Note: This blog post is Part 2 of a two-part series on LinkedIn Lessons. The first blog post is titled, LinkedIn Lessons Part 1: Monitoring Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn with the Popular Profile Section.
For 22 consecutive weeks, I’ve maintained a LinkedIn Profile that’s listed on the Popular Profiles Section of my firm’s Company Profile Page.
Here are the four tactics I employ to continue achieving this result:
· Optimize Your Profile with Important Keywords
· Thoroughly Describe Your Work Experience
· Frequently Update Your Status With Useful Content
· Actively Comment in LinkedIn Discussion Group Forums
Optimize Your Profile with Important Keywords It’s important to include keywords in your profile so a prospective employer, recruiter, or connection can easily find you. In particular, the Specialties Section provides an outstanding opportunity to highlight your skills and capabilities. Make sure this section fully lists and describes the knowledge you’ve acquired throughout your entire professional career. Too often, people make the mistake of not fully elaborating on the many skills they’ve implemented in different jobs. In the leaner world of Corporate America, you’ve probably developed additional skills that weren’t part of the original job description by frequently multi-tasking. Make sure you describe those skills in the Specialties Section!
A leading indicator of your profile optimization is the “Who’s Viewed My Profile” Section. This section is located on the right side bar of your LinkedIn Home Page. “Who’s Viewed My Profile” measures how many people recently viewed your profile, and the number of times it appeared in search results.
Thoroughly Describe Your Work Experience
LinkedIn allows you to host and exhibit your entire resume online. Take full advantage of this opportunity! I recommend copying and pasting every bullet point from your resume into the LinkedIn template. A full explanation of your work experience ensures your profile contains several keywords. In addition, LinkedIn provides the option to make your public profile available with a customized URL that includes your name. A customized URL with your name provides another search engine opportunity for Google or Bing to identify and display “your name” in search results. Remember, LinkedIn Profiles rank very high in the Google Search algorithm so take advantage of the customized URL option. Doing so will maximize your online visibility to prospective connections or employers.
Frequently Update Your Status with Useful Content
I view the Status Section as channel for sharing content that other connections will find personally or professionally beneficial. This philosophy is similar to my strategy for crafting a tweet on Twitter. Whenever possible, I link an article or online reference to my status update. Using a URL shortening service like bit.ly makes it easier to accomplish this task because you’re limited by character spaces.
Here’s an example of a LinkedIn status update that connections favorably commented on: “A permanent job is a temporary one disguised with benefits.” Reinvent Your Job-Forbes http://bit.ly/EuuO8; One connection even tweeted this article to his Twitter followers and referenced me.
I wrote this updated linked to a New York Times article on the recent Yahoo-Microsoft deal: Why Carol Bartz Sold Yahoo Search: Matching Google & Microsoft's investment level is unsustainable strategy; NYTimes http://bit.ly/g5G8D.
Here’s the status update I provided this Friday morning: Is Universal Care & Cost Containment Viable? France's universal healthcare experiencing challenges|WSJ http://bit.ly/1U412E
Actively Comment in LinkedIn Discussion Group Forums
Joining and actively commenting in LinkedIn Discussion Groups allows you to demonstrate your knowledge in particular topics or industries. It’s important to write thoughtful and helpful comments because this is how other LinkedIn members will primarily interact with you. Essentially, these discussion forums are the online equivalent of a 24/7 networking event. After all, it’s called social networking for a reason!
Starting or posting a Discussion Topic is one of my favorite ways to establish a presence on LinkedIn. In my own experience, trial and error determines what types of posts other members will favorably respond to and provide comments. When a particular post strikes a favorable chord, the results are absolutely rewarding. Four months ago, I posted a provocative article in my graduate business school’s LinkedIn group. The article, RIP MBA: The Economic Crisis has Exposed the Myth of Business-School Expertise, and the ensuing discussion generated 33 comments. I acted as the discussion moderator and let commenting activity take a life of its own. More importantly, it gave me a credible entrée in connecting with other business school alumni that I otherwise would never personally meet. And ultimately, isn’t that what we all would like to achieve through LinkedIn …