Tom Laine, LinkedIn heavy user since 2004

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlaine

LinkedIn QuickGuide

June 2016

NOTE!

LinkedIn is all the time making changes to the service, whether features are removed, restructured, or new features published, be aware that this guide may remain relevant for a long period of time, but may also get outdated soon. LinkedIn almost never announces new features upfront, they just appear to us, and to many of us at different times.

I train and consult LinkedIn and other social media all around the world, and having used LinkedIn since 2004, have still not found a service that would be more relevant for professional use globally, even if its not a perfect tool and remains unpredictable. If you wish to know more about LinkedIn, get in touch!

You may also check out my other social media channels for further information, e.g. http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlaine and http://www.pinterest.com/tomlaine

Tom Lainehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlaine

Account settings

Get acquinted with

profile settings before

making any changes to

your personal profile

The layout of profile

settings has recently

changed to most users.

Most of the features

have remained the

same, but some small

changes have occured.

Spend some time

checking out all the

settings, test and adjust

the settings according

to your own needs.

Settings (older version)

Plenty of settings, take

time to go through them

properly

Always use personal

email as primary

contact detail, just in

case something very

personal is sent to you

Most users don’t have any

need for paid services

Check out ”Turn off

your…” setting so that

your network is not sent

notifications without you

knowing it

You can also link Twitter to

LinkedIn

Change setting ”Select

who can see…” so that

only you can see your

own activity feed /

change history

If you want to do anonymous ”copying”

or checking out other people’s profile’s,

change setting ”Select what others…”

NOTE! When anonymizing, you also

may restrict yourself in many ways.

Never fully anonymize your profile, it

restrics your own abilities in LinkedIn!

You can choose which

parts of your profile are

shown publicly outside

of LinkedIn when

people search for you

Personal profile – picture and header

• Profile now has a background photo which you can use to brand yourself or your employer

• Profile photo builds credibility, most fake profiles don’t have a picture or the picture clearly doesn’t match the person

described in the content (e.g. age, gender) or is a clear screenshot from an advertisement or a picture of a celebrity. No

sunglasses, helmet, other people, pets, bikini pictures, alcohol, etc. in the profile! Just a recognizable you!

• Profile header tells your current situation and core skills

• Choose 3-5 keywords or phrases for your core skills

• Use clear keywords repeatedly in the profile, starting from the header, which is the first place where the LinkedIn search

algorithm looks for keywords

• Industry is often insignificant, in many cases you would have several reasonably good options to choose an industry

• Edit your public profile URL to something short and descriptive, easy to remember

• Network actively, your ”reachability” is max. 3 network levels + groups

• Most people don’t need the paid LinkedIn job seeker badges or other paid services, free version is good enough for most!

Personal profile - Summary

Update your status frequently, but remember, this is not Facebook, so

consider which content really belongs here!

Fill out the Summary-field with clear, short explanation of your situation;

- what, when, where, why, and how

Add your contact details already here!

Repeat your chosen keywords creatively

Simply put: ”Specialities-/Keywords-/Skills-list” or other phrasing for a

longer list of keywords

English as primary language, but if your working language is something

else, you can use both languages side by side. LI has 24 language

versions, but searches still mostly conducted in English

You can add pictures and presentations to Summary

Link your other specialist profiles, blogs or webpage to Summary

Fill out the profile like it was your resume, but even better and more widely.

Tell a story, convince the reader that you’re the best in your field of

expertise, one to get in touch with!

Personal profile - Summary

If you’re active in the job market, say it! The reader is not a mindreader!

Use also groups to announce your availability

If you’ve been available for some time already, update the Summary with a

date, announcing that you’re still looking. Tell why you’re good and qualified,

and what you’re looking for.

Especially when in career transition to new skills and industry, state clearly what

you’re looking for and what not, and why you should be considered, what you’d

be willing to do to get a new start.

Searching for a new job may be a full time job, so if it lasts 6+ months, add it to

your profile as a new current job. It’s better to tell about how actively you’re

looking than to leave gaps in your resume - gaps are suspicious!

Network with HR, recruiters and hiring managers, tell them what you’re looking

for and where.

Network actively, be proactive, outspoken, and tell them what you want, they’re

not mindreaders!

