by bonnie power ceo melbourne resumes...you can change your public profile settings to control the...

By Bonnie Power CEO Melbourne Resumes Phone: (03) 9017 3310 www.melbourneresumes.com.au

2 How to Leverage LinkedIn & Create a Powerful Profile © - Call 1300 979 890 for FREE LinkedIn Check Service

How to Leverage LinkedIn. 3 Steps for Creating Powerful Profile REVEALED!

Table of Contents

Security / Privacy ................................................................................................................................................ 3

What is LinkedIn? ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Who Uses LinkedIn in Australia? ......................................................................................................................... 4

What’s in a LinkedIn Profile? .............................................................................................................................. 5

Make Your Profile Stand Out from Your Competition ........................................................................................ 5

What Should You Include In Your LinkedIn Profile? ............................................................................................ 5

What Can People See on Your Profile? ............................................................................................................... 5

Who Should I Connect With? .............................................................................................................................. 7

Why are 2nd degree connections more valuable than 1st degree connections? .............................................. 8

Stage 1. – The 10 simple steps to setting up your LinkedIn profile. ....................................................................... 9

1. Your Photo .................................................................................................................................................. 9

2. Your Name .................................................................................................................................................. 9

3. Headline .................................................................................................................................................... 10

4. Location (Country/Post Code) .................................................................................................................. 10

5. Industry ..................................................................................................................................................... 11

6. Summary ................................................................................................................................................... 12

7. Skill Endorsements .................................................................................................................................... 13

Adding Skills that Your Connections Have Endorsed You For ....................................................................... 13

Giving Endorsements .................................................................................................................................... 13

Display the Order of Skill Endorsements ...................................................................................................... 13

Removing a Skill Endorsement ..................................................................................................................... 13

Hiding and Unhiding a Skill Endorsement ..................................................................................................... 14

Skill Endorsements Email Notifications ........................................................................................................ 14

8. Experience ................................................................................................................................................ 15

9. Education .................................................................................................................................................. 15

10. Websites, Public Profile URLs & Your Contact Settings ...................................................................... 16

Stage 2. Taking Action with Your New LinkedIn Profile ........................................................................................ 17

1. Provide a Recent Status Update ............................................................................................................... 17

2. Secure 3 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 17

How to Request a Recommendation ............................................................................................................ 18

3. Make Connections .................................................................................................................................... 19

How to Strategically Build Your Network ................................................................................................. 20

Stage 3 – Three Straightforward Strategies to Build Your Brand ......................................................................... 23

Strategy 1 - Participate in Group Discussions ................................................................................................... 23

Strategy 2 - Create Your Own LinkedIn Group .................................................................................................. 24

Strategy 3 - Upload Examples of Your Work ..................................................................................................... 24


Security / Privacy

How can I avoid my boss guessing I am looking for a new job? Before we begin making changes to your profile, the first thing we need to do is adjust your settings so people who you are already connected with won’t receive a notification every time you make a small change or improvement to your LinkedIn profile. Press on the button in the top right hand corner of your screen that is a micro image of your LinkedIn photo. And choose Privacy and Settings - Review In privacy controls –

Turn off your activity broadcasts

Select who can see your activity feed to only you.

In ‘Select what others see when you've viewed their profile’ - allow your name and headline to show when you have read someone else’s profile (unless you are performing competitor analysis or something similar – you may want to turn it to anonymous.

In the ‘connections’ – turn to Only You.

Change your profile photo & visibility » let everyone see your profile.

How can I protect my email address? While most of us don't protect our email addresses the same way we protect our social security number or passwords, it's still important to treat this as a valuable piece of personal information. This is especially true for those sites where your email address is used as part of your username to log in to your account. Another good reason to be protective of your email address is to deflect spam. Do not enter your email address in the name fields of your account since this field can appear in public searches and be viewed by anyone. It's best to only include your personal contact information in the designated fields in your profile which can only be viewed by first degree connections.

https://www.linkedin.com/settings/activity-visibility?goback=%2Enas_*1_*1_*1

https://www.linkedin.com/settings/wvmp-visibility?goback=%2Enas_*1_*1_*1

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit-picture-info?goback=%2Enas_*1_*1_*1&trk=nprofile-edit-picture-info


What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking tool that’s dedicated to helping professionals building their credibility and industry connections. A professional LinkedIn profile and a growing list of connections is then used by: Business owners and sales professionals to increase leads and revenue Individuals to find a job, or to research potential employers / interviewers Managers and business owners who are seeking new staff members Contractors or freelancers who are constantly on the lookout for new job opportunities Human Resource Departments and External Recruitment agencies who are trying to fill positions Here is an overview of LinkedIn’s popularity, by industry sector:

Who Uses LinkedIn in Australia? LinkedIn has 4 million members in Australia – accounting for an estimated four out of five professionals in the country. Since 2010, 1 million new LinkedIn profiles have been created by Australian professionals. It will continue to increase in popularity, especially within the areas of recruitment and media.


