Optimize your LinkedIn Profile
A couple of weeks ago I made a presentation to the Southern New England Chapter of the PMI called “Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile”. Since I wasn’t a LinkedIn guru, I needed to get smart fast. I did lots of on-line reading which was helpful but I really came up to speed when I bought and read several books on LinkedIn. Two are worth picking up depending on your level of LinkedIn knowledge. If you’re relatively new to using LinkedIn pick up Patrice-Anne Rutledge’s book Sams Teach Yourself LinkedIn. This is a very straightforward, easy to read guide to the basics of LinkedIn. This book covers the full gamut from creating a LinkedIn account to using some of the most advanced features in very short chapters which are designed to take only 10 minutes to read.
However, If you have some experience with LinkedIn but want to really optimize your results you should pick up Jason Alba’s I’m on LinkedIn, Now What??? Jason has excellent suggestions for among other things; improving your profile, developing a connection strategy, managing your recommendations, participating in “Groups”, and asking and answering questions in “Answers”. In addition to the many suggestions for using LinkedIn, Jason offers related tips to improve your “personal brand” such as adding your LinkedIn public profile URL to your email signature. It would be considered bad taste to attach a copy of your resume to every email you send out but including your LinkedIn profile page is completely acceptable and may accomplish the same goal of promoting your personal brand.
If you’re too digital to actually pick up a book (you could get either for your Kindle) you can check out these web sites that also provide some nice LinkedIn advice: Guy Kawasaki blog post “10 Ways to Use LinkedIn“, Andrew Brandt’s “The Job Seeker’s Guide to Online Networking and Using LinkedIn”, or Phil Rosenburg’s “Build a LinkedIn Profile That You Can be Proud Of”.
Joe Devine, Partner, Bridge Technical Solutions