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Avoid These Actions on LinkedIn if You Want to be Noticed

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Apart from the resume, LinkedIn is the most important tool or platform for you to promote yourself to key career decision-makers. First impressions count, and one error could raise red flags. Your credibility and professionalism are crucial. Avoid these actions if you want to be noticed on LinkedIn.

Showing your political leanings and ranting incessantly.

We are living in an interesting age where politics appear to be a divider more than ever before. Yes, we all have our own opinions of the way politicians should run the country. But stay clear of posting political messages, whether they be your positive or negative opinions. Hiring authorities also have their political inclinations, and your leaning maybe opposite to theirs. Yes, discrimination still exists.

Posting personal photos.

LinkedIn is a professional site where you will be judged accordingly for all your activities, posts, shares or other comments. A picture is worth a thousand words! Perhaps we should equate that to a salary? A picture is worth $400,000? Could be more, could be less.

Posting personal, family or other social pictures should be left for other social media platforms and pictures from your college activities are certainly not acceptable.

Your profile picture should show you in the attire you would wear to work. It should be by yourself, without kids, spouse or struggling fish!

Using your LinkedIn network connections to build an email distribution list.

It is totally unacceptable to add your connections’ e-mails to your list. Not only is it highly unprofessional, the action also contravenes GDPR, which requires the person’s permission to add them to your list.

Being negative about other LinkedIn connections.

This is not a site to air all your frustrations or portray your negativity. Keep your opinions about others, some of whom you may have met in-person, or even the boss who fired you, to yourself. LinkedIn is a platform where you secure and build trust and respect. Don’t blow others’ perception of you through simply one post.

To wrap it up, this is YOUR platform to drive authenticity. Use common sense in all your LinkedIn activities, and be prudent in your language, who you invite, and who you accept to connect with.

For a free, no-obligation, no sales pitch resume critique, send your resume via LinkedIn or via email to martin@aneliteresume.com

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Getting Noticed?

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Is Your LinkedIn Profile Getting Noticed

Do you question if the hassle of maintaining your LinkedIn profile is worth it? Perhaps you are not seeing the networking output  you hoped to gain via LinkedIn. Therefore, you might be feeling like, because you are not generating the results you hoped, it is  a waste to invest your time and energy when there may be other avenues with better results.

Rest assured. With a few quick fixes, you can bolster your LinkedIn profile to produce the results you are hoping for.

Five Tips to  Ensure Your LinkedIn Profile Gets Noticed:

1. Professional Profile Picture

First, your profile picture is essential to getting noticed. Unlike  typical photos on other social media sites, your LinkedIn profile picture must be professional. After all, this picture offers a first-impression of your professional personal brand. If it is less than professional, it will cause potential contacts to question your professionalism.

Secondly, you should be the focus of your profile picture. For example, if someone met you at a networking function, you want them to be able to immediately and easily identify you from your profile picture. Therefore, a picture of you standing at the top of a mountain may be nice, but it is not appropriate for your LinkedIn profile picture.

2. Customize Your URL

When creating your LinkedIn profile, you are provided a generic URL. This URL usually consists of your name followed by random letters and numbers. Personalize your URL to garner attention while showcasing your personal brand. Eliminate the default characters and shorten the URL to your firstname+lastname. Are you an EMBA grad? You could personalize to joe.smith.EMBA.

3. Use Industry Related Keywords

Similar to website SEO, it is critical to optimize your LinkedIn profile with keywords specific to your industry. Through optimization your profile will appear in more searches allowing others to find and connect with you.

4. Build Connections with New Contacts

As you create your LinkedIn profile, you have the option to sync your email list. Doing so with your professional contacts will send an invite for them to connect with you on LinkedIn. This is an effective way to connect with people you already know and use those connections to expand your network.

Furthermore, expanding your network requires you to invest time to create authentic human connections. When you interact with new contacts, personalize your communication with them. Tell them  who you are and why you are interested in connecting. Most importantly, avoid generic invitations as people will write it off immediately. Connection is critical to building a strong network.

5. Promote Your Personal Brand

Lastly, consistently promote your personal brand through LinkedIn. The appearance of your page should be uniform throughout all your branding materials. Engage with articles through posting and commenting to demonstrate your own experience and expertise. This allows your connections to get to know you, engage with you on LinkedIn, and foster positive professional relationships.