What’s in a LinkedIn Profile? Your LinkedIn profile is a public facing summary of who you are, what you represent, your professional employment history and your areas of expertise. Your profile is a snapshot of the brand you are sharing with the entire world. Your profile will be created to highlight you or your company’s expertise and outlines how you can assist potential customers.

Make Your Profile Stand Out from Your Competition As all your competitors are using the same fields as you to complete their LinkedIn profile, it’s imperative to ensure you create different content that engages the reader. When people search for LinkedIn Profiles, they only see a summary of your full profile, and those elements are usually your photo, your name and your professional headline. One of your main objectives with using LinkedIn is to have people read your LinkedIn profile and be seen as the standout choice in your industry.

What Should You Include In Your LinkedIn Profile? In a nutshell, the more relevant information you have about yourself and your company on LinkedIn, the more likely your details will show up when people are searching for someone like you. We suggest you keep your LinkedIn profile updated with any information that makes you look like the ideal person to help your target audience is a good start.

What Can People See on Your Profile?

Your profile is visible to LinkedIn members who've signed in to LinkedIn.com, but only limited information will appear to people who do not have a LinkedIn profile, this is called your public profile, and appears if someone googles your name. Because not every Australian has a LinkedIn profile, it’s important to consider what will show up in your pubic profile, as this is what 60% of the population will see if they google your name. You can change your public profile settings to control the profile information that shows up in public search results. LinkedIn members in your network can see your name and LinkedIn profile. If your contact settings allow InMail messages, certain Premium account holders can also see your full name and full profile.


Members outside your network only see a shortened profile without your name. Only 1st-degree connections and people you've emailed before who have added you to their LinkedIn Contacts can see your email address. 3rd-degree connections and members you share groups with who have free accounts will only see your first name, last initial, and the top section of your profile when searching by keyword. If any member searches by your first and last name, they can see your full profile unless you have blocked them. You may want to block certain competitors or people who you do not want to be associated with.


Developing a LinkedIn Connection Policy The creation and maintenance of a LinkedIn connection policy is critical because, as you and/or your business become more active on LinkedIn, you will organically receive more invitation requests.

Who Should I Connect With? If you want to promote your company, or your own personal profile, you are probably wanting some direction on how to use LinkedIn to build your network, and increase the amount of enquiries you are receiving. If you are not sure how to use LinkedIn, we suggest you open up your network and utilise your connections as a tool to extend your reach and support your inbound marketing. LinkedIn is a business tool, it’s a networking site for professionals. LinkedIn allows us to share information which showcases our knowledge and promotes us as an expert in our own industry. It allows us to start discussions, or enter existing discussions which help us to not only boost our exposure, but also to acquire up-to-date knowledge. But at the end of the day, LinkedIn is nothing more than a database full of professional profiles. Just as you should optimise your LinkedIn profile so the right keywords can be found, you should increase your network size in order to aid in your discoverability as well. The more people you are connected with, the more likely you are to turn up in search results. Our suggestion is that you focus on connecting up with people who are in similar industries to you, and ideally within your city. Then start branching out and connecting with other professionals in your city/state, and then with other professionals across the country or world who belong to similar industries.

Benefits of openly networking:

1. The more connections you have, the more likely you are to meet your objectives from being on LinkedIn. 2. The more connections you have, the more 2

nd degree connections you will have, which means you are

only an introduction away from meeting those thousands of new people who can help you achieve your goals.

3. The more 2nd

degree connections you have, the more 3rd

degree connections you have, which means the higher you will rank in search results.

With every first degree connection you make, your second and third-degree connections expand at a rapid rate. In fact, if you focus on connecting with people who have 500+ connections, it won’t take long to acquire hundreds and thousands of second degree connections – and it’s the second degree connections that your sales and marketing efforts should be

HOT TIP: You can also follow companies and then

connecting with hiring managers and recruiters of

the companies you want to work with !


concentrating on.

