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Is LinkedIn Holding Back Your Job Search?

LinkedIn wasn’t designed to do anything but help you advance your career and share your personal brand with current and future network contacts. In fact, I can personally testify to the power of LinkedIn in a career search, for it was LinkedIn that enabled me to make the connection that led to my current role.

Therefore, I don’t believe that LinkedIn itself could ever be guilty of holding back your job search. However, what I do believe is that you may not be leveraging LinkedIn and its many features effectively in your search efforts to find and secure your next opportunity.

Here are 15 ways you can use LinkedIn to accelerate your career search:

1. Complete your profile 100%. LinkedIn provides you a step-by-step guide to complete your profile. Not only does completing your profile 100% make you look more professional, but it also, helps optimize your placement in LinkedIn’s People Search results.

Here’s what you need to have a 100% complete profile:

  • Your Current Position
  • Two Past Positions
  • Education
  • Profile Summary
  • Profile Photo
  • Your Specialties/Skills
  • 3 Recommendations

2. Add a professional photo. Don’t forget to add a face to your name and to the brand you are creating on your LinkedIn profile. This helps build a stronger and more personal connection between you and your profile viewers. Also ensure that your profile picture is professional so to maximize your first impression.

3. Proofread your profile for grammar, punctuation and capitalization. Make sure to review your entire profile a number of times to avoid missing any grammatical errors. Ask someone you know to review your profile for an outside perspective and for an extra pair of eyes to catch possible mistakes or opportunities for improvement.

4. Feature your personal brand or statement in your profile. First of all, in your profile subtitle, don’t miss the opportunity to attract more profile viewers and impress potential employers and career stakeholders by listing yourself as “Finance Professional,” “College Student” or anything else generic or boring. Use this area to share your brand and unique and differentiating value with your network and future target audience. Also, don’t forget about your summary section where you can feature your personal brand and supporting pitch and really hook viewers to read the rest of your profile.

5. Customize your own LinkedIn profile URL. Many professionals forget or neglect to personalize their LinkedIn profile URL with their name and leave the default letters and numbers in place. This looks less professional, but also prevents you from using this in your networking efforts to link your contacts back to your profile.

6. Share links to your websites or other networks. Cross-promote your activities online by adding links from your LinkedIn profile to your website, a blog, your Twitter profile, your VisualCV, or any other site you want to share with your network.

7. Get recommended. LinkedIn allows you to collect short, yet informative recommendations from anyone in your network. This is a great feature that helps you come across as a credible, top professional and/or job candidate.

8. Make your profile public. While your privacy is definitely important, establishing an online presence is essential to being found by others and to advancing your career. Make sure not to make your profile private, or you may miss out on opportunities to be searched and found by potential career stakeholders.

9. Round out your profile. There are a number of ways you can enhance your profile and let your personality and brand shine a little brighter in your LinkedIn Profile. Most importantly, don’t forget to add your interests, hobbies or passions in the Interests area as an additional way to connect with new contacts.

10. Get some apps! Check out the various applications available that can do everything from stream in your tweets and feed in your blog posts to share your past presentations and your recommended reading lists.

11. Join LinkedIn Groups. There are thousands of networking groups on LinkedIn for you to join, whether they be for your college, graduate school, current or past employers, industries, associations, functions, you name it. Join any groups that you think will help you in your career networking and start getting active. Participate in discussions and start your own. Post links to articles and resources that will be helpful to the other members and always look for ways to add value.

12. Conduct informational interviews: Most job seekers forget the power of informational interviews. As you build your network and join new groups on LinkedIn, reach out to these contacts and request a few minutes to discuss their careers, their companies and any career advice they might offer to help you in your own. Many times, these conversations can lead to opportunities not posted on job boards.

13. Use the LinkedIn Jobs section. Don’t forget that LinkedIn has its own job board of both aggregated and exclusive job postings. The great thing about applying through LinkedIn is that 1) many times you can see who posted the job (which can help for follow-up purposes), 2) your profile is only a click away for the reviewers which can help link them to your brand and all of your activities and 3) you can click through to the company and see professionals in your network also employed by the company.

14. Find and follow target companies. LinkedIn’s Companies tab offers a very comprehensive directory of company listings by industry, size, geography and more. Use it to identify contacts at specific companies with whom you can conduct those informational interviews, see if they have job postings and even follow their activity to keep track of any future activity you might be able to leverage to your advantage.