Personal profile - Experience

Titles must show what you *really* did in each position, worst titles are

”Project/Account/KAM Manager” which are too common to be used in

searching for potential new employees! They don’t reflect your skills!

Use names and numbers to describe each position.

Numbers; direct and indirect HR responsibilities, budget size, savings that

you enabled, (over)achieved targets, comparison to others in your position,

won/managed accounts (sizes). Numbers reflect seniority and enable

comparison!

Names; technologies, SW/HW, programming languages, OS, frameworks,

tools, end terminals, machines, methods/processes, certifications, clients,

subcontractors, partners, etc.

You can add pictures, logos, news, etc.

You could also add reference letter, certification, etc.

Both title and description are part of the search algorithm, so repeat

keywords as much as you can (within reason).

Personal profile - Education

Add at minimum your latest and highest full degree

The more relevant to current skillset, the more you need to tell details,

and vice versa

Majors, minors, thesis, bigger course entities, honors, level,

certifications, corporate projects, alumni/student council work, …

Link info from the school, news, pictures, documentation

Instead of chronological order, you can also number them to certain

order (not best practice!)

When adding a school, choose the one that LinkedIn proposes you as

closest match when you start typing, even when including typos, as

the suggested one is the most commonly used name for this school.

Personal profile – Additional info

Add your chosen keywords to Interests-field.

Business interests are a must, personal interests

are a plus.

No need to fill out personal details

Add to ”Advice for…” your contact details if not

anywhere else in the profile! Preferably already at

Summary, but here at least.

You can tell a lot about yourself through your

network. Concerning your network one can wonder

why someone should or should not be able to see

who’s in it!

If you work in sales, marcomms or PR, a large

personal network of skilled individuals (or potential

clients) may be that one thing that lands you the

job!

Personal profile

LinkedIn’s big update in 2012 removed the old Applications and Sections as such.

The old Sections are now ”just” additional parts in your profile, you can see them in your profile right below your profilepicture, as these colourful boxes.

Skills (previously Skills and Expertise) section is now the most active part of all LinkedIn profiles around the world.

Other additional parts incl. Projects, Languages, Test Scores, Courses, Patents, Certifications, Publications, VolunteerExperience and Causes, Honors and Awards, and Organisations.

All sections play a part in the LinkedIn secret seach algorithm, how you’re being ranked against other LinkedIn users whensomeone performs a search with certain keywords. The search results are far from being in a random order.

So fill out your profile with as many sections as necessary to fully showcase your skills and experience.

Personal profile

Add all your skills to this section. Add the maximum 50 skills, toolsand technologies! If you don’t add all 50, LinkedIn uses your friendsto find new ones to add to the list!

Your network will judge your skills, endorsing them for you, evensuggesting/adding new ones.

Endorsements are comparable to Facebook Likes, they’re not reallyrecommendations, but something less. Recruiters don’t take theseseriously, only pointing to a direction!

LinkedIn suggests your network 5 skills to endorse, often 1-2 being amismatch – a good guess at what you might be skilled with.

Max. 50 skills are shown, and max. 99 endorsers in numbers, but askill can be clicked open to see who and how many have endorsedyou.

At only Publications and Projects sections

allow you to add other people to your profile.

People that may have been your team in

that particular project or drafting the

publication.

Once your team mates have added the

same content to their profile, their profile

picture and a direct link to their profile are

activated automatically.

If they choose not to add the content to their

own profiles, your profile only shows their

names, without the links or profile photos.

Personal profile

Showcase your career highlights by adding

Projects to your profile.

The content doesn’t necessarily need to be

an actual ”project”, it can also be a customer

case study, research program, and plenty of

other things. Think creatively!

Personal profile

Courses section is used to describe individualsubjects from your studies, seminars, events,etc., or courses that you’ve taken duringemployment.

Courses section lists smaller studies than fulldegrees, which are listed under Education.

Organizations is used to explain your socialresponsibility and activities outside of officehours, but often somehow relate to or add toyour skills.

Personal profile

Volunteer section is used to describe your socialresponsibility and commnunity activities that you support.

This part may also be used (in the U.S.) to target 3rdsector (NGOs) job advertising to those who state interestin certain topics.

Both in Organisations and Volunteer sections you shouldleave out political activity and similar activities that mayhurt your career in any way.