Why are 2nd degree connections more valuable than 1st degree connections? The value in networking occurs when you connect with people outside of your network. This is assuming that you already know the first degree connections, and are currently reaching out to them in one form or another. Whenever you need a marketing partner, new lead, or introduction to someone in an organisation you’d like to target, you’ll be more successful if you tap into your first-degree connections on LinkedIn and ask for that warm lead. Introductions and the resulting mutual professional value is the very essence of networking, regardless of whether it is done on LinkedIn or in person. Your LinkedIn network will quickly become a very valuable database on which to help build your career or your business, and we suggest you regularly tap into this network and leverage the power it can provide you. Now the downside of connecting with people you have not met yet is that you may be asked by complete strangers for a recommendation, or they may spam you with emails to promote their products and services. From our experience, there is only 1% of people who will abuse LinkedIn like this, and all you need to do is dis-connect with them the first or second time they do it. The benefits far outweigh the costs. Another valid concern of being an ‘open networker’ is that you are fearful of allowing others to see your connections, but you can control who gets to view this section of your profile. Do this by hovering over your name in the top right-hand corner and selecting ‘settings’. From there, navigate to ‘profile’ and then ‘select who can see your connections’ under the privacy controls column.


Stage 1. – The 10 simple steps to setting up your LinkedIn profile.

1. Your Photo If you don’t have a photo, people won’t trust your profile. There are too many fake profiles on LinkedIn, so you want to show that you are real. Remember the theme behind social media is that it is people-centric networking – people want to see who they are communicating with or considering for future opportunities. Deciding on what photo to include can be confusing. Some people stay on the conservative side, and include photos that are used in company websites and on their personal professional bios. Others will be sitting on their Harley Davidson, or with a company mascot. The choice is yours, but if you are seeking new opportunities, or trying to attract more clients, we would recommend presenting yourself in the style that you would choose when meeting the CEO of a company that you are targeting. Other elements that make up a great profile photo are: 1. You are looking directly into the camera, and your smile is giving off positive

and happy vibes to people who view it.

2. The background behind you is clear of anything that will distract the viewer from looking at your image.

3. The photo is only of your face, and perhaps your shoulders, but definitely not of your whole body.

4. There is enough natural light in the room, so your image is clearly visible.

2. Your Name

Use the name that people refer to you with, ie. If you have a long name, and your co-workers and friends shorten it, then use that shortened version of your name – it’s perfectly okay, and you won’t get into trouble for not using your full name. Leave out your middle name, and initial, unless all your online and offline branding is consistent with including that middle initial.

Although LinkedIn offers the ability to hide your first name, so only your first initial appears, we suggest you ignore this option. It makes you look like you have something to hide, and being on LinkedIn is perfectly acceptable these days, it doesn’t automatically mean you are on the hunt for a new job. Some people make the mistake of trying to include a keyword between their first and last name to increase their chances of being found in the search results. We recommend you avoid this, as it looks unprofessional.

http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/are-there-fake-profiles-on-linkedin-233/


3. Headline

Your Profile Headline is the single most important piece of real estate you have, and you need to brand it as such. Your headline appears just next to your name in search results. Don’t just put your company name and title here, your headline should be customised to align with your objective for being on LinkedIn in the first place.

Instructions:

If you are happy in your current role, you want to promote the products and services of your company.

If you manage a particular product, genre or market, put those details in your headline.

If you are actively seeking a new job, and are happy to let the world know you are available, type “{Insert Job Title}: Seeking New Opportunities”

If you are discretely seeking a new job role, and don’t want anyone to know you are actively seeking positions, use words to describe yourself as the ideal candidate, eg “Results Driven Sales Executive with 15+ years of proven success”

Your headline needs to be strategically branded, this is the most important 120 characters you’ve got to use. Considering this, it may be appropriate to include your key branding statement here, or you can add information about your profession and indicate your objective for being on LinkedIn. Enter searchable keywords to increase your visibility. If you’re not sure what to include, LinkedIn provides some generic examples, and it can also help to search for others who may have similar objectives or professional backgrounds for headline inspiration. Simply search for others in your industry with similar titles and see what they include in their headlines for ideas. One last reminder: make use of the entire 120 characters to optimize your search results.

4. Location (Country/Post Code) The postcode you enter is used in searches when trying to locate someone, or some service, a certain distance away from your address. Take a moment to consider what to put here, as your potential customers / employers use this field to filter out results based on geographical location. So if you’re office is located in the outer-south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, but you want to attract potential clients from all over Melbourne, then we recommend you insert the CBD postcode of 3000. This way, you will appear in more search results, and your LinkedIn profile will draw in more enquiries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand


5. Industry In this section, you are asked to be decisive about the industry that you belong to. Many of us might have worked for a company that represents multiple industries, or you could be responsible for developing business in an industry in which your company wants to launch a new business. Pick the industry that closest represents your company. If your company belongs to a few different industries, then simply choose the industry sector that you want to be associated with. It helps to think in the minds of your target market, and decide on what industry they would search under to find someone with the products/services that they are seeking.


6. Summary Once people are impressed with your headline, they will then go onto read your summary. The summary is what helps people decide how they will view you and your company. This is your chance to tell the world who you, are. The summary has a prominent location within your LinkedIn profile, so it is used to promote the brand that you would like to be known for. Instructions: Unlike a professional bio, your LinkedIn summary must be written in the first person, as LinkedIn is a social media platform where one to one business networking takes place.

