of InMail Feedback score)
25. Upgrades Premium Plans Business, Business Plus, Executive Business, Job seeker, Job Seeker Plus Business, Talent Basic, Talent Finder Features Business($25/month) InMail (3 per months, accrues up to 9) OpenLink– anyone (including recruiters) can contact you & and anyone can see your full profile details See 300 profiles in search Premium Search Filters Who’s Viewed My Profile? Full list (still privacy controlled) Profile Organizer with 5 folders Get 5 search alerts per week when people/candidates meet criteria Reference Search (historic search) Business Plus = Talent Basic ($50/month) InMail (10 per month) See 500 profiles/candidates in search Profile Organizer with 25 folders Get 7 search alerts per week when people/candidates meet criteria Job Seeker ($30/month) Job Seeker Badge Move to the top when searched Make Salary detailed searches
Let me just share that my name is Håkan, pronounced hawken, and my main two businesses are http://konsultpartners.com (focused on helping companies build their social media presence) and http://backwardwebsites.com (focused on helping companies launch their core online presence, i.e. a website).This presentation and all material is shared under the Creative Commons, Attribution copyright.Håkan SöderbomKonsult Partners LLChttp://konsultpartners.com
Let me give you a quick outline of my (Håkan Söderbom)background which should help set the context for my experience with blogging and social media.Worked for, and started, multiple small software businesses in Sweden.Joined Microsoft Sweden in 1997, built the local ISV partner ecosystemJoined Microsoft EMEA HQ in 1999, responsible for product launches tied to the web, and managed several DotCom relationshipsJoined Microsoft Corp in 2002, initially shared responsibility for collaboration with Intel. Later leading a team driving partner recruitment, which allowed me to create and run online programs, campaigns, SEM, SEO, PPC, measurement and research.In early 2010 I left to start Konsult Partners LLC which is now my core business, focused on social media marketing and social media strategy development. As a complement I recently launched Backward Websites which is about very quickly launching beautiful, rich and funtional websites using ready-to-go themes (templates) available in the WordPress community.
LinkedIn is highly regarded by recruitersCan be tuned as an effective tool to be found and to appreciatedTake it seriously and invest time to set it up and maintain it
Senior people are on LinkedInYou can research and reach people on LinkedIn that you cannot connect with any other way
Find = Research people, companies, relationshipsFound = search engine optimization to make it easy for people to find youAppreciated = when you are found or researched, you want to make sure you catch their attention and put you to the top of the pile. You influence how well you are appreciated by what you doTrust = you want to build trust over time, that accumulates to become a trust capital. Let’s start with drilling into how Finding information can help us…
LinkedIn is an amazing tool for finding information about almost anything related to business. A lot can be accomplished if you put your mindset just a bit beyond the obvious profile.Job search – LinkedIn is quickly becoming one of the preferred tools for companies to publish their open positions, and you can apply to the job from within the tool. It is really neat that you can do a lot of research about the job, the company, its employees and competitors from within the same tool. If a job doesn’t suit you, maybe you want to forward it to someone you know… (Always think about what you can do for others)Advanced Search is a premium tool (actually it is free, with some extra features for subscribers) with lots of possibilities. Use it to look for individuals inside a business, individuals with a title, individuals with a particular interest or that colleague you have forgotten the name of.Use your imagination on how to apply searches; an advanced approach would be to combine Google searches with LinkedIn searches to map out roles and responsibilities in a company or a group.As you research people within a business you can also start figuring out a lot of what is brewing inside that business. People are often very open with what they do. An advanced approach is to combine this insight with Twitter searches and you would be amazed with what a competitive intelligence tool you have at the tip of your fingers.You can follow companies to learn about updates about it and its employees. Follow companies you want to work for, or competitors of the companies that interest you.Find events that interest you and easily see what events the individuals in your network are putting on.Think of the importance of making an emotional connection with people, and explore how LinkedIn can give you the perfect information to prepare yourself. Before you meet with someone for the first time, you can quickly check out their LinkedIn profile; maybe you went to the same school, worked for the same company, or have a close friend in common. If you combine that with checking out their Twitter profile and timeline, and potentially their personal website and/or Facebook page, combined with a Google search, you are bound to learn something you can use.In fact you can often learn enough about someone in 3 minutes to have information to make a life-long lasting impression – enough for you to research the next person you are meeting during an interview loop… Give yourself an unfair advantage.
Find = Research people, companies, relationshipsFound = search engine optimization to make it easy for people to find youAppreciated = when you are found or researched, you want to make sure you catch their attention and put you to the top of the pile. You influence how well you are appreciated by what you doTrust = you want to build trust over time, that accumulates to become a trust capital. So now we have some good tips on how to find interesting information and learn about people. Let’s turn the table and explore how we can make others find us.