Is Social Media Damaging Your Career? 3 Questions to Ask Before You Post

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Is Social Media Damaging Your Career? 3 Questions to Ask Before You Post

The world of social media is nothing new, and it seems to be evolving every day. As a result, litigations, resignations, and dismissals due to postings deemed inappropriate or offensive on social media are becoming more commonplace.

Therefore, now more than ever, it is important you take the necessary steps to ensure that social media is used to advance your career rather than hinder it in any way.

Potentially Career Saving Questions to Ask Before You Post:

Would I want my employer/potential employer to see this?

It is no secret that employers comb through social media to determine if candidates are the right fit for the job. This means that your resume can be chock full of accomplishments and your interview responses can be strong, but if something on your social media does not sit right with decisions makers, it could cost you a job.

Anything you post—from articles and shares to pictures and off-hand comments—is up for scrutiny. Take the time to think about every post or share before doing so. Be mindful of how you repost or share information on social media, and be sure to add in your own perspective if the ideas in the post could be misinterpreted.

Additionally, monitor your own posts, tweets, and comments. They reflect who you are, your values, and could end up being an employer’s deciding factor of whether or not they hire you.

Does this fit my personal brand?

Social media—especially a professional site such as LinkedIn—is a great tool to garner attention, seduce your audience, and advance your career. However, this only works to your benefit if your social media profiles align with your personal brand.

Social media often portrays your values both professionally and personally. Therefore, it is critical the content you post reflects your values as you communicate them through your personal brand.

Could my words be construed as harmful to any particular person or group?

The types of posts that generate the most negative attention seem to malign a particular person or group. Refrain from negative posts about employees, team members, former or potential employers, and any particular group. Such posts will potentially cause damage to your current position and any position you hope to hold in the future.

AVOID THESE MISTAKES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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AVOID THESE MISTAKES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Every day, I browse through the three main platforms I use, and you should use, for career management:  LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. There isn’t a day that goes by without me finding someone who harms their personal brand, insults someone, or shares inaccurate information. Do they do it just to make me chuckle?

Social media is for communicating your brand and for sharing and relaying positive and educational messages, not for posting your personal feelings about religion, politics or other issues. Yes, you can have fun on social media, but be careful with your posts and presence. Remember, your social media accounts will be viewed, evaluated and scrutinized prior to all interviews today. Don’t cause yourself to be counted out of potential opportunities where you might be the perfect candidate simply because you posted something foolish or you don’t want to be present on the platforms. Here are three mistakes to avoid:

#1. Being non-existent

Several years ago, during my presentations, there was a time when I posed the question, “Who is not on LinkedIn?” Hands went up in masses. Today, I ask the same question and very few hands go up, which is good for all of us. If you are not on LinkedIn, as an expert in career management, I will tell you that you are committing career suicide. LinkedIn can bring you massive value. You have the opportunity to network with 600 million other users on this platform. It is the first stop an executive recruiter or HR professional makes in learning about you. I would very much encourage you to also be on Twitter and Facebook which are becoming increasingly important for viewing by career decision makers as they process your application or are looking for talent.

It is great to have a profile on all three of these platforms, but are you active on all three of these platforms? A big difference.

#2. Not being consistent

Again, a cause of joviality for me when I cruise through peoples’ profiles is seeing contradicting information listed on one of their profiles vs another with yet something completely different on their resume. What does this tell me if I was your career hiring influencer? It demonstrates a lack of attention to detail and indifference or sloppiness in the way you construct your communications throughout the platforms. Keep everything consistent while remaining positive.

#3. Sharing inappropriate content, comments and pictures

Don’t shy away from expressing your personality and opinions on various topics, but don’t focus solely on your beliefs as far as religion, ethics, politics or gender differences are concerned. Keep your posts to what a future employer or executive recruiter could warm up to and stay away from opportunities for employers to misinterpret your social media dialogue. Never give the impression that you could damage a potential employer’s reputation through online conversations. Be active. Be professional. Inject fun. Inject humour. Show that you are an expert and committed to keeping your career and your personal life in a positive light.