1. To gain the reader’s immediate attention, we sometimes suggest you start with an interesting fact about your industry/product that very few people know, or even type in a motto that you live by, eg

Our motto could say :

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ― Confucius

2. Your LinkedIn summary should promote your professional background by detailing your expertise in the industry, products, or discipline about which you hope customers will contact you. We suggest your summary be a cross between what you would insert into your cover letter, and the overview paragraph of your resume. It needs to contain the top 15 skills and keywords found within the job descriptions / job adverts of the typical job roles you’d be interested to apply for.

3. List relevant achievements that you know would impress your target audience (such as hiring managers for your ideal job).

4. To make your summary section easy to read, we suggest using 2 or 3 different character symbols to promote special points.

♦ ● ○ • ◦ ■ □ ▪ ▫ ► ✓✔① ② ③

5. Finally, we recommend you have a call to action, let people know who you are interested in connecting up with, and how they can contact you.

If you are a business owner with staff, you may ask your staff to copy and paste a paragraph that is keyword loaded and strategically branded so your employees are portraying the same message that your company profile and other online marketing sites are sending. Although you can’t force your employees to use your content, they will usually be fine with it, especially if they understand the benefits of having a strong and congruent LinkedIn message. Many summaries also have a ‘specialties’ list at the bottom of their summary. We advise that 10 – 15 keywords used to make up this list. You may want to include some industry-specific and then some skill-specific keywords. Our biggest recommendation is to know the keywords that people use to find someone with your skill set, and then to make sure that you use them in the summary section. Just think that your LinkedIn profile is just another page on the internet, and the same rules apply with SEO. Google will rank your profile higher than anyone else’s if it uses the right keywords.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15321.Confucius


7. Skill Endorsements This section lets your connections validate the strengths found on your own profile. Skill endorsements are a simple and effective way of building your professional brand and engaging your network. They also work extremely well for optimising your profile as the skills should reflect the keywords that recruiters will be using to search for someone with your expertise. Scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section on your own profile to see endorsements you've received. You can add any skill to this section. Accumulating a high number of endorsements for a skill adds credibility to your profile, and shows that your professional network recognizes you have that skill.

Adding Skills that Your Connections Have Endorsed You For

Your connections can endorse you for a skill or expertise that isn't listed on your profile. You'll see these skills in a blue box at the top of your profile. Click the X next to any you don't want to add, then click Add to Profile to add the listed skills to your profile. These items won't be visible to others until you choose to add them to your profile.

Giving Endorsements

Endorsing others is a great way to recognize your colleagues for the skills you’ve seen them demonstrate. It helps contribute to the strength of their profile, and increases the likelihood they’ll be discovered for opportunities related to the skills their connections know they possess. Endorsing your colleagues also helps keep strong connections with the people in your network. You may find that after endorsing a colleague from the past, it’s easier to reach out to them because you’ve recently been in touch.

Display the Order of Skill Endorsements To reorder the skills on your profile: 1) Move your cursor over Profile at

the top of your homepage and select Edit Profile.

2) Scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section and click the Edit icon in the upper right.

3) Move your cursor over the skill you’d like to move, click on and drag it to re-order. You may do this for each skill you’d like to reorder.

4) Click Save.

Removing a Skill Endorsement To remove an endorsement of someone's skill, first go to their profile and scroll to the Skills & Endorsements section of their profile: 1) Under Top Skills, move your cursor over the blue + sign next to the skill. Remove Endorsement

will appear and you can click to remove it. 2) For skills under..... also knows about, move your cursor over the blue + sign next to the skill. It

will change to a - sign, which you can click to remove the endorsement. 3) Your connection will not be notified if you remove an endorsement. You can remove an

endorsement even if you're no longer connected to the person.


Hiding and Unhiding a Skill Endorsement Sometimes people will endorse you for skills that are not relevant to where you want to go in your career. Many people just go through the list of someone’s skills list and click everything without thinking. For example, I have been endorsed for MS Word, and Business Management – these are skills that I don’t really need highlighted in my profile, as my target market don’t need this from me. You can choose to hide or unhide your skill endorsements. 1) Move your cursor over Profile at the top of your

homepage and select Edit Profile. 2) Scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section

and click the Edit icon. 3) Click the Manage Endorsements link. This is next to Add & Remove. 4) Click on a skill in the left column to reveal the connections who endorsed you for that skill. You

may need to use the scroll bar on the left side of the box to view skills further down in the list. 5) Uncheck the box next to any people whose endorsements you want to hide. Or, check the box

next to any you want to unhide. 6) Note: You may check or uncheck the box next to show/hide all endorsements to take action on

all endorsements under one skill at once. 7) Click Save. 8) Click Done editing in the top section of your profile. There isn’t a way to remove the Endorsements feature from your profile at this time. However, you can choose to hide all of your endorsements by default. This will keep all existing and new endorsements from ever displaying on your profile. If you don't want a specific person to endorse you, you can remove the connection between the two of you. They will not be notified if you break the connection.

