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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Enhancing Your Credibility with LinkedIn
LinkedIn is currently the premier professional online networking site. Currently the site has over 47 million registered users in over 200 countries and territories around the world. According to the LinedIn website, executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies are members.
However, in conversations with many people in my personal LinkedIn network, it is apparent many of them joined LinkedIn because it is the "thing to do" and are uncertain how to leverage the site for personal and professional gain. Many people think that you should be on LinkedIn if you are looking for a job or are interested in doing hiring. But LinkedIn offers a number of benefits beyond recruiting that entrepreneurs can use to build their business, including:
Creating your profile
Your LinkedIn profile summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. Your profile is your calling card on LinkeIn and many business professionals indicate it is one of the first places they check when looking for informaiton on potential employees or business partners. So, it is essential that your LinkedIn profile create a positive first impression.
To create a profile you first need to create a free LinkedIn account, then you can add a variety of information to your profile
Create a Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, you’ll want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use your middle initial.
Change your Headline: Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job you’ve had, unless you change it manually. I recommend that you revise your headline provide the information you most want LinkedIn members to see. This can be the name of the job you want to have or a unique ability you want to highlight (e.g. Social Networking Expert).
Do not use your email address in your profile: It is advisable not to put your email address under your name on your profile. Putting the email address there, make people aware that you are willing to connect with just about anyone which could damage your credibility. It also makes your email address available to spam emailers, something most people want to avoid doing. It is better to leave the email address out and have people interested in contacting your go through InMail or a mutual friend in order to get in contact with you.
Maximize your Specialties Section of your Profile: The summary section of your LinkedIn profile is the one place where you get to showcase your (our your business's) talents. The secret to maximizing your summary is use the “specialties” section of the summary to list any unique or extensive skills that may be superior to your competition. Use this section to set yourself (and your company) apart.
As an example, check out my LinkedIn profile:
View Dawn Gregg's profile
References:
However, in conversations with many people in my personal LinkedIn network, it is apparent many of them joined LinkedIn because it is the "thing to do" and are uncertain how to leverage the site for personal and professional gain. Many people think that you should be on LinkedIn if you are looking for a job or are interested in doing hiring. But LinkedIn offers a number of benefits beyond recruiting that entrepreneurs can use to build their business, including:
- Manage the information that’s publicly available about you or your company
- Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject area experts who can help you grow your company
- Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems
- Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
- Gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings
- Discover inside connections that can help you close deals
Creating your profile
Your LinkedIn profile summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. Your profile is your calling card on LinkeIn and many business professionals indicate it is one of the first places they check when looking for informaiton on potential employees or business partners. So, it is essential that your LinkedIn profile create a positive first impression.
To create a profile you first need to create a free LinkedIn account, then you can add a variety of information to your profile
- Snapshot: An overview of your name, location, past positions, education, recommendations, and links to your websites. Use a meanigful headline under your name, this is what members see first. It defaults to your current title, but you can change this.
- Status: Your status message allows you to share professional updates with your network.
- Photo: Be sure to include a professional photo
- Summary: This is intended to be a short paragraph summarizing your professional experience and goals. It should be engaging and short. In the first paragraph of your summary, try to say a few words about you, as well as talking about your professional experience. Be sure to include your unique abilities and differentiators, such as industry awards and honors.Include a second paragraph that discusses your career aspirations.
- Specialties: List your areas of expertise.
- Experience: List your professional experience, include position descriptions, what the company does, and what your main responsibilities and accomplishments were.
- Education: List all of the schools you ateended, degrees received along with associated activities and honors.
- Additional Information: Often overlooked, the additional informationsection can provide a richer picture of you as a person and should definitely be completed along with the other parts of the profile. It includes:
- Websites: link to up to 3 websites (e.g. personal blog, company website). Instead of leaving each title (for each link) as “My Website,” you should change them to the actual title of each of your links, so that the link can be associated with the URL.
- Interests: list the things that you enjoy doing, learning about, etc
- Groups and Associations: either list professional organizations or display badges of LinkedIn groups that you are a part of
- Honors and Award
- Websites: link to up to 3 websites (e.g. personal blog, company website). Instead of leaving each title (for each link) as “My Website,” you should change them to the actual title of each of your links, so that the link can be associated with the URL.
Create a Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, you’ll want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use your middle initial.
Change your Headline: Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job you’ve had, unless you change it manually. I recommend that you revise your headline provide the information you most want LinkedIn members to see. This can be the name of the job you want to have or a unique ability you want to highlight (e.g. Social Networking Expert).
Do not use your email address in your profile: It is advisable not to put your email address under your name on your profile. Putting the email address there, make people aware that you are willing to connect with just about anyone which could damage your credibility. It also makes your email address available to spam emailers, something most people want to avoid doing. It is better to leave the email address out and have people interested in contacting your go through InMail or a mutual friend in order to get in contact with you.
Maximize your Specialties Section of your Profile: The summary section of your LinkedIn profile is the one place where you get to showcase your (our your business's) talents. The secret to maximizing your summary is use the “specialties” section of the summary to list any unique or extensive skills that may be superior to your competition. Use this section to set yourself (and your company) apart.
As an example, check out my LinkedIn profile:
View Dawn Gregg's profileConclusion
Your LinkedIn profile needs to be completely professional and absolutely flawless because people will be using it to evaluate you and your company. It is essential to keep your profile up-to-date so you are always creating the best possible impression on anyone that may want to do business with you.References:
- Using Linked In: http://www.avangate.com/articles/using-Linkedin-125.htm
- Creating your Personal Brand on Linked In: http://mashable.com/2009/07/27/linkedin-personal-brand/
- Maximizing the Specialties Section of Your LinkedIn Profile http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2009/09/maximizing-the-specialties-section-of-your-linkedin-profile/
Labels: eimage, linkedin, social media
