LinkedIn Workshop
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LINKEDIN WORKSHOP How to use LinkedIn as an effective Networking tool to support your job search John L. Mohammed Internal Vice President Past President Member Computer Committee Sacramento Professional Network
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LinkedIn Workshop. John L. Mohammed Internal Vice President Past President Member Computer Committee Sacramento Professional Network. How to use LinkedIn as an effective Networking tool to support your job search. Topics of Discussion. Filling out your Profile Connections Groups - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of LinkedIn Workshop
LINKEDIN WORKSHOP
How to use LinkedIn as an effective Networking tool to support your job search
John L. Mohammed
Internal Vice President
Past President
Member Computer Committee
Sacramento Professional Network
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TOPICS OF DISCUSSION
Filling out your Profile Connections Groups Recommendations Endorsements Hypermedia Researching Companies Searching for Jobs Search Engine Optimization Mechanics of using LinkedIn
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FILLING OUT YOUR PROFILE
Include a PHOTO establishes social media credibility Profiles without photos are not read
Use the headline to establish your brand Customize your Public Profile URL Include a concise executive summary List all companies in Experience, and all
schools in Education Give details regarding your contributions to each
company Get (and Give) as many recommendations as
you can (at least 3, preferably more)3
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CONNECTIONS
Don't add connections willy-nilly: it's not a contest to see who has the largest network!
You want to connect with people who know you well enough to be comfortable with: introducing you to their connections refering you to a potential employer assisting you with advice giving you a recommendation
Nonetheless, you want to build a significant network of connections, because the more people you know, the more likely one of them can help you 4
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CONNECTIONS: WHERE TO FIND THEM?
LinkedIn will recommend possible connections based on: your email history your employment history your education history your participation in groups
You can search for people on Linkedin Once you identify someone with whom you'd like
to connect, LinkedIn can tell you whether you are already indirectly linked to that person, and identify the members of your network who could introduce you 5
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CONNECTING WITH STRANGERS
If you find someone you'd like to connect with, but he or she is not in your network
Examine the person's profile Look at what Groups the person participates in,
and join those that are relevant to you Participate in the group discussions (particularly
those in which your 'target' is participating) in order to establish your online presence and credibility
Based on your common membership in a group, you can then invite the person to connect
Include a reminder of the interactions you've had with him/her in the invitation
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GROUPS
Groups are collections of LinkedIn members who share a common interest
Groups have: Discussions
questions and statements posted to the group's discussion board
you can participate by adding your comments to existing discussions, or by starting your own discussions
this is the most important way to participate: establish your knowledge, skills, and passion for the group's topic
Job listings these listings are targeted to the members of the group jobs may appear in these listings well before more
generic job boards
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GROUPS (CONT'D) Promotions
Group members can post advertisements about promotions relevant to the group's topic of interest
Member lists You can view, and search the group's membership From their profiles, you can identify other groups
that you might want to join, and other points of contact, such as companies and schools
Group-specific search You can search discussions, polls
Following You can follow a group, and/or follow specific
discussion threads
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FINDING GROUPS TO JOIN
LinkedIn will suggest groups that may interest you, based on your profile and your activity
You can search among groups for keywords relevant to your professional interests
You can see in which groups your connections and connection targets are participating
You can create your own group, and invite others to join it
Some groups are moderated — a moderator decides who can join, what discussion, promotion and job postings are allowed, etc.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations are the electronic LinkedIn equivalent of letters of recommendation
They can have high credibility, because the reader can view the profile of the person who wrote the recommendation and judge whether the person's background and the relationship between you makes them a credible judge of your skills
You can only get recommendations from connections (1st level contacts in your network)
To get recommendations, give them (to colleagues, managers, employees, clients, etc.)
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Do NOT make it Quid Pro Quo (i.e., I'll recommend you if you recommend me) - rely on Karma
You can ask for recommendations from connections include a concise but compelling description of
the basis for your relationship and the reason you deserve a recommendation
Get (and give) at least 3 recommendations to make your profile complete
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ENDORSEMENTS
The skills section of your profile enables you to list up to 50 keywords identifying your skills
Your connections can endorse you for those skills (i.e., vouch that you have the specified skill)
In your public profile, the endorsements are not visible, and the skills are listed in the order you specify
In the profile visible to LinkedIn members, the endorsements are listed, and the skills are ordered by the number of endorsements (i.e., the number of connections who agree that you have that skill)
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ENDORSEMENTS Endorsements are extremely easy to give:
One click per skill LinkedIn continually asks your connections
whether you have the skills you list, thereby soliciting endorsements for you
As with recommendations, you should endorse your connections for the skills that you know they have
Endorsements should be taken with grain of salt: there is no guarantee that the people endorsing
you know what they are talking about viewers of your profile can investigate your
endorsers by viewing their profiles13
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HYPERMEDIA All entries in your profile are plain text
You cannot specify the font, style or layout (except paragraph breaks)
You can insert certain special unicode characters (copy/paste from http://unicode-table.com/en/)
LinkedIn used to have a concept of third-party add-ons ("apps") that enabled profiles to include a wide variety of special and specially formatted information
However, "apps" were phased out in favor of a new platform for including hypermedia
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HYPERMEDIA In various places within your profile, you can
add hyperlinks to videos, images, documents, presentations, etc.
