Lots of speaker’s notes appear on the following pages. I hope you find them helpful. There’s a large batch of screenshots and related articles -- to which I typically refer with “cue xxx.pdf” in the speaker’s notes – that I can make available. Just email me (Andrew Davis) at andrewd@contentrules.com. In general, please: Share your comments with me (Andrew Davis) by email at andrewd@contentrules.com Connect with me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/synergistech Distribute this document itself to those you think might benefit Thanks!
I recruit technical content developers – mainly technical writers, trainers, course developers/instructional designers, and marketing communications writers. I’m an ex-Tech Writer for Silicon Valley software companies. FYI, I don’t hear about “easy” jobs. Our clients pay us a premium to introduce talent with rare combinations of skills, subject matter expertise, cultural fit, location/availability, and cost. LinkedIn is a vast resource. I could talk about its potential as a hiring tool, recruiting industry disruptor, marketing platform, collaborative enabler, and even (in the case of the company itself) as a corporate culture innovator. But today I’ll focus on how this tool can help you find more, better quality work.
My goal is to make LinkedIn’s power more accessible to you. The first step is to take a quick tour of its basic features.
What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, with 185+ million members in over 200 countries. Many think of it as a job board, online resume database, or electronic rolodex. But it’s actually a lot more. And most people don’t know how to leverage it well. LinkedIn is a 10-year-old public [LNKD] technology company HQ’d in Mountain View that employs over 2,500 people worldwide. Its site is available in 17 languages and gets over 20 million unique visitors per month in the US, and over 47 million globally. Half its members are in the US, and there are approximately 11 million in Europe, 4 million in the UK, over 3 million in India, 1 million in Spain, and another 1 million in Pakistan. Its central feature is the professional profile , which lets members be found by colleagues and those seeking their services. LinkedIn accounts are free, although additional features are available to ‘premium’ (paid) users. Your Profile lets you detail your background, professional experience and objectives, your skills and expertise, interests, education, publications, organizational affiliations, honors and awards, status updates, and much more – as well as, selectively, your contact information. A public version of your LinkedIn profile is (by default) searchable from Google and any other search engine, not just from within LinkedIn itself, so you don’t need to be a member, much less connected to the person you’re seeking, to find someone. (Connecting with them is a different matter.) Just as pivotal as your LinkedIn profile, you can build and maintain a list of people with whom you have some level of relationship, called Connections . Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. However, if the invitee selects "I don't know" or "Spam“ instead of “Accept invitation to connect” it counts against the inviter. If the inviter gets too many such responses, their account may be restricted or closed. (Often, the first step is to require the inviter to supply the email address of the person they’re inviting.) LinkedIn takes the privacy of its network seriously – yes, despite the well-publicized “break-in” in mid-2012, no one’s privacy was compromised. LinkedIn’s Connections use a “gated-access” approach – you’ll need either an existing relationship, or the intervention of a shared contact, before you can connect with anyone. This approach yields trust and confidence, as does the public nature of a user’s claims in their profile. After all, those claims can be viewed by all other users, so are less likely to be “aspirational”. Finally, those in the European Union may be interested to know that LinkedIn participates in the EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.
After they published their API several years ago, LinkedIn soon became a mature platform for many career-related applications, including Blog Link, GitHub, Projects and Teamspaces, WordPress, and box.net file-sharing. With the recent changes to LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn Applications are being replaced with a “new feature that lets you add media links to images, presentations, videos, and documents on your profile.” Here are the details: http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/34326
Cue “Andrew’s new Profile.pdf”
Cue “Andrew’s new profile.pdf”
Cue “Andrew’s new profile.pdf”
5Contacts section: Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf” and “Contact Info + Visibility.pdf” Create a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile and add it to your resume, portfolio site, blog, and (job seeking-related) email signature block Create a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile and add it to your resume and (job seeking-related) email signature block. In the Experience section, when citing the name of companies you’ve work with/at, check LinkedIn’s Company list to be sure you cite the correct (or most popular) name for that company. For example, if you worked at Cisco, check to see whether more people have associated themselves with “Cisco” or “Cisco Systems”. Choosing the more popular variant will enhance your chances of being found.
