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15 Ways To Make LinkedIn Work Harder For You

Plus a Bonus TipYooniko

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• If you're looking for a job, you want recruiters to find you and your skills

• If you are a recruiter yourself, you need a channel to contact prospective clients or employees

• If you like networking with other business people

• But THE BIG REASON is: • It is the only place for a public

profile that's all about your professional life and your unique personal brand

• Therefore it gives you a place for your personal brand to live and thrive

Why is your LinkedIn Profile Important?

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• What follows are some specific ways LinkedIn could be working harder for you, beyond the bare minimum of your job history

• Helping you craft a public, social face

• Allowing you to create a place to be purposeful about who you are, and where you're headed

• Building a free-hosted, knockout presence on your own little corner of the World Wide Web

OK, so what do I do now?

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• There are significantly more important elements in your profile than just the places you've worked

• Explore all the other areas of the profile that LinkedIn offers

• Awards

• Projects

• Media

Upload more than your resume

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• Get your specific custom URL on LinkedIn (it’s part of your contact data right under your main profile header)

• Click on the little cog icon to see your public profile URL

• Create or edit this custom URL to make your LinkedIn public profile easier to find or type for other people

• Add the URL to other profiles or even their business cards

Get it, URL

Link to your heart’s content

• In your Contact Info – use links to direct people to other work that you've done, people you've helped, or things that inspire you

• Link to your company’s website, sure, but also:

• Portfolio on Behance.net or other showcase sites

• A blog where you contribute to the thinking around a specific topic

• Be sure all content is appropriate for business contacts to see

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Don't forget to summarize!

• Take advantage of the Summary section of your profile

• Talk about why you do what you do

• Underline what the key elements of your personal brand are in this area

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List results, not just responsibilities

• When adding a job into your work history, don't just talk about what the role responsibilities are

• Describe how you improved things

• Describe what you achieved for the company

• Include accomplishments, rather than the job description basics

Get endorsed for your skills

• You can edit Skills that others endorse you for

• Go to your Skills and Endorsement section -- click on Add Skill• You will see all kinds of options to be included in recommendations to your

contacts, and options to add, remove or manage endorsements

• Review the list, and edit it to make sure that all the items shown should be there, and if there are any omissions

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Pull out the big guns: Recommendations

• Recommendations from co-workers, bosses and employees can be powerful

• Greatly increases the credibility of the content of the recommendation

• Reviews on the work that you've done, by the people you've done it with

• Only ask people who have good knowledge of your work to provide one

• If the review is so-so, or not well constructed, you can work with the person to try to get it right

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Pay attention to Karma

• Return the love a little bit, and offer your endorsements or recommendations for other people that you've worked with

• Stay honest and direct

• Be sure to say What and Why, when you're leaving feedback

• Be specific about what that person does well

• Don't reveal anything you shouldn't in terms of proprietary information

Share your stuff, but be wise

• Sharing is a great way to let people know what kind of product you produce

• But there can be intellectual property concerns if you post something to which you don't have the rights

• Avoid damaging anyone's competitive advantage

• Make sure that the work is the best representation of you

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Follow judiciously (make the right bets)

• Opinion leaders, thinkers, and people can help you stay abreast of the latest and greatest

• Seek them out, and follow companies and people that can inspire you

• But do your homework, and be sure you follow people that can stretch and educate you

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Participate like a Boss

• Like or comment on articles that your contacts are writing or posting

• Join a group or two

• Start commenting on articles in groups that other people offering up

Keep the changes coming

• Keep your profile updated – there are numerous ways to do this

• Search engines appreciate more recent content over older content

• LinkedIn will have more opportunities to update your network about your activity

• Use the platform to record your successes over time

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Don't forget the headline

• Right under your name is a space for you to put some text, called your Professional Headline. Most people put their title in here, or state their occupation in some way. But this is prime real estate, digitally speaking, and you can take advantage of it for stating your motto, approach, core belief, or whatever can make the best impression about you and how you work. I've seen people put up to 116 characters in this headline (it holds 120), which is a lot of space to talk about what makes you special.

PLACE BRILLIANCE HERE

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'When it's time to change, it's time to rearrange'

• Pay attention to the order of your profile components on the page

• Don't let important profile components languish in the middle or bottom of your profile - move them up!

• Place your mouse over a section in your profile (in edit mode) to display the up and down arrow

• Drag the whole section to a new location

Become a Publisher

• Over one million people have now published on LinkedIn

• Use the posting capability to get your voice out there

• Try writing an article, or posting a link to a great news story or blog post

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One extra bonus – proofread!

• Proofread all of your profile carefully

• Poor spelling or grammar is toxic for some people - even small errors

• Take the time to double-check

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Get ready to shine!

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Keep in touch!

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