What Comes With Your Free LinkedIn Account

There are some well written articles on why active and discreet job seekers should create a LinkedIn account.  I'm also an advocate of LinkedIn however; this post is not about why you should create a LinkedIn account but how to leverage your LinkedIn account during your job search.

The LinkedIn tools that I am going to describe are F-R-E-E with your F-R-E-E account (we like free).  You may not find all of these tools suitable for your search strategy so I'll sort each tool in separate buckets making it easy for you to read and decide which ones you do want to use.

*IMPORTANT NOTE - If you have not created a well written profile read Alison Doyle's article called "LinkedIn Profile".  At the time of this post Alison's LinkedIn profile ranked #6 when I did a Google search for "Alison Doyle".


Groups
Groups can strengthen and extend your existing network and link you to like-minded professionals.  As a group member you can invite other members of your group to become part of your network.  Once they accept your invite you'll have someone within your network who can "introduce" you to others within their network.  Here's an example of how I would use my group during my job search.

Sally is a recruiter for a company that I would like to work for however; Sally is not part of my network nor is she part of my group.  Robert is connected to Sally and Robert is a member of my group.  I send Robert an invite and after he accepts the invite I can direct message him asking for an introduction to Sally. The concept is the same when you go to a party.  If you want to meet someone you find someone you know at the party who knows that person and get an introduction.

Groups can also keep you updated on industry news and trends.  You don't want to go into an interview using buzz words that are no longer in style or you're unfamiliar with the newest industry related technology, software, or best practices.

Being a member of a group also enables you to build your own social brand by starting conversations and commenting on other conversations.  By contributing to group discussions you are displaying your knowledge around a particular topic.  I am a member of a couple groups and I provide resume and cover letter writing ideas, job search techniques and other related topics to my group's discussion boards 1-3 times per week.

Some groups post job openings that a job seeker could be missing out on.

LinkedIn has over 12,000 groups with the keyword "jobs" that are all free to join.  Don't be overwhelmed with the number.  Choose your industry and then find 2 or 3 groups for job seekers that has the largest number of members.

Following Companies ("Company Pages")
The Company Page offers businesses a platform to present their brand and service.  As a Recruiter I follow my competitors to see who was promoted and who departed.  As a convenience I receive an email summarizing the company's activities and I am able to set the frequency of the emails.  As a job seeker I would follow a company that I would like to work for to find decision makers and find new job opportunities.  Someone who leaves a company may mean a new job opportunity for you.  If you are connected you could send your resume and cover letter expressing an interest in applying for the role that John Doe vacated (provided you are qualified) before the position is posted externally.

Search Profiles
LinkedIn profiles are searchable but in order to contact the user you must be connected directly.  If my background or interest is IT and I am interested in connecting with IT recruiters I can find 44,000+ recruiters who recruit in the IT industry.

In my instance I have 12 recruiters in my network and 8, 562 recruiters who I have group relationships.

LinkedIn Answers
LinkedIn Answers is another space where you can build your own social brand by answering questions posted by others, showcase your knowledge and stay abreast of industry news.

Your answers to questions are fed to your homepage profile, added as your network status update and your answer is emailed to the person who asked the question. 

Merely creating a LinkedIn account is not going to attract staffing personnel to your profile.  You need to brand your profile, establish your credibility and connect with others.  All of the features I mentioned will do that for you.  And the beauty is all of them are free and low maintenance.

If you use LinkedIn please share your best practice(s) in the comment section below.

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Build Your Twitter Profile For Your Job Search

If you want someone to think of you when a job opening surfaces you need to be on Twitter.  For starters, make sure your Twitter profile is presentable (professional) and optimize it so that will attract staffing personnel and managers.

Don't protect your tweets.  It prevents your tweets from being indexed by Google, and from getting discovered by recruiters.

Don't mix business with pleasure.  If you plan to tweet a lot about your personal life create a second account.

Don't use inappropriate pictures in your profile or a picture that is not you.

Do choose an identity wisely.  Select a professional screen, whether it's your first and last name or one that captures your industry (i.e, marketing_professional, finance_person).  The latter is best for passive job seekers who want to be discreet.

Do make use of the web link.  Insert a link to your online resume or LinkedIn profile.  Don't have an online resume? Check out any of these free sites: Blogspot, Wordpress, or VisualCV

Do think about keywords you would want your profile to show in a search.  It's not necessary to use hashtags (#).  Your words will show up if keyed in a search.  Adding hashtags in your profile only takes up the 160 characters we are alloted. 

Do include your actual geographical location (city and state) rather than "USA", "Everywhere", "The Planet".  If you are open to relocating write "Open to relocation" in your profile.

Do use a standard background.  One that will permit you to give more details about your background.

Do measure the power of your profile.  Go to Twitter Grader.  My profile grade is 97.7 out of 100.

This is all you need to do to your Twitter profile to make is discoverable.

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Use Social Media In Your Job Search - A Must

Like all of my other posts this particular one will provide you with advice on how you should bare your experience and background to Recruiters, HR professionals, Headhunters and hiring managers. For this post I am picking social media and how you can leverage this resource to enhance and boost your job search.

Did you know there are more than 100 social media sites? If you are curious as to what they are go here. You probably use at least 2 forms of social media to connect and re-connect with friends. The most popular ones are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn (which is actually a professional network).

Why should you use social media in your job search?
Recruiters, HR professionals and hiring managers are embracing social media and use social media as a "harvesting ground" to find talent for their organizations. Just check out Listorious and WeFollow for a list of Recruiters who want to be found.

Where should you go?
Twitter
Twitter is a great tool to network with employers who may be interested in your experience and engage and market yourself to a large audience of people. Many people can find the right contacts on Twitter to help them to find a job. For staffing and recruiting professionals, Twitter is a quick, easy, and direct way to find job seekers. Especially job seekers with specific skills sets who live in specific places. Unlike Facebook Twitter is searchable site for Recruiters. In my next post I'll share with you what Recruiters are saying about your Twitter profile.

LinkedIn

Recruiters and Human Resources managers are adding their own profiles to sites like LinkedIn and making connections with job seekers for employment. Besides making those connections also use the Company Profile feature. Company Profiles are a powerful research tool that helps you find and explore potential companies to work for. See whose leaving because that's a position that will need to be filled. Stay tuned because in my future post I will share some helpful information on how to create a profile as well as insight on how to search LinkedIn for your next career.

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