Cue “Skills and Expertise.pdf”
Cue “Contact Info + Visibility.pdf” and “Contact contexts.pdf” Use “Manage your recommendations” from Settings (see Profile tab in “Account Settings (details).pdf”) to control which of your recommendations to display. Control the type and frequency of LinkedIn emails you get using the Email Preferences tab in Settings (see “Account Settings (details).pdf”) Other Sections In addition to these sections, you can add sections to your LinkedIn profile for Certifications, Courses, Honors and Awards, Organizations, Projects, Patents, Test Scores, and Volunteer Experience and Causes. LinkedIn Profiles vs Resumes Refer to “LinkedIn Profiles Beat Resumes.docx”
Until you complete your LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn nags you to do so. Note that you don’t have to have any connections to be found by LinkedIn’s “People” searches, but they certainly help.
Cue “Chris Shaw’s profile.pdf” for an example of plenty of detail, but also some “don’ts” regarding obscure job titles. Note : I don’t have copyright to Chris Shaw’s profile, but it’s publicly available at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=9817660.
Cue “Account Summary.pdf” and “Openlink + Premium badge icons.pdf”.
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf”
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf”
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf”
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf”
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf” and “Contact Info + Invisibility.pdf” Abbreviated LinkedIn profiles are fully searchable from Google and other search engines, regardless of whether you’re formally connected to the person. Search using a string like this to expand your network: site:linkedin.com "ux designer" salesforce "San Francisco Bay Area" -inurl:directory (inurl:public | inurl:in) -profiles
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf” and “Contact contexts.pdf”
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf”
Cue “Account Settings (details).pdf”
Where to find people with whom to connect Use LinkedIn’s hints (see “People you may know.pdf”) – but don’t tell the person you’re inviting that LinkedIn told you to connect; invent your own reasons. If more than one of the suggested connections appeals, hold down “Control” and click on the person’s name (in bold, blue type) to open another tab with their profile. Why? Because the “People you may know” screen refreshes itself every time you visit it and you’ll lose the current suggestions if you click away from it. See page 2 of “People you may know.pdf” for the result of this control-clicking maneuver. If you find too many potential connections, just open their profiles and note their LinkedIn ID (see page 2 of “People you may know.pdf”), then return to their profiles later when you have more time. Join Groups (up to 50), especially corporate (and school) alumni and those for focused skills. Contribute to those groups whenever you have something helpful to say; doing so can be a huge credibility builder. Within LinkedIn Groups, mouse-over the timestamp on a group member’s input, next to the “Like” label, and two more options will appear: “Reply privately” and “Flag as inappropriate”. Use the first to communicate directly with the poster, regardless of whether you’re connected. This is a great way to expand your network, to invite someone to apply for a job, or even just to say hi. By following companies on LinkedIn, you’ll be the first to see their news (including new job listings ), so you’ll be able to follow up (or apply) quickly. By contributing to LinkedIn Groups discussions, chiming in on topics about which you are knowledgeable, you’ll improve your LinkedIn status (“Best Answers”). Groups have the advantage (over Wikipedia and Quora) of showing you who is knowledgeable so you can follow up privately with them. Use LinkedIn’s daily custom newsfeed, “LinkedIn TODAY” as well as their email of the same name (from news@linkedin.com), to stay current with your People and Company connections making news. If appropriate, cite the article in a LinkedIn message to your contact.