Personal profile

Languages section is very clear, list here those languagesyou consider having at professional level.Honors & Awards section is most commonly used to listInternational studies where Honors are given, or to showcaseyour achievements throughout your career.

Additionally you can add Test Scores

to your profile most commonly used to

showcase your language skills, but

often also proving your mathematical

skills with actual test results

Patents section is only relevant to

those having actual patents

Certifications section is used to list

any professional certifications you

may have.

Personal profile

Personal profile - recommendations

LinkedIn-netiquette:If you’re recommended, consider writing one back if relevant!

Be proactive, write 1 first to receive 1 back!

It shouldn’t be embarassing to ask for a reference!

If your ex-boss won’t / can’t write you one, 3 colleagues are just as good

Best recommendation comes from a client, next best from businesspartner/subcontractor, only then from people in your own organisation!

You can choose which recommendations are public and which private

Personal profile - modularity

In the current LinkedIn profile layout you may notice the lesser importance of groups, better ability to add external material like links, logos and

pictures, and that the profile is even more modular than before! You can even change the order of current jobs or schools.

Modularity means that you can drag and drop sections to change the order of content within your profile with the arrows highlighted here above.

You can choose to highlight your experience over education or skills and expertise over experience, choose wisely what are your strongest points!

The higher a scetion is placed in your profile, the more importance it should have to your current skills and situation! Don’t trust the reader will

scroll your profile to the very end.

Following

The Following-section tells people that you are

up-to-date with the current trends, news and

visionaries, that you are as well in touch with

your industry as anyone!

Plenty of groups available, usually several around the same topic and focus area or target group. Since the big change in

November 2015, most of the Groups are however hidden (”Unlisted”) groups, which makes finding them often impossible.

Each group has a special Jobs-section where recruiters may post job opportunities totally for free! These jobs may not

have that much competition/applicants due to limited access to them

Ask smart, answer smart, get positive attention, see who’s talking, then get in touch directly.

Groups

Groups

The administrator of each group may decide by him-/herself if they

choose to open the group for public listing or not, and how people are

able to join the group.

Exchange information with your friends and colleagues. They may have

found and joined different groups that you have found, but finding a

direct link (with the help of a friend or by using Google searches) to the

group frontpage enables you to apply access to the group.

Groups

Some organisations have moved most of their

communication with several target groups to

LinkedIn, like Metso here has done.

The possibilities groups offer are plenty, be

creative!

You can reach existing and potential

customers, personnel, alumni, partners,

suppliers, and more with groups!

Corporate

Potential

Customers

Alumni

Customers

Internal

Partners

Jobs section

Jobs section is the central point for both recruiters and jobseekers.

Here a recruiter can post or manage his job adverts andthe applicants.

It’s in most countries much cheaper to advertise jobs inLinkedIn rather than traditional job boards such asMonster, Bayt, Professionali, etc.

New Job posting UI

Jobs section – traditional layout

For a job seeker there’s lots of search criteria

Change search criteria on the go

Narrow your search to only certaincompanies, industries, location

Much cheaper to advertise jobs at LinkedInthan in Monster and other traditional digitalmedia channels.

Remember to check the Jobs-section in eachof your groups, where the advertising isfree of charge!

Save the search results and get them in yourInbox!

Save a maximum of 10 saved searches thatare sent daily, weekly or monthly to yourinbox.

Jobsthe new layout

Jobs section

Try changing the Location-criteria to”anywhere”, see how many jobs thereare available, you’ll be amazed! Youcan also choose to find Internationalopportunities just matching your skills.

Use your network to find contact personsand references, who can refer you, askhim/her what is it like to work there,what’s happening with competition, howto apply better, who to apply with.

Save an interesting job for later, or chooseto apply immediately.

When you find interesting search results,save the whole search and it will cometo your inbox on a daily, weekly ormonthly basis.

You may have a maximum of 10 saved jobsearches active simultaneously.

Jobs section

Jobs section

With a paid account a job seeker may see statistics

about other applicants for the job once there are a

minimum of 10 applicants.

The statistics are not to be taken too seriously, they

are merely guidance what to take into consideration

when applying a particular job.

