With more than 300 million existing profiles and two new members every second, LinkedIn is changing the professional landscape and making it easier for recruiters to interact with you. No longer is a paper CV enough to sell your skills, an effective online professional profile is essential to encouraging great opportunities to come to you.
Here, Country Manager of our Taipei office, John Winter, gives you five ways to get the most out of your online professional profile:
1. Make a good first impression – Complete your profile, from the summary to your education, and update it once a month. The more content you have, the greater the likelihood you will pop up in recruiter searches. Including a professional photo will significantly increase the chances you get viewed.
2. Connect with everyone – You might think you should only stay connected to those you already know, but this is a rule better applied to more personal networks like Facebook. With LinkedIn, it’s in your interests to connect with as many people as possible and to help them connect with each other. The more direct connections you have, the larger your overall network will be, creating more opportunities in the long run and increasing the chances that your profile gets seen.
3. Recommend others – The more you give, the more you will receive. An impressive employment history will always help to draw recruiters in, but it is the recommendations from others that will really convince them to meet with you. Recommend others as much as you can, and they are likely to reciprocate. If you do this over time, your job hunt will be much easier when you do start looking.
4. Join groups – No matter which industry you are from, joining and actively participating in LinkedIn groups will put you in touch with other experts in the field. Post intelligently and stay active in group discussions will establish you as a thought leader in the market, widen the reach of your message and help you connect with key people you might not otherwise have interacted with.
5. Optimise your search rankings – Recruiters search for keywords, so optimise your ranking by incorporating industry terms into your heading, summary and work history. Keep it light on the overused buzzwords such as visionary or guru, and make sure your language is clear and concise, avoid industry jargon that might be hard for those outside your business to understand.
Just remember, a great resume alone probably won’t get you into your next great big role. The vast majority of candidate sourcing techniques include LinkedIn, other social media channels, and of course, personal networks. When it comes to getting noticed, a professional social presence is essential.