These must be either: a document you upload to LinkedIn
Presentations: pdf, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, pot, potx (Powerpoint), odp (OpenOffice)
Documents: pdf, doc, docx, rtf (MSOffice), odt Images: png, gif, jpg, jpeg Maximum file size:100MB
a URL to a resource stored on another site
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RESEARCHING COMPANIES
In addition to individuals, companies can have profiles on LinkedIn
Companies post: information about their activities (expansions,
changes in leadership, etc.) information about their products and services employment opportunities
Additionally, you can search for members whose profiles mention companies Determine who in your network has worked for
or is working for the company16
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SEARCHING FOR JOBS
LinkedIn is NOT primarily a jobs board However, LinkedIn provides employers with
the ability to post their jobs to a specially targeted audience of professionals
Therefore, many companies search for employees and post jobs on LinkedIn FIRST, before resorting to more general job posting sites.
Based on your profile, the groups you belong to, and other aspects of your online activity, LinkedIn will recommend jobs that might interest you. 17
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SEARCHING FOR JOBS
LinkedIn will also display the members in your network associated with companies that are posting jobs enabling you to reach out for a referral
You can view jobs posted by specific companies Search and/or follow the company, then view the
jobs they post You can view jobs posted to specific groups
Each group can have a jobs board Since group members self-identify with the
group's topic, these posts are very targeted 18
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SEARCHING FOR JOBS
When you find a posting for a job that interests you: You can often apply online through LinkedIn
(your profile will be submitted as your resume) In other cases, you will be directed to the
company's online application website The member who posted the job is often shown:
you can view the person's profile learn how you might be connected to him/her possibly arrange to be introduced
Sometimes you can see how many others have already applied for the job
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)SEO is about making sure that your profile is one of the first pages returned when people perform a suitable searchFactors:Keywords
Ensure that your profile contains multiple instances of the keywords that people might use to find you
Completeness of your profile (profile strength) LinkedIn searches prefer to return complete
profiles Include a photo, have at least 3 recommendations,
build a reasonably sized network of connections LinkedIn can walk you through suggestions for
improving your profile strength
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (CONT'D)
All search engines prefer to return pages that have recently changed They want to avoid returning pages that are
obsolete, out-of-date, possibly broken, no longer being managed
Therefore: Update your profile periodically Add new content Rearrange summary skills to better reflect the
needs of companies you are targeting Add Status Updates Continually build your network of connections Participate in group discussions (your recent
activity appears in your profile)21
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MECHANICS OF USING LINKEDIN
Setting up an account Customizing the public profile URL Editing profile components Adding components Customizing the Public Profile Privacy and Notification settings Searching
People, Companies, Groups, Jobs, Emails Following
People, Companies, Discussions22
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SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT
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Otherwise, enter your first & last name, a valid email address, and choose a
password
If you have an account, enter the email address and your
password to sign in
Go to: www.linkedin.com
Click on "Join now"
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE URL
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Hold mouse over the Profile menu
Select Edit Profile
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE URL
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This is your Public Profile URLClick the "Edit" button next to it
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE URL
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Scroll down if needed to see "Your public profile
URL"
Click on "Customize your public profile URL"
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE URL
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Enter an easily remembered URL based on your name
LinkedIn will let you know whether the resulting URL is available or already in use.
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EDITING PROFILE COMPONENTS Entering Edit mode Editing the banner Background
Editing the Summary Editing Experience Editing Skills &
Expertise Editing Education
Recommendations Manage visibility Order
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Editing Connections Editing Groups Editing Following Ordering
Components
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ADDING COMPONENTS
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE
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Hold mouse over the Profile menu
Select Edit Profile
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE
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This is your Public Profile URLClick the "Edit" button next to it
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE
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Your Public Profile is a subset of your profile that is visible to the entire
world wide web.
You control whether it is visible, and what parts of your profile it contains by selecting the check boxes in this
list
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CUSTOMIZING YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE
In your profile, skill keywords appear in an order determined by the number of endorsements you have for each skill
In your public profile, endorsements are not shown, and the skills appear in the order you specify
The public profile does not include your recent activity, nor your contact information, though it does include your websites
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