Keywords:All recruiters agreed they use keywords to find the prospects. Often the boolean search strings they use are quite complex to find, filter and prioritize the candidates.Further feedback is that there is no “perfect” search – each position is unique and the job description is scanned for keywords and phrases that are then input into the search query. Core keywords includes abbreviations and spelled out words that are industry and profession relevant, including certifications, skills, degrees, diplomas, courses and even memberships in professional associations that indicate you are established in your industry.It has also been suggested for the active job-seeker to include words like “seeking” and “looking” in the profile, even in the title headline, to make sure you get to the top with the recruiters who look for active seekers.Remember that your profile needs to “project” the role you want to step into, not only represent previous positions. E.g. if you were a Director at a Fortune 500 company you may plan to step into a Vice President role at a smaller company.Be “readable”:So now you have been found by the recruiter – how do you make sure you don’t get placed at the bottom of the pile? Some advice include:Make it easy for the recruiter to scan and appraise your fit for the position. For instance, a short and concise profile will ensure the recruiter doesn’t put your profile away before he or she has actually scanned it.Don’t make the resume so short that you don’t get the keywords right.Make it interesting to read. At the very least, don’t go on and on with everything you have done. Remember the recruiter scans hundreds of profiles and is most likely *not* an expert in your domain. If you use too much jargon or are too verbose, you may end up at the bottom of the pile.Consider letting your personality come through. You may even want to show some humor.Your profile should raise the recruiters interest for you and compel them to seek out your resume.
One approach for finding out what keywords you mustn’t miss is to use a tool for analyzing appropriate texts, for instance you may want to analyze the job description for your favorite job, or why not take all the job descriptions that interest you and let a text analyzer crunch out the right keywords.One such free tool is www.textalyser.net. Just take the job description, combine them and paste them into the tool. Then let it analyze the text for keywords. You may get surprised at finding a lot of words that you didn’t think of. These words may well be used by the recruiter when they try to formulate their search queries to find candidates. Consider weaving them into your profile, work descriptions and experience detail.
The tool cranks out some statistics about the texts – not very useful for our intended purpose, but still interesting…
The really interesting information comes out as a set of stack ranked words and their frequency. This is where you need to look out for the words describing the role, its profession, required skills and experiences. For instance, if it says that VP is an recurring word you should consider including that even if you never held a VP role. It may be enough to say that you are a “VP candidate” to at least get a hit, i.e. get found and get the chance to be considered…
The tool goes on to list common combinations of words which also may be helpful in recognizing expressions you should include among your keywords.
Find = Research people, companies, relationshipsFound = search engine optimization to make it easy for people to find youAppreciated = when you are found or researched, you want to make sure you catch their attention and put you to the top of the pile. You influence how well you are appreciated by what you doTrust = you want to build trust over time, that accumulates to become a trust capital. We have now covered how we can reach out and engage people, as well as making sure it is easy for others to find and research us. What remains is to make sure that anyone looking at our online presence gets hooked, i.e. wanting to learn more about us, and putting us at the top of the pile.
Just getting someone to read your LinkedIn profile is not enough, you need to make sure you evoke an emotion that makes them take an action. This action needs to get you to the next level whether it is landing a job or being selected for delivering a service or a product. With that in mind, you need to update your profile and start driving a series of activities to that effect.
Lets explore some ideas for what to do, we start with talking about your LinkedIn profile
To really break through, it isn’t enough to just have a passive profile sitting there waiting to get found. You should also engage in a number of activities to help your profile on its way.
For real effect, take the time to engage people at a deeper level.
Reaching beyond your immediate contacts can be challenging and scary, but LinkedIn provides the tools and if you use them with common sense and consideration they will aid you further.
Find = Research people, companies, relationshipsFound = search engine optimization to make it easy for people to find youAppreciated = when you are found or researched, you want to make sure you catch their attention and put you to the top of the pile. You influence how well you are appreciated by what you doTrust = you want to build trust over time, that accumulates to become a trust capital. Finally, we have now set off the motions that over time will impact how people perceive us and the brand we want to represent. As that gets cemented in people’s minds they will come to rely on us and that trust lasts a long time and goes a long way…
LinkedIn provides for-fee subscription services. The question is, are they worth the money. The short answer is, yes, if you proactively are going to invest the time in using them. If all you want is to add a badge to your profile that says you are an Open Networking or even a Job Seeker, then it is probably not worth the money. However if LinkedIn is an active strategic tool in your portfolio then you get some good extra features that make you more effective.
LinkedIn gives you access to your immediate (1st level) contacts as well as 2nd and 3rd level contacts. However you cannot learn as much about, or connect easily with the people beyond the 1st level. The subscription services remove some of these limitations and make it easier to engage and manage those connections.
A comparison of the LinkedIn premium subscription services.Note how several services are (as far as I can tell) identical, but branded differently for different users, e.g. the professional networker vs. the recruiter.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to Håkan Söderbom to discuss your needs for training or help with your online presence.Go to http://konsultpartners.comFor the presentations, go to http://konsultpartners.com/presentations