Skill Endorsements Email Notifications You will receive email notifications for skill endorsements from your connections by default. To change these notifications: Move your cursor over your profile photo in the top right of your homepage, and select Privacy & Settings. For verification purposes, you may need to sign in again.

1) Click the Communications side tab on the left next to the envelope icon. 2) Click the Set the Frequency of Emails link. 3) Click Notifications to expand the options below it, and find the Endorsements section. 4) Select No Email to stop notifications or Individual Email to restart them. 5) Click Save Changes.


8. Experience This section is where readers will continue with if they are looking for validation of what you have claimed in your summary. It’s the experience section that will showcase your demonstrated experience and success with the companies that you have worked with over the last 15+ years. People who are very interested in knowing more about you will read this section, and they will want to read about the scope of work you have been involved with, the challenges you have had to overcome and the initiatives that you have devised to help companies meet their objectives and goals. It is here that your LinkedIn profile looks a little like your resume. It’s here that you list your job titles, company names and dates that you worked with each company. You would obviously take out the confidential information regarding revenue amounts etc, so it is written in more general terms. As you start adding your professional experience, your current position is what will appear at the top of your work profile. Your current position also appears within the search results, so it is imperative that you list the organisation you currently represent. Follow your current work experience with details about your previous experience including company name, title, dates worked, and a description of your position. Since potential

clients will see the description, don’t be shy when listing your responsibilities at your current company as well as how you can help potential clients. To effectively brand yourself, you will need to include details that support the information you have included in your profile’s headline. This is not just a copy of your resume. Rather, you need to show off both your company’s and your own personal professional achievements in enough detail to entice someone to contact you and others representing your company.

We recommend that you go back as far as 15 – 20 years on your LinkedIn profile, and there are three key reasons for this:

a) Clients may be looking for someone who has industry expertise or knowledge that you acquired in previous roles. So even if you think that a certain job was not congruent to your career path – include it on your LinkedIn profile.

b) Previous work colleagues have the ability to connect with you by searching on the names of companies you once worked with.

c) It gives you the opportunity to use those powerful keywords again and again and again, increasing your chances of being found and contacted for opportunities that you most desire.

Special Note to Business Owners In the past, many business owners and senior level management of staff failed to fill this section in, which meant that they were losing the opportunity to illustrate where and how their expertise has been founded. They failed to leverage the opportunity to use key-word rich terms to describe their experiences, skills set and knowledge, not to mention the products and services that they are currently promoting within their current role.

9. Education

This section helps you build credibility on your own personal brand. This is important if you work in an industry where tertiary qualifications, or


recent certifications are deemed important. It also helps old class mates get in touch, which may lead to further opportunities that you never knew existed. For this reason, we recommend you include your high school details as well. To add a school, begin typing the name of the institution in the box that asks for the school name. A dropdown box will appear as you begin typing. Choose your school from this list if it is available; if it isn’t, type in the name of your school in its entirety. There are also fields to enter your, fields of study, dates attended, activities and societies, and additional notes.

10. Websites, Public Profile URLs & Your Contact Settings Your 3 Website / URLs: You can list up to 3 URLs to appear on your profile take advantage of this by listing the URL for your main product or a special landing page for visitors on LinkedIn. Note that you can also customise the text label description or anchor text of each URL site that you enter. Use this to your benefit, and help your target URLs become more search engine optimised. You should also be aware that every profile comes with a default pubic profile URL, which is automatically assigned to you. You can edit this and claim your own personalised URL now. For example, your public profile can be changed so it’s easier to remember: eg. www.linkedin.com/in/bonniepower. Include this as part of your email signature, or on your business card, resume or professional profile to drive more traffic to your profile and achieve a connection with any new professionals you meet. Contact Settings:

This is where you tell people how you want to be contacted. If you are open to being contacted by potential clients or employers, or you want to create certain types of professional relationships, let people know that in this section. If you prefer to keep your network closed, and don’t want to receive invitations from virtual networkers, this is the place to say so.

Make it easy for potential clients and interested parties to contact you by including your mobile number and your personal or work email address.

Just a word of warning on including your email address, there are some internet marketing companies that ‘scrape’ email addresses and include them

on a listing to send spam emails to.