See if you know anyone in the company, could you

use internal references or get inside information

about the company, position and how to apply best!

Jobs section

Applying a job

”Apply on company website” forwards to the actual (company)

system or ATS where the application process takes place.

”Apply” allows one to apply with your LinkedIn profile with just 2

clicks of a button.

Applying a job

After clicking the Apply-button a pop-

up window opens, from where you

can update your profile, change

contact details, add cover letter or a

shorter (more tailored) version of

your resume.

The application is registered to

LinkedIn to your Jobs-page.

Clicking the Send-button sends your

LinkedIn profile in PDF format to the

recipient directly.

Apply With LinkedIn

Use the ”Apply with LinkedIn” –button to apply jobs without additionaldocuments or resume, just your LinkedIn profile. You can find the buttonoften at Monster, blogs, company webpages, Facebook, etc.

Some companies accept LinkedIn profile applications even without thebutton, just asking you to send a link to your profile!

Add your LinkedIn profile link to your resume, give the recruiter a chanceto check your references, network and additional experience!

Networking

Your visibility and ”foundability” is as large as your network! Most recruiters don’t have paid LinkedIn accounts, add your contact details to your profile to be better and

more easily reached

If you spend all your invitations, ask LinkedIn for more, and if you’ve behaved well, you’ll be granted more.Originally you have 3000 invitations you can send out. You can network with max. 30.000 people.

Network especially with potential customers, recruiters, HR, hiring managers!

Network with people you currently deal with, later it may be too late Network now, not when you have to or need to for some reason! After some time, people don’t recognize you, don’t care about you anymore, or you can’t reach them

anymore – network now!

Through Groups you can identify people with similar interests

You may let LinkedIn check your address book, efficient way to find old contacts (not recommended!)

Add your LinkedIn profile URL to your email signature and business card

Are you an open networker? Why would you decline an invitation?

Adding OpenLink-status to your profile increases the number of incoming invitations.

The blog platform

The LinkedIn blog platform can be accessed from the

LinkedIn homepage

It includes a simple text editor, where you can edit text,

add links, photos and videos.

You can also add a cover picture and 3 categories to

enable the post to be better found within LinkedIn’s

”Pulse” content feed.

You can review your published blog

posts, Drafts, and other activity all

from top bar, Profile section under

”Your Updates”.

Blog posts that are clearly sales

and marketing focused, gain

significantly less attention than

posts that focus on sharing one’s

expertise.

You can also analyze your

Followers within the same page

The blog platform

With a good LinkedIn blog post you

can reach a greater potential

audience than in just about any

platform, anywhere in the

interwebs.

If your post gains more than

average level of attention, LinkedIn

may pick it up to their top lists, and

promote your post to everyone

interested in the particular topic

category. In a number of categories

there are millions of subscribers,

making this a significant possibility

to brand yourself as thought leader,

which of course drives traffic to your

profile, and grows your following in

LinkedIn.

One’s network is added as followers

automatically.

The blog platform

The blog follower statistics equal almost 100% to your network statistics

People visit your profile always for a reason.

They have most often either searched for you

specifically, or found your profile close to the top

of search results while searching for a specific

keyword, skill, service, etc. Take notice who

they are, ask them what they were looking for,

and you may find brilliant job or business

opportunities.

One of the only reasons to consider using paid

(premium) accounts, is to be able to see more

about who’s visited your profile and to reach

them with InMails, LinkedIn’s internal

messages.

You may also check your ranking for profile

views within your network and compared to

people that LinkedIn considers similar to you

(same country, industry, etc.).

LinkedIn’s UI is available in a number oflanguages, adding new language versionswhen countries reach the 1 million usermark

The Polls-feature was removed30.6.2013. LinkedIn is making constantchanges to the service, and usuallywithout much prior notice.

New Alumni and referencesearches can be found at the socalled ”Decision Board”,focusing on students andeducational institutes.

Re-thinking the networking!

Notice that you can alwaysdownload all your LinkedIn datafor yourself and for offline use.The ”Export LinkedInConnections” feature hasrecently changed, so that youcan download all your LinkedIndata at once, not just a list ofcontacts. Once you start theexport process, LinkedIn collectsthe data for you to an Excelsheet, sending it all to your emailas a download link.

