LEVERAGING LINKEDINTO

BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

CHARLOTTE HR MEETUPDECEMBER 21, 2009

Jason Tarazi, MSHRM, SPHR

Vice President – Corporate Recruiting

Bank of America

http://www.bankofamerica.com

Mark Weber

Managing Partner

Darton Group

http://www.dartongroup.com

Hallie Hawkins, JD

Co-Founder and Trainer

Get It Together

http://www.get-it-together-today.com

AGENDA

Hallie Hawkins: How companies leverage LinkedIn

Jason Tarazi: How recruiters and job seekers leverage

LinkedIn

Mark Weber: How to create a strong LinkedIn profile

WHY LINKEDIN?

Huge global reach: 50+ million users, 95% of whom have a college degree, and the average user age 41 (64% male, 36% female)

The power of recommendations (i.e. your references)

The ability to form and join groups of common interest for networking, and sharing business and employment opportunities

Companies use it to post jobs, and candidates use it to search for jobs

Recruiters use it to source passive candidates: the traditional “job boards” are too expensive and over-saturated, and companies want people, not resumes

IMPORTANT TIPS FORNEW USERS

LinkedIn is intended for business professionals to connect with others who they trust, know, and whose work they can recommended

“Open networking” (i.e. connecting with anyone just to amass connections) is discouraged

LinkedIn suspends or revokes membership privileges of users who practice “invitation spamming”

PROMOTING A COMPANY’S PRESENCE

Home Page: Create a company page and post network status updates to promote products, services and announcements(can now be linked with Twitter)

Profile: Create a profile that effectively markets both personal expertise and the company’s mission

Connections: Leverage connections to facilitate introductions to others, and keep contacts current with network status updates

USING THE ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURESTO IDENTIFY BUSINESS PROSPECTS

Search people from specific companies or people with specific positions with those companies.

Search companies based on industry, location, company size, and who is hiring

Search groups by using key words that relate to your target market of potential customers – this can include regional areas, experts in your field, and specific fields of subject matter experts

Everyone can start their own group

COMPANIES USE POSTINGSTO PROMOTE THEIR BUSINESS

Companies post items that are relevant to their business – such as events, Wordpress Blogs, Google Slideshow presentations, and Slideshare presentations

It’s critical to keep the marketing message clear – avoid postings that are unprofessional or inaccurate

Other experts scrutinize these postings – paying attention to details such as grammar is crucial

Never post confidential or copyrighted material

USING ANSWERS TO IDENTIFY OTHERSWITH SIMILAR INTERESTS AND EXPERTISE

Post a question or search for an answer in the Answers section, which has forums for all industries and specialties

Answers is not a place to sell – never market a product or service when posting or answering a question

When posting questions, always select the “best answer” as a courtesy

See the Learning Center or search Answers before posting a question with an obvious answer

THE INS AND OUTS OFPASSIVE RECRUITING & SOURCING

LinkedIn people searches returns those profiles that are:

Direct connections (1 degree of separation)

Connected to a connection (2 degrees of separation)

Connected to a connection’s connections (3 degrees of separation)

Exception: searching by first and last name will always return that person’s profile (if available) even if further than 3 degrees of separation.

When searching by anything other than a person’s name, profiles greater than 3 degrees of separation are shown as Private – only the profile title is available with some limited information, but the person’s name cannot be seen

SEARCH TIPS FOR RECRUITERS

Use Advanced People Search to search for people by using company names and titles in the keywords field – using the company and title search fields will not return users who have “skeleton” profiles (i.e. profiles without a completed work information section)

LinkedIn’s free account allows users to see only the first 100 search results – so when using keywords, be specific, yet not too narrow, since the goal is to get as close to 100 results as possible

If only 50 results are received, the search may be too narrow and miss up to 50 other qualified profiles – and if 150 results are received, the search may not be narrow enough because only the first 100 results are viewable (50 others cannot be accessed)

Further limit search results by radius around zip code and by industry by checking the appropriate industry in the industry checkbox.

HOW RECRUITERS BREAK THROUGH 3 DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Search Private profiles on Google using the exact profile title in quotation marks – usually returns publicly published profiles with names

If unsuccessful, remove quotation marks and add additional search criteria such as city, university, or previous companies

If still unsuccessful, most likely that person did not publicly publish his/her profile

A WAY FOR RECRUITERS TOACCESS LINKEDIN’S “BACK DOOR”

Use Google to search for publicly published profiles, including “skeleton” profiles:

“Private Client Advisor” and “Wells Fargo” site:linkedin.com

The string above returns all publicly published profiles of Private Client Advisors from Wells Fargo, regardless of degree of separation or completeness of profile

Profiles can be seen by anyone even without being signed into a LinkedIn account – complete profiles can be access once signed into LinkedIn

THE COMPOSITION & BENEFITS OFA STRONG PROFILE

LinkedIn Profile = Your “Electronic” Business Card 100% Complete First Impressions Count Provide Details Spelling & Grammar Matter

Your Online Teacher = LinkedIn Learning Center http://learn.linkedin.com/

GETTING STARTED:LINKEDIN LEARNING CENTER

Overview + Site Features + User Guides

THE MORE COMPLETE THE PROFILE,THE STRONGER THE PROFILE

A HIGHLY DETAILED PROFILE ISA STRONG PROFILE

MORE DETAIL ISALWAYS BETTER