Unfortunately, this is the inconvenience of making it easy for your target market to contact you. Your email provider usually identifies spam emails and throws them into a SPAM folder anyway, but we thought it was worth mentioning.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bonniepower


Stage 2. Taking Action with Your New LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn helps you by providing a gauge on how well you have completed your profile, and advises what else you might consider doing to your profile. Once you have set up the top 10 elements of your LinkedIn profile, we suggest you immediately move on with Stage 2 of your LinkedIn Profile.

1. Provide a Recent Status Update The status update appears on your profile as a white box next to your photo. You enter content for this area on your Linked home page in the box that prompts you to ‘share an update’. Show you are still relevant and active in your area of expertise. If you are going to an industry event or engaged in some professional development activities, this is a good place to tell your network what you are up to. Some people with Twitter accounts may be tempted to link their tweets to the LinkedIn status update, but we strongly recommend avoiding this, as you don’t want to blast your network with irrelevant information. When you read something interesting, and believe that your network will benefit from reading it also, this is the area to share your findings and provide a link to anyone interested in reading the article. So you’re profile remains top of mind for your target audience, make an effort to update your status at least once or twice a week.

2. Secure 3 Recommendations

Recommendations are like testimonials and we suggest you ask for them from anyone who has been a customer, colleague, stakeholder or manager of your work. Recommendations validate that you are who you say you are, it builds your own personal brand with credibility. The more recommendations you have, the more likely potential customers/ employers will contact you. We suggest you develop a strategy when asking for recommendations.

1. List the top 5 attributes you believe that people look for when they considering whether you

and your products/services will help them. It could be level of expertise, reliability, after-sales support, use of initiative to solve problems, ability to manage change, years of experience, product knowledge, industry knowledge, or people skills.

2. Write down the names of 10 people that you have helped on a grand scale, or who know that you are great at what you do. These people are probably already singing your praises, and you know that they would recommend you to prospective clients / employers if they were in a position to do so. Ideally, this list of names will be a combination similar to below:

I. your current supervisor / manager, II. 2 of your current clients,

III. 2 current work colleagues, IV. 1 or 2 suppliers or stakeholders that you are in regular contact with, V. one person who works in another department than you, but is ranked higher in the

company than you currently are, VI. your old boss / manager,

VII. 2 colleagues from your previous role.


3. Now fold a piece of paper in half and in the first column, list down the 5 attributes, and in the second column, list down the names of the 10 people. Now decide which people would recommend you for which attributes.

4. Send a connection request with these 10 people if you are not already connected with them on LinkedIn. If they don’t have a LinkedIn profile, they will be asked to create one in order to provide you with a recommendation (this takes about 10 minutes to get a basic profile activated). You will need their email address if they don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet.

5. Send a ‘request for a recommendation’ message to each of these 10 people via LinkedIn, and explain that you want to showcase ‘xyz’ abilities and attributes within your LinkedIn profile. Ask if they feel okay to write out a recommendation based on this attribute. You can make it easy for them to write you a recommendation by perhaps even drafting something to help get them started. There are a couple of fantastic formulas to follow when writing an effective recommendation, and if you are feeling stuck on what you want to propose as a recommendation, please feel free to ask for more information on this.

We recommend that you strive to have 2-3 recommendations on each of your last few job roles. This promotes that idea that you have being consistently good in your work, which means that future clients / employers can trust that you will be reliable and even outstanding in the work you do for them.

Don’t make the mistake of putting this in ‘the too hard basket’.

These recommendations are golden, and if you aim to have around 10 recommendations that cover the most important criteria that your target client / employers are evaluating you on, then you are making it easy for them to believe that you are the right person for the job. This strategy will help to pivot your career and the success of your company, and great results will be experienced if you take the extra effort to implement this plan.

How to Request a Recommendation You can ask your connections to recommend your work from the Ask for Recommendations link which can be accessed through your Privacy and Settings page.

1. Move your cursor over your photo in the top right of your homepage and select Privacy & Settings. You may be prompted to sign in to your account.

2. Click the Manage your Recommendations link under Helpful Links in the middle of the page.

3. Click the Ask for recommendations near the top of the page.

4. Select a position from the "What do you want to be recommended for?" dropdown list. If a position or school isn't listed, you can click job or school beneath the dropdown box to add it to your profile and the dropdown list.

5. In the "Who do you want to ask?" section, enter names of connections into the text field or click the address book icon to search for connections. In your address book's Choose Connections view, check the boxes next to the names you want to add and then click Finished. When you request a recommendation from multiple people in one message, each recipient will receive a separate message.

6. Enter your request in the Create your message section. You can use the message provided or customize it.

7. Click Send. There's no limit to the total number of recommendations you can request or receive. However, you cannot withdraw a request for a recommendation once you've sent it, nor can you request a new recommendation from the same person for the same position if you already have one pending their response.


