The Beginners Guide to Linkedin

The Beginners Guide to Linkedin 276 Flares 276 Flares Im about to unleash the greatest Beginners Guide to Linkedin EVER created!   The holidays are over, so consider this your late present from Cornz. There is a ton of information here, so set aside some time, read the guide, and then fire me any questions you may have. Why use Linkedin? I really could answer this with one critical bullet point, but here are a few: 85% of recruiters go to Linkedin before anywhere else to find talent. Build, organize, and manage your online recommendations from folks youve had professional relationships with. Easily connect with industry professionals that have careers of interest to you or goals similar to yours. Connections = Jobs Cant stress how insane that first bullet point is.  Even if a recruiter doesnt find you on Linkedin, when youre in the running for a position, theyll search you out on Linkedin and be very upset if youre absent.  Whats your excuse?  Sorry, My Dog ate my Linkedin just wont work. Profile Creation The initial profile creation is incredibly easy.  For the most part, youll want your Linkedin profile to match your resume.  With that said, have you ever felt constricted to preconceived page requirements on a resume?  Yeah, well on Linkedin feel free to stretch it a bit.  This doesnt mean to toss any old bullshit on your profile, but DEFINITELY add in all of your college activities and leadership opportunities, instead of the one or two you put on the resume. As you go through and complete the profile, youll see  a percentage amount that shows how complete your profile is. Work hard to get to 100%.  Once you are there, youll be found a ton more by recruiters and your profile will look much more professional. Picture Think professional.  Think headshot.  Crop one of your Facebook profile images to just include from your shoulders up to your head.  Keep your friends, animals, and loved ones out of it.  Just you.  Just smiling and happy you. Headline When a recruiter conducts a search on Linkedin, theyll see a  list of names, including a professional headline for each person. This is a short sentence with key words that gives the recruiter a reason to click and read further.  Your professional headline could look like this: Marketing Intern at COMPANY.  Graduating in 2011 from SCHOOL with a Degree in Marketing It can be much more dynamic than that.  Heres mine: How to Connect With Someone (the right and wrong way) When connecting with someone on Linkedin, it asks you to pick out how you know this person.  The options are  Colleague, Classmate, Weve done business together, Friend, and other.  Once you identify how you know them, youll then see an automated message come up that will be sentunless you change it! Now this part is important. Never! Never! Never! Never keep this automated message.  Change it up, add some spice, add some character and give them a reason to want to connect.  If you really dont know the person, but you realize they are influential for you, then intrigue them a bit and theyll want to add you to their network. This is what the awful automated message looks like: Thats the wrong way to send a connection request.  Ew.  Albert isnt going to want to connect with you and I dont blame him. As I mentioned previously, add some spice to your connect request.  Tell them exactly where you met or how you know them or why you want to connect.  So many people send me amazing connection messages about #JobHuntChat or Corn on the Job.  I may not know them personally, but they just complimented me and showed me why they are interested in connecting.   I always accept their request and make it a point to send them a message back.  Most people will react the same way. Heres an example of a perfect way to connect with someone! Groups Groups are a fantastic way to make KEY connections with influential people.  Join local and national groups that are related to your target industry or exact profession.  Groups offer news articles, blog posts, related discussions, and also jobs.  Yep, thats right.  Many groups now have jobs posted for that specific field of interest. If thats not enough, you can easily connect with any member of the group and add them to your professional connections.  Contact these folks and feel free to ask them questions about their job or company, and possibly even offer to take them out for lunch or coffee to learn more about what they do.  It may be time consuming to go through and add a ton of group members to your connections list, but think about it.  If you add just 10 a week, youll have 80 influential connections in just 2 months.  Do it! How many groups can you join?  50.  So go ahead, join 50! Recommendations Recommendations are a great addition to your profile.  Just like a resume, they shouldnt just be forced information.  When youve done something that you feel was really kick ass, ask the person or people you were working with to leave you a short recommendation on Linkedin.  Who should leave recommendations? Supervisors Co-workers Clients College Professors Classmates youve worked on projects with Anyone youve had a professional relationship with Your recommendations should paint a picture and help you make it to where you want to be.  For instance, lets say youre really looking interested in moving into a PR role, but most of your experience has been as a Marketing Coordinator.  Some of your projects may have touched on PR, so you obviously worked with PR professionals on those projects.   Ask for recommendations from PR folks you worked with, and use these recommendations to your advantage when looking for your PR job.  Feel free to even toss them on the resume! Follow Interesting Companies Following companies on Linkedin is a stalkers dream come true.  Seriously guysholy shit.  This is just some of the information youll get when you follow a company: Company employees in your network.  Yes, it instantly shows who from your network works at that company now. New hires at the company.  Do you understand the power here?  Look at the type of people they are hiring, and mimic their style a bit.  Connect with these guys and gals and ask them what their experience has been like as a new hire. All company employees.  Yep, if an employee of that company has Linkedin, then they will be listed here. Latest Tweets. Recent blog posts. Recently posted jobs.  Bingo! Recent company activity. Its all there.  Just about everything you need. Search Jobs on Linkedin I know what youre thinking.  Youre wondering why I didnt toss this one up a little earlier in the guide.  My reason is simple.  You cant look for jobs on Linkedin until your profile is looking spiffy.  Once youre ready to show off your profile, then its time to rock and start searching job postings right on Linkedin.  Remember, a poor profile could possibly hurt you, so make sure its looking slick before you search jobs. Right up top youll see that you can click on Jobs.  Hover over it and click on Find Jobs.  Now, the cool thing is that right away Linkedin will highlight jobs that you might be interested.  They search your profile for keywords and send you some suggestions.  Thats a great way to start, or you can go right in and search keywords and specific locations for jobs. Alright, so heres the cool part.  Once you click on a job description that seems interesting, youll find a ton of helpful tools.  Along with a job description, youll also see who posted it, who from your network is somehow connected to the person that posted the job, and who from your network works there.  This is the bomb.  Just  Its the bomb. Update Status Often Maybe not as often as Twitter or Facebook, but try to update your status on Linkedin a couple times a day.  The more you update, the more likelihood that your status will appear in email updates out to your network.  Keep your updates professional, with actual updates to your professional career.  Linkedin can get very social, and youll be surprised to see how a simple update can bring some good back to you. COTJs Final Words Linkedin may seem a little overwhelming at first, but its like any other social media channel.  Once you get used to it and start to grow a network, it will spiral out of control and youll become addicted.  Twenty connections will lead to fifty, and one hundred will lead to two hundred.  These connections will be invaluable to your career now, and even more valuable to you in the future.