LinkedIn do’s and don’ts are a popular topic because so many executives understand how important it is to use LinkedIn well when they’re job hunting.
Unfortunately, despite their good intentions, many LinkedIn members don’t use it well. They make lots of mistakes.
Here’s a sampling of some of the right and wrong things to do on LinkedIn, mostly concerning the LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn Do’s
Include a contact email and/or phone number on your LinkedIn profile, and make it easy to find
Don’t make people have to hunt through your profile for your contact info. They may not bother. They’ll move on to the next possible candidate who isn’t hiding this info.
The best place is the most obvious one – in the “Contact info” spot that sits under your name and profile headline, in the introduction section at the very top of your profile.
Eyes are drawn to the top of any web page first, so naturally people will be able to find your contact info as soon as they land on your profile.
Put effort into creating a profile headline that makes an impact
Since your headline is also in the very top section of your profile, it will be seen by humans first, before they decide whether or not to scroll down through the rest of it.
Your headline is also “seen” by the LinkedIn search engine. To push your profile up higher in search results (like when recruiters and other hiring professionals source candidates), it needs to contain plenty of the relevant keywords these people will use to search.
Identify the right keywords (or hard skills) to put in your headline to drive recruiters and other hiring professionals to your profile, but balance those keywords with a feel for your personality, to generate chemistry for you as a candidate.
Fill in and regularly prioritize your Skills and Endorsements section
Add as many skills as possible, in order of importance. A skill endorsement is a one-click way for your connections to endorse the skills listed on your profile. An endorsement is not the same as a “Recommendation”, which is a written narrative submitted by a connection in support of your expertise and value.
A high number of endorsements for skills representing your best talents supports your personal brand and adds credibility to your candidacy in job search. And, this section should boost your profile’s search ranking.
Personalize the default invitation to connect message
Take the time to compose a brief message when you send out invitations. Let people know how you know them, or why you admire them, or how you can help each other. Few people take the time to personalize their invitations. Recipients will appreciate that you did, so your meaningful message will go a long way.
Write recommendations for others
If you’ve ever been in the position of assessing candidates for your employer (or, if you are an employer yourself), you know how impressed you are by stellar recommendations.
Hiring professionals are attracted to candidates who have persuasive testimonials on their profiles.
If you have no recommendations, or anemic ones, they may question your good fit . . . or simply not be impressed enough to contact you.
Writing recommendations for others makes it much more likely that they’ll write one for you. And your recommendations on other people’s profiles include a link to your profile, offering you more exposure.
Save a copy of your profile
Profiles can go missing for various reasons, or LinkedIn can shut down your account.
That means you’ll lose access to every part of it, including your all-important contacts.
And that means that when recruiters and other hiring professionals search LinkedIn for candidates like you, your profile will not show up in search results. You’ll be invisible on LinkedIn.
Get in the habit of saving it any time you make changes.
Here’s how easy this is to do:
- Go to “View Profile” under “Me” in the LinkedIn menu at the top of your account.
- In the intro card at the top of your profile that includes your headshot and name, look for the “Resources” button and click on it.
- Look for and click on “Save to PDF” in the drop-down menu under “Resources”.
LinkedIn Don’ts
Settle for an anemic, skimpy LinkedIn profile
Fully populate all of the profile sections that apply to you. A too short profile can hurt your job search because it:
- Doesn’t provide enough information to help hiring professional see your good fit
- Lacks personal branding and chemistry. Your personality is missing
- Marks you as out of date with social media and the new world of work
- Decreases your “findability” online
Neglect SEO and keywords
Recruiters and hiring managers at the companies you’re targeting search on keywords relevant to the kinds of candidates they’re seeking, such as “Information Technology Executive, Enterprise Business Systems”.
You need to be mindful of LinkedIn Profile SEO, which refers to optimizing your entire LinkedIn profile with the relevant keywords and phrases that will lead these hiring professionals to your profile.
Strategically placed, the right keywords elevate your search rankings in LinkedIn’s search engine, increasing your profile’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and significantly boosting the likelihood you’ll be found and considered by them.
Accept having a boring, generic About section
Boost your candidacy with a robust About section that uses storytelling to draw people in. Use as much of the allowed space as possible.
You want people reading it to be convinced they need to consider you and interview you, right?
It’s going to evoke a “Meh” instead of screaming “You need me in your company”, if:
- It includes a drab mere paragraph or two.
- All that’s there is a string of keywords (that may or may not be relevant to your target employers) padded with just enough verbs to make the sentences flow.
- The content is generic. The same measly paragraphs could be plunked down into the profile of just about any other person doing the same kind of work. Instead, differentiate the unique value you offer to elevate your profile above the sea of sameness.
Ignore personal branding in your profile
Make no mistake. In today’s job search landscape, personal branding is required. It is no longer optional.
Executive recruiters and other hiring professionals may review the LinkedIn profiles and resumes of thousands of candidates for any given job. They often find themselves drowning in a sea of sameness. Few candidates stand out.
The wise job seeker knows that the more clearly and compellingly they can describe their overall good fit for the job and the employer, the better their chances to be noticed and contacted for interviews.
That means they need to clearly communicate to hiring professionals and their network(s) how their hard and soft skills are in sync, and how this combination of skills and personal qualities make them a good hiring choice.
And that’s what personal branding is all about.
Develop brand-driven content that contains the relevant keywords and phrases people search to find candidates like you. In addition, the content needs to generate chemistry by showcasing your personality, and how you make things happen.
Forget to include an appropriate profile photo
Branding and career marketing are about creating emotional connections. People will believe content more when it’s accompanied by the author’s photo.
An online profile with no photo is a missed opportunity to reinforce your brand and engage people, and can be a red flag to hiring professionals.
Although you may think that HAVING a photo on your LinkedIn profile may red-flag you for discrimination (age, weight, ethnic background, etc.), NOT having one can be a red flag, too.
Think about the recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies who click through to your LinkedIn profile. The first thing they’ll notice is your photo . . . or lack of one. If you have no photo, their initial thought will likely be “What is this person trying to hide?”
You may have good reason not to include a photo, but I encourage you to include one. For the most part, the benefits outweigh the pitfalls.
Here are a few other reasons NOT having a photo can sabotage your chances of landing a job you covet and deserve:
You can be perceived as not understanding how to use LinkedIn. It can make you seem out-of-touch with current technology and trends. You can appear to be technically incapable of uploading a photo.
“Fake” LinkedIn profiles do exist. Those without photos may be perceived as not belonging to real people.
Lack of a photo keeps your profile from being complete. Profiles that ARE complete are more likely to show up higher in search results, giving them an advantage over “incomplete” profiles.
If you have no photo, then get an interview sight-unseen, show up for the interview, and experience discrimination based on your appearance and/or ethnic background, you’ve just wasted your time and faced an unnecessary rejection, which is always hard to take.
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