Still finding my way through LinkedIn

This week I learned to take LinkedIn seriously. I never realized the great opportunity LinkedIn could provide. I dismissed it easy early on. I had a profile but I didn’t think much of it.  

So, when Eve Mayer from Social Media Delivered came to speak to one of my classes about the many features on LinkedIn. The lecture including things from basics like filling out your profile, what do people notice first and how to get connected to people, especially if you’re looking for a job.

Who’s on LinkedIn? The demographics are people who are older, average age of 44. The people earn a higher income and many are people who work for Fortune 500 Company who looked for future employees on LinkedIn. It’s important to keep in mind that there are many people looking to hire people on the website. This isn’t a social network like Twitter or Facebook.

Here are some tips from Eve along with some help from Forbes:

• Customize your URL. With SEO this should help your profile find its way to the top of your name search. You can customize it by hitting the “edit” button and clicking the “Public profile settings.” Find where it says “your public profile URL” That’s where you be able to customize the URL.
• Headline is important. It’s the first thing a person sees next to your profile picture. People with profile pictures are most likely to get hired. You want to your headline to be attractive so that some one will click on your profile.
• Detailed summary of your career. This shouldn’t be too long that it will keep your reader interested. Insert key phrases that you find in a job description and something you’re interested in obtaining in a job experience.
• Use the experience section as an online résumé. You don’t have to be super detailed but make sure to list significant jobs that have contributed to your career.
• Ask for recommendations. You can select people you’re connected with and ask for a recommendation. If you want to increase the chance then you should take the opportunity to write what you would want the person to say about you.
• Post one to four times a week. Posting regular status updates helps you stay in the minds of those who you’ve connected with, even with the people you connected a long time ago.
• Connect. But don’t freak people out by connecting with someone you’ve never met. And don’t stick with the generic message. Ask for an introduction from a mutual friend if you don’t know the person very well.