3. Make Connections The key purpose of LinkedIn is to make it easy for you to network with the right people. If you have been working for more than 5 years, you will know a plethora of people, now it’s time to connect with them on LinkedIn. After you have exhausted your list of people you know, you can then go on and make new connections. Some people are still a little worried about the ramifications of connecting up with people on LinkedIn. They’re not sure what will happen or what it means if they accept an invitation to connect. If you feel this way, we suggest you read “Developing a LinkedIn Connection Policy”.


How to Strategically Build Your Network We suggest you define exactly what type of connections you want to acquire and describe them by characteristics that are easily searchable such as:

Geographical area (within 160km)

Industry Type

We suggest you read the profiles, and use your own message when requesting a connection (avoid using the generic message). Once you’ve exhausted this search method, you can then target people who are currently working at particular companies, within the industries that you want to target. When you push the ‘connect’ button, LinkedIn will ask how you know the person. Many people just click on the ‘friend’ option which allows you to send the invitation. But perhaps a more professional way is to see what groups the person is a member of, and then organising for you to become a member of the same group.

3. Join Groups - We suggest you use our proven strategy for developing a strong industry network. It works by you researching the profiles of the people that you either want to do business with, or want to work with. You see what groups they are members of, and you decide which of those groups you are interested to join. Once the group has accepted you to join, you then go back to the people that you are wanting to develop a future relationship with, and you propose to connect, as you are both members of the same group.

This is one of the easiest ways to connect with someone who you have never dealt with before, but are keen to follow up with in the future.


Choose groups from a variety of the 4 key considerations: Geographically relevant Melbourne (Australia) professional network Networking Australia (Only!) Networking in Melbourne Melbourne Networking Events Industry specific Australian IT Industry Consultants Network West Australian Mining, Oil & Gas Worldwide Management Consultants (WMC) Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups Big Four Accounting Consulting - Accounting And Finance Professionals (AAFP) Finance Plus: Private Equity, Venture Capital and M&A news Finance Club Business Analytics Civil engineers Civil Engineers and Drafters Australia Education/ Professional Development RMIT Alumni Executive Women Australia Small Businesses Forum Womeninbusiness.com.au If you are secretly interested in finding out about new job opportunities, we suggest you join groups that relate to jobs and careers. On this point, make sure your privacy settings are turned on to high. Here are the most popular groups for job seekers: Seeking New Job Opportunities Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections! Outplacement & Career Transition Talent HQ Australian HR & Recruitment Network Treasury / Finance Careers

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3245568&trk=my_groups-b-grp-v

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Job-Openings-Job-Leads-Job-1976445?trk=my_groups-b-grp-v


http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Talent-HQ-92614?trk=my_groups-b-grp-v


http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1812147&trk=anet_ug_hm


Optimising Your LinkedIn Profile A primary aspect of inbound marketing on LinkedIn is making sure that you (and your employees) appear in any given LinkedIn people search by optimising their keywords in their profiles. Just as google changes its search algorithm regularly, the same is true for LinkedIn, and it’s best not to think of any magic formula that will give you the top search results for any given keyword. That said, LinkedIn is a real-time search engine, so by changing keywords in your profile, you can quickly test how you perform compared to the competition. But just like Google search results, your ‘competition’ is a moving landscape, so it’s best not to dwell too long on this issue. The best way to optimise your LinkedIn profile is to ensure your top 10 – 15 keywords are included in the following areas of your profile:

1. Headline 2. Summary 3. Skills and Endorsements 4. Experience (especially under your current company).

You may want to consider creating a standard keyword-optimised description of your company that your employees can voluntarily use in their profiles to help them with their individual inbound marketing. Power Strategy # 1 If you want to achieve the very best search results, our suggestion is to conduct a keyword search and take a look at where your preferred keywords appear in the profiles that appear in the top ten search results. What you will find is that profiles are loaded with keywords in particular areas. We suggest you determine what your # 1 Keyword is, and use it in the following areas:

1. Include your best keyword 2 or 3 times within the headline 2. Include your best keyword in your LinkedIn profile’s URL 3. Repeating the keyword in your summary and list of

skills 4. Use the keyword as part of your current job title 5. Include the keyword as part of the description for

multiple companies at which you currently work, and within companies that you have previously worked.

6. Include the keyword as part of your interests, honours and awards, groups and associations, and education. Keywords have strong search algorithm value in these areas listed above, so it’s wise to use them. Just remember that a human being will be reading your profile, and that person reading it might be your ideal client / employer, so make sure your content flows and engages the reader to take action after reviewing your profile. On top of these suggestions, there are a couple of other places that you could ‘stuff’ keywords to boost your SEO and search results, such as within your name …but we suggest you keep your online branding professional and avoid this cheap trick. If you are an employer, you will want to apply these methodologies to each profile. If you are curious to see how their current profiles rate, you could easily perform a search within your geographical area, and see if any of your employee’s names appear in the first page of search results.