Thus, your LinkedIn networkmay also be used as a mailinglist.

Company profiles

Company profile setup

Company profiles can be found at the same menu as Groups

Creating a new company profile

is well explained and guided. In

order to open a company profile,

you must possess official

company email address.

Company profiles

Globally over 4 million organisations represented, but many still not with full / own profiles- Some active, many still passive

Follow companies, the changes happening in them, who might you know in these companies that you’re interested in or applying with?!

Who left, who’s new, which role they’re changing to, how does that effect your chances to apply or sell services to them? Anyone you could useas internal reference?

Did someone just slip out news about a new product, project, BU, plant, or something else interesting, something effecting your applicationpossibilities or other reasons to get in touch with them asap?

Follow trends between companies, who’s hiring, who’s loosing key people- Sense the changes in companies and markets, follow LinkedIn’s analysis about the companies and its competitors

Company profiles

Some companies have taken the Careers-

page into use, but for most it is priced much

too high.

The Careers page is a static page for

employer branding content

Usually only very large organisations use it.

Company profiles

Some companies have found

the new Showcase Pages a

great substitute to the Careers

page. So not just for

showcasing products and

services, but you may be

creative and re-think how it

may be used. It could be a

business unit, function, country

organisation, or a careers

page, like what Lassila has

done here.

Company profiles

With a Showcase Page you can

collect followers, make status

updates and buy sponsored

visibility within your chosen target

audience, and more.

Creating a Showcase Page only

requires admin rights to the

company profile. Both company

and Showcase Pages are free for

everyone.

The admin rights may be shared

with several people, who don’t

have to be admins of the

company page, it just needs 1…

Both company pages and showcase

pages allow you to see analytics about

your activity, followers and page

visitors.

Company profiles

Both company profiles and Showcase Pages

enable you to make status updates, which can

then be used as advertisements via the

sponsoring function.

You can also track the results easily and see

your effectiveness in marketing.

Here’s a target audience of 13948

people chosen with clear criteria (right),

and during the campaign (above) the

company has gained 13646 views for

the sponsored update with just a 150

USD budget! So, efficient brand

marketing, but not very effective in

driving direct sales…

Over 433 million professionals use LinkedIn.Do you?

Here’s a brief look into using LinkedIn, please note that the profile optimization secrets

and some other hidden gems are not shared in written, I only share those secrets at

speaking engagements and consultations.

LinkedIn is changing constantly and often without prior notice, thus some of the

information may get outdated soon again!

We train corporations and other organisations across Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Middle

East and soon starting trainings in Asia and Africa to use social media effectively.

Ask for more info at

Tom Laine

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlaine

Mob. +358 400 296 196

Chosen references

Some of the organisations I’ve trained or consulted during the last few years;

UK: Air Charter Service, Oxford and Cambridge Club, The Honourable Society of the MiddleTemple, The Brooke, Joberate Ltd

Russia: Ikea, Mercedes Benz, MetLife Alico, Louis Vuitton, Bell Equipment, PPG Industries, Servier,SEB Group, Laydings, Antal, Marketvisio/Gartner, Rödl & Partner, Start CBS, Rulo Havi GlobalLogistics, Gowlings Intl, Cluttons, AwaraEduhouse, Transaero, Velux, Ing Bank

Middle East & Asia: Panda Retail, Nada Dairy, Zamil Industrial, Lebara, Nahdi Medical, Unified RealEstate Development, Advanced Electronics Company (AEC), Dallah Al Barakah Holding Co., BatesPangulf Group, Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo W.L.L, Adeem Capital, Sarjah Business Women Council

Finland: Microsoft, Elektrobit, UPM Kymmene, Nokia, Adecco, Manpower, Saranen, Atria,Ruokakesko, Pohjolan Voima, Re/Max, NSN, Digia, OP-Pohjola, Nice Business Solutions, Vapo,Agco Sisu Power, Borenius, Linak, Oulun Energia, Psycon, Finnet, YritysSalo, Business Oulu,Hyvinkään Elintarvikelaboratorio, Kuntarekry, Sitra, Finpro, Ministry of Forestry + 100s of others

Sweden: Gärde Wesslau

Estonia: Newsec

Lithuania: Joberate UAB

Ukraine: Valo StartUp event attendees