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LinkedIn Workshop

LinkedIn Workshop. John L. Mohammed Internal Vice President Past President Member Computer Committee Sacramento Professional Network. How to use LinkedIn as an effective Networking tool to support your job search. Topics of Discussion. Filling out your Profile Connections Groups

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LinkedIn Workshop

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  1. LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed Internal Vice President Past President Member Computer Committee Sacramento Professional Network How to use LinkedIn as an effective Networking tool to support your job search

  2. Topics of Discussion • Filling out your Profile • Connections • Groups • Recommendations • Endorsements • Hypermedia • Researching Companies • Searching for Jobs • Search Engine Optimization • Mechanics of using LinkedIn

  3. Filling Out Your Profile • Include a PHOTO • establishes social media credibility • Profiles without photos are not read • Use the headline to establish your brand • Customize your Public Profile URL • Include a concise executive summary • List all companies in Experience, and all schools in Education • Give details regarding your contributions to each company • Get (and Give) as many recommendations as you can (at least 3, preferably more) LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  4. Connections • Don't add connections willy-nilly: it's not a contest to see who has the largest network! • You want to connect with people who know you well enough to be comfortable with: • introducing you to their connections • refering you to a potential employer • assisting you with advice • giving you a recommendation • Nonetheless, you want to build a significant network of connections, because the more people you know, the more likely one of them can help you LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  5. Connections: Where to find them? • LinkedIn will recommend possible connections based on: • your email history • your employment history • your education history • your participation in groups • You can search for people on Linkedin • Once you identify someone with whom you'd like to connect, LinkedIn can tell you whether you are already indirectly linked to that person, and identify the members of your network who could introduce you LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  6. Connecting with Strangers • If you find someone you'd like to connect with, but he or she is not in your network • Examine the person's profile • Look at what Groups the person participates in, and join those that are relevant to you • Participate in the group discussions (particularly those in which your 'target' is participating) in order to establish your online presence and credibility • Based on your common membership in a group, you can then invite the person to connect • Include a reminder of the interactions you've had with him/her in the invitation LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  7. Groups • Groups are collections of LinkedIn members who share a common interest • Groups have: • Discussions • questions and statements posted to the group's discussion board • you can participate by adding your comments to existing discussions, or by starting your own discussions • this is the most important way to participate: establish your knowledge, skills, and passion for the group's topic • Job listings • these listings are targeted to the members of the group • jobs may appear in these listings well before more generic job boards LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  8. Groups (cont'd) • Promotions • Group members can post advertisements about promotions relevant to the group's topic of interest • Member lists • You can view, and search the group's membership • From their profiles, you can identify other groups that you might want to join, and other points of contact, such as companies and schools • Group-specific search • You can search discussions, polls • Following • You can follow a group, and/or follow specific discussion threads LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  9. Finding Groups to Join • LinkedIn will suggest groups that may interest you, based on your profile and your activity • You can search among groups for keywords relevant to your professional interests • You can see in which groups your connections and connection targets are participating • You can create your own group, and invite others to join it • Some groups are moderated — a moderator decides who can join, what discussion, promotion and job postings are allowed, etc. LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  10. Recommendations • Recommendations are the electronic LinkedIn equivalent of letters of recommendation • They can have high credibility, because the reader can view the profile of the person who wrote the recommendation and judge whether the person's background and the relationship between you makes them a credible judge of your skills • You can only get recommendations from connections (1st level contacts in your network) • To get recommendations, give them (to colleagues, managers, employees, clients, etc.) LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  11. Recommendations • Do NOT make it Quid Pro Quo (i.e., I'll recommend you if you recommend me) - rely on Karma • You can ask for recommendations from connections • include a concise but compelling description of the basis for your relationship and the reason you deserve a recommendation • Get (and give) at least 3 recommendations to make your profile complete LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  12. Endorsements • The skills section of your profile enables you to list up to 50 keywords identifying your skills • Your connections can endorse you for those skills (i.e., vouch that you have the specified skill) • In your public profile, the endorsements are not visible, and the skills are listed in the order you specify • In the profile visible to LinkedIn members, the endorsements are listed, and the skills are ordered by the number of endorsements (i.e., the number of connections who agree that you have that skill) LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  13. Endorsements • Endorsements are extremely easy to give: • One click per skill • LinkedIn continually asks your connections whether you have the skills you list, thereby soliciting endorsements for you • As with recommendations, you should endorse your connections for the skills that you know they have • Endorsements should be taken with grain of salt: • there is no guarantee that the people endorsing you know what they are talking about • viewers of your profile can investigate your endorsers by viewing their profiles LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  14. Hypermedia • All entries in your profile are plain text • You cannot specify the font, style or layout (except paragraph breaks) • You can insert certain special unicode characters (copy/paste from http://unicode-table.com/en/) • LinkedIn used to have a concept of third-party add-ons ("apps") that enabled profiles to include a wide variety of special and specially formatted information • However, "apps" were phased out in favor of a new platform for including hypermedia LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  15. Hypermedia • In various places within your profile, you can add hyperlinks to videos, images, documents, presentations, etc. • These must be either: • a document you upload to LinkedIn • Presentations: pdf, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, pot, potx (Powerpoint), odp (OpenOffice) • Documents: pdf, doc, docx, rtf (MSOffice), odt • Images: png, gif, jpg, jpeg • Maximum file size:100MB • a URL to a resource stored on another site LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  16. Researching Companies • In addition to individuals, companies can have profiles on LinkedIn • Companies post: • information about their activities (expansions, changes in leadership, etc.) • information about their products and services • employment opportunities • Additionally, you can search for members whose profiles mention companies • Determine who in your network has worked for or is working for the company LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  17. Searching for Jobs • LinkedIn is NOT primarily a jobs board • However, LinkedIn provides employers with the ability to post their jobs to a specially targeted audience of professionals • Therefore, many companies search for employees and post jobs on LinkedIn FIRST, before resorting to more general job posting sites. • Based on your profile, the groups you belong to, and other aspects of your online activity, LinkedIn will recommend jobs that might interest you. LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  18. Searching for Jobs • LinkedIn will also display the members in your network associated with companies that are posting jobs • enabling you to reach out for a referral • You can view jobs posted by specific companies • Search and/or follow the company, then view the jobs they post • You can view jobs posted to specific groups • Each group can have a jobs board • Since group members self-identify with the group's topic, these posts are very targeted LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  19. Searching for Jobs • When you find a posting for a job that interests you: • You can often apply online through LinkedIn (your profile will be submitted as your resume) • In other cases, you will be directed to the company's online application website • The member who posted the job is often shown: • you can view the person's profile • learn how you might be connected to him/her • possibly arrange to be introduced • Sometimes you can see how many others have already applied for the job LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  20. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) SEO is about making sure that your profile is one of the first pages returned when people perform a suitable search Factors: • Keywords • Ensure that your profile contains multiple instances of the keywords that people might use to find you • Completeness of your profile (profile strength) • LinkedIn searches prefer to return complete profiles • Include a photo, have at least 3 recommendations, build a reasonably sized network of connections • LinkedIn can walk you through suggestions for improving your profile strength LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  21. Search Engine Optimization (cont'd) • All search engines prefer to return pages that have recently changed • They want to avoid returning pages that are obsolete, out-of-date, possibly broken, no longer being managed • Therefore: Update your profile periodically • Add new content • Rearrange summary skills to better reflect the needs of companies you are targeting • Add Status Updates • Continually build your network of connections • Participate in group discussions (your recent activity appears in your profile) LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  22. Mechanics of Using LinkedIn • Setting up an account • Customizing the public profile URL • Editing profile components • Adding components • Customizing the Public Profile • Privacy and Notification settings • Searching • People, Companies, Groups, Jobs, Emails • Following • People, Companies, Discussions LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  23. Setting up an Account If you have an account, enter the email address and your password to sign in Go to: www.linkedin.com Otherwise, enter your first & last name, a valid email address, and choose a password LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed Click on "Join now"

