With more than 85 million members in more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is a professional social network worth using, understanding and optimizing.
After youve covered the basics of setting up your LinkedIn presence, features including recommendations, applications, LinkedIn Answers, and the Resume Builder can add value to your profile. Many of these highly useful features, though, are often overlooked or underused by newcomers.
Tips for Optimizing LinkedIn Profiles:
i. Profile Completeness
The first step to spiffing up your LinkedIn profile is to fill in as much information about your work experience as possible. Its your online resume, pay as much attention to it as you would your cover letter or paper resume. The Profile should reflect his or her current situation. A recent photo and contact information are also musts. A status update is a great place to share an article of interest or something new youve been working on. People do comment on status updates, so its a nice way to start a conversation.
ii. Meaningful Recommendations
Astute recruiters arent going to take your word for granted when you describe your top-notch abilities. Instead, just as in offline recruiting, they will want to hear from those who have worked with you and have a grasp on your working style, personality and skills. Thats where recommendations come in. Gathering recommendations is all about quality over quantity. Before sending out a request on LinkedIn, approach each contact in person to explain the importance of his or her recommendation. Adding a personal touch to your request will probably result in a better response rate. Be sure to thank each of your colleagues who recommend you on LinkedIn.
iii. Use Value-Added Applications
One of the hidden jewels on LinkedIn is its ability to incorporate applications. Check out its Application Directory for a taste of apps that can spice up your profile.
For example, 1. SlideShare Presentations.
2. Word Press.
3. Tweets.
4. My Travel.
iv. Become an Expert with LinkedIn Answers
LinkedIn Answers is a Q&A platform that enables members to demonstrate their business acumen by answering questions from other members. When questioners choose another users answer as best, that user gains points of expertise. These points rank members on the Answers leader-board, called This Weeks Top Experts. You have to spend a few hours per day answering up to 50 questions daily to be successful.
v. Use LinkedIns Resume Builder Tool
The Resume builder tool enables LinkedIn users to craft resumes by simply choosing a template and customizing the content. The quality of the resume is directly attributed to the quality of information on your profile. All you need is to keep your profiles updated regularly with the information they ultimately want on their resumes.
These recommendations will help LinkedIn users utilize their profiles as much as possible.
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