How to find the people you seek on LinkedIn To find people working for a specific company, use “Companies” (dropdown, top right corner), isolate the name of the company (if you get multiple search results), scroll down past “Company Highlights” to “Your Network” and see whom you know (using the “See all nn connections in your network” link if necessary). For 2 nd and 3 rd level connections, click “nn shared connections” to see whom you can ask for an introduction. Subscribe to relevant Groups, follow discussion threads to learn who’s knowledgeable about what interests you, and connect with them (like this…). Or just look at who’s also a member of the group using (link). In LinkedIn’s search results (see “Advanced People Search.pdf”), click “Similar” to see people with similar profiles who are in your network or a member of the same Groups. You can also click the number (e.g., “104”) following “Similar” to see all members of your connection’s network. Notice the dropdown following “Message” that lets you a) View Connections, b) Save Profile, c) Share Profile, and d) Find References. The last is pure gold ; see “Reference Search.pdf.” Search Groups to which you subscribe for topics that interest you, then for responses that indicate the person is knowledgeable, then connect with them (via the “Connect” button or “Get introduced through a connection” link). See the “Viewers of this profile also viewed...” section (in the right column) for the people who have similar expertise and/or affiliations. Use LinkSV ( www.linksv.com ) to find companies in niches that interest you, then click the LI logo next to certain company officers to view their profiles and, if appropriate, reach out to them. Import the address book from a web-based email app (GMail, Hotmail, AOL, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc) using https://www.linkedin.com/fetch/importAndInviteEntry , or from Outlook (or any installed app able to write to CSV format) using https://www.linkedin.com/fetch/manual-invite-create . LinkedIn will suggest people to invite, but won’t email anyone without your permission. Configure your LinkedIn TODAY feed to bring you news about target companies (e.g., clients, past/present/future employers, competitors), then read the daily email broadcast and follow up.
Protocol for Requesting Connections on LinkedIn Cue “Introduction Request.pdf” and “Connecting Constructively.pdf” Once you’ve got a new connection, while the person is still fresh in your mind, take advantage of LinkedIn’s role as a smart, portable rolodex. There are two ways to do this: In your connection’s profiles, go to the “Contact Information” section (in the right-hand column) and click on “View/Edit Contact Info” then “Add” or (if you’ve already added some content to the editable fields) “Edit”. See “Contact Info Editing.pdf” From Connections, select a connection then, in the right pane, “Edit details” (per “Connection screen info editing.pdf”) to get to the same screen (“Contact Info Editing.pdf”). Information you add remains private; your connections can’t see it. You can also categorize your connections using the Tags section of the screens referenced in #2, above; see “Tag your connections.pdf.” One of the best reasons to do this is that you can broadcast messages to an entire tagged group (provided it has no more than 50 members) for free and as often as you’d like.
Getting recommendations for your work improves your LinkedIn “People” search ranking, and increases the chances that others will want to connect with – and even hire – you. How to request a recommendation: http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/96 Recommendations you’ve received appear in your profile, below Education. Consider coaching those giving you recommendations so they appear articulate (and their comments more helpful to all concerned). If you get the ‘wrong kind’ of recommendation, you can use “manage your recommendations” to hide it (see “Account Settings (details).pdf”). What’s an effective recommendation? Effective recommendations are explicit endorsements, followed by specific and descriptive examples, followed by a quantitative result. Use strong and specific nouns and verbs, and few fluffy adjectives. Instead of “She was our tech writer,” be more descriptive and powerful. For example: “ In my 20 years as a business owner, I’ve met few who are as organized and responsible as Samantha. She independently researched, mastered, and documented our new product, bringing order to our chaos. Over the past two years the number of unsolicited compliments for her comprehensive and nuanced user’s guide is now too high to count.”
Getting recommendations for your work improves your LinkedIn “People” search ranking, and increases the chances that others will want to connect with – and even hire – you. How to request a recommendation: http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/96 Recommendations you’ve received appear in your profile, below Education. Consider coaching those giving you recommendations so they appear articulate (and their comments more helpful to all concerned). If you get the ‘wrong kind’ of recommendation, you can use “manage your recommendations” to hide it (see “Account Settings (details).pdf”). What’s an effective recommendation? Effective recommendations are explicit endorsements, followed by specific and descriptive examples, followed by a quantitative result. Use strong and specific nouns and verbs, and few fluffy adjectives. Instead of “She was our tech writer,” be more descriptive and powerful. For example: “ In my 20 years as a business owner, I’ve met few who are as organized and responsible as Samantha. She independently researched, mastered, and documented our new product, bringing order to our chaos. Over the past two years the number of unsolicited compliments for her comprehensive and nuanced user’s guide is now too high to count.”