  24. Customizing your Public Profile URL Hold mouse over the Profile menu Select Edit Profile LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  25. Customizing your Public Profile URL This is your Public Profile URL Click the "Edit" button next to it LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  26. Customizing your Public Profile URL Click on "Customize your public profile URL" Scroll down if needed to see "Your public profile URL" LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  27. Customizing your Public Profile URL Enter an easily remembered URL based on your name LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed LinkedIn will let you know whether the resulting URL is available or already in use.

  28. Editing Profile Components • Editing Connections • Editing Groups • Editing Following • Ordering Components • Entering Edit mode • Editing the banner • Background • Editing the Summary • Editing Experience • Editing Skills & Expertise • Editing Education • Recommendations • Manage visibility • Order LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  29. Adding Components LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  30. Customizing your Public Profile Hold mouse over the Profile menu Select Edit Profile LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  31. Customizing your Public Profile This is your Public Profile URL Click the "Edit" button next to it LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  32. Customizing your Public Profile Your Public Profile is a subset of your profile that is visible to the entire world wide web. You control whether it is visible, and what parts of your profile it contains by selecting the check boxes in this list LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

  33. Customizing Your Public Profile • In your profile, skill keywords appear in an order determined by the number of endorsements you have for each skill • In your public profile, endorsements are not shown, and the skills appear in the order you specify • The public profile does not include your recent activity, nor your contact information, though it does include your websites LinkedIn Workshop John L. Mohammed

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