Stage 3 – Three Straightforward Strategies to Build Your Brand

Strategy 1 - Participate in Group Discussions We advocate that you share your ideas, ask questions, write and upload small articles that showcase your opinions and knowledge in the field that you work within. You can share thoughts, articles or other content-rich websites from your homepage and several other places. This is sometimes know n as posting or sharing an update. You can use the share box to share a wide variety of information: From your homepage: You can use the share box near your photo near the top of the homepage.

1. Click inside the text box and type in your remark. Text is limited to 600 characters maximum. 2. To attach a link, type in the URL. Allow a few seconds for a summary to display automatically. 3. Select an option under Share with:

Select Public to show the update to everyone in your extended network including your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections.

Select Connections to show the update to only your 1st degree connections.

Select Public + Twitter to have your update visible on both your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. Note: Only the first 140 characters will be visible on Twitter. Learn more about Twitter on LinkedIn. You can manage your Twitter settings from the Profile section of your Privacy & Settings page.

4. Click Share. An update will be broadcast to your network's homepage feed. You can select who can see your activity.

From discussions in your groups: You can start a discussion from your group's Discussions page.

1. Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your homepage and select Groups. 2. Click the group's name. 3. Enter your topic or question in the "Start a discussion or share something with the group"

box (required). 4. Enter details in the "Add more details" box (required). 5. Add a link to a website by typing in the URL and clicking Attach (optional). 6. Click Share.

Your group might have a special section for sharing job postings and promotions.

Maximum character limits for key fields on the Discussions page.

Start a discussion - 200 characters.

Add more details - 4000 characters.


Strategy 2 - Create Your Own LinkedIn Group

We suggest you contribute to your company’s website content and then link it to your LinkedIn Group content. Just remember to ensure that the content is relevant for the community of LinkedIn professionals you have connected with. Make your content valuable and it will spark engagement and initiate discussions within your group. Pay attention to frequency of posting, however, because if you are the only one submitting content and it is always from your own company’s website, group members might not stick around. There is an announcement section that should be only reserved for calls to action, but if you are trying to drive traffic back to your website for a special campaign, event, or service that is both relevant to your audience and builds a unique experience such as a discount or value-added extra for fellow LinkedIn Group members, you might want to experiment with this.

Instructions on How to Create Your Own Group:

You can start a new group by filling out the fields on the Create a Group page.

You'll be the owner and manager of any group you create, but you can also assign other members to be managers or moderators.

Instructions to create a group:

1. Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your homepage and select Groups. 2. Click the Create a group button on the right. 3. Fill in the requested information. A red asterisk means it's required.

4. Click the Create button to create your group as an open group or a members-only group.

Strategy 3 - Upload Examples of Your Work

If you are a creative, or have authored publications, you can display samples of your work on your profile. Items can be added, edited, moved or removed from your Edit Profile page. To add media samples to the Summary, Education, and Experience sections on your profile:

1. Move your cursor over Profile at the top of your homepage and select Edit Profile.

2. Scroll down to the section you want to add a sample to and move your cursor over the add media icon (looks like a square with a plus sign).

If you don't see the add media icon, you don't have access to this feature yet. It will be released to you later.

3. Select Upload File if you'd like to display the media sample on your profile OR select Add Link if you want to link to content that exists on another web site.

If you chose to add a link, type or paste the link to your content into the Add a link field.

If you chose to upload a file, select the file from your desktop. A picture of your content will display with pre-filled Title and Description fields.

This process may take several seconds. You must use a compatible file type or content provider for best results. You can edit the content in uploaded files.


4. Click Save. An update may appear on the homepages of your network, letting others know you added the media file or link.

To edit the Title and Description fields of your media sample:


2. Scroll down to the media sample you'd like to edit and click the Edit icon in its lower right corner.

3. Click inside the Title and Description fields to edit the text.

4. Click Save.

The image and its link cannot be edited. If you choose to link to content from an unsupported provider, you won't be able to add a description. The media may also not display when clicked on. A Show Original button will display instead, leading the viewer to the content on the original website. To move media samples from one section to another:


2. Scroll down to the sample you'd like to move and click the Edit icon in its lower right corner.

3. Click the dropdown menu under Move this media to and choose which section of your profile you'd like to move it to.

4. Click Save.

To remove the media sample from your profile:


2. Scroll down to the sample you'd like to remove and click the Edit icon in its lower right corner.

3. Click Remove this Media and then click Yes, remove it.

To rearrange items within the same section of your profile, click Edit on your profile and drag the items to rearrange them in the order you want.

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