15. Become an Expert on LinkedIn Answers. LinkedIn Answers not only allows you to ask questions to which all of LinkedIn’s members can provide responses, but also allows you to answer others’ questions and get rated as an expert for the information and insight that you share. This is featured on your profile as well showing off your expertise and value to profile viewers.

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

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Brand Insights: Personal & Corporate Branding Workshop w/ @hajjflemings + @appliedstory 01/20/10

Brand Insights was birthed out my desire to provide more personalized attention to entrepreneurs, business leaders, and business owners about branding. One of the big questions I get is that people love Brand Camp but want a one-on-one experience so creating Brand Insights is a way to create that small group environment.

I also wanted to do a project in Detroit and I couldn’t think of a better place than in Detroit Eastern Market FD Lofts.

Learn in-depth insights on how to brand yourself and your business in an energetic 8-hour day. The workshop will be led by two branding and marketing minds (Hajj E. Flemings and Matthew Kruchko) in a unique hands on facilitated environment.

This workshop is limited to 15 like-minded entrepreneurs, business leaders and business owners and will take place in the FD Lofts in the Detroit Eastern Market. The workshop is designed to provide personalized attention in developing and re-thinking your personal and business brands and how to integrate their missions seamlessly.

A large portion of the day will be dedicated to addressing specific personal and corporate branding challenges.
The afternoon will be spent in full consulting mode we will review brand problems or ideas in front of the group so everyone can connect and collaborate in the learning process.
The attendance has been limited to provide great opportunities for quality networking and building valuable relationships.

Schedule

Morning: 8:30am-12pm Personal & Corporate Branding Workshops

Lunch: 12pm-1pm Catered Lunch

Afternoon: 1pm-4:30pm Consulting on Brand Problems/Ideas

Cost: $150 per person

Brand Facilitators

Hajj Flemings – Managing Partner, Brand Camp University

Hajj Flemings: Web HeadshotHajj is the founder of Brand Camp University which runs one of the premier personal branding conference in the Midwest. He is also the author of “The Brand YU Life: Re-thinking Who You Are Through Personal Brand Management” which was selected as one of Fast Company Magazine 2008 Readers Choice Business Books of the year.

He has been featured on Fox 2 News, ESPN.com and BusinessWeek.com and travels nationally speaking as a brand strategist enabling personal and business brands to remain relevant. His clients include Walt Disney, Ford Motor Company, Skechers Footwear, U.S. Department of Defense (Telecom Division). He has spoken at Iowa State University, Davidson College, University of Michigan and numerous colleges and universities around the nation on personal branding, social media and career development.


Matthew Kruchko – Managing Director, AppliedStorytelling

M_Kruchko_updated_photoManaging Director with Applied Storytelling, a leading independent brand and name firm, with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Detroit.

With a deep brand development and marketing background, I help clients to make the most of the continually shifting terrain between customers, communications and channels. As Managing Director of Applied Storytelling, my responsibility is driving brand strategies that help
companies organize their thinking and simplify their communications. My experience in developing branding strategies and executions spans Fortune 500 brands as well as noteworthy consumer and B2B brands in many sectors, including biotech, consumer brands, education, energy, entertainment, financial services, industrials, insurance, non-profits, pharmaceuticals, technology and telecommunications.

Expectations

  • Each attendee will walk away with a brand brief that they have completed with the framework for their personal and corporate brands.
  • Learn best practices on using social media to build brand awareness and market you and your business.
  • Discussion (Q + A) and collaboration on brand challenges of attendees.

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Personal Branding Interview: Rita Benson LeBlanc: Owner - New Orleans Saints (@Official_Saints)


Rita Benson LeBlanc has been recognized as one of the 10-Most Powerful Women in Sports by Forbes. She is the Owner /EVP of the New Orleans Saints and is the granddaughter of Tom Benson the Principal Owner of the New Orleans Saints. I had the honor of interviewing Rita at the Beyond Sport Conference in Chicago, September 28-30, 2010.

Rita has a great story where she has actually earned her stripes and has been instrumental in growing the team’s accumulated annual revenue to $232 million. She began interning for the Saints and in various league offices while still in high school, and went to work for the Saints after college. In 2003 she took over management of the New Orleans VooDoo, the Arena Football League team also owned by Benson, and was named the indoor league’s top executive

Her story is very inspiring as she was worked her way to the top of the NFL (as a team owner) in a male dominated industry. The Saints have also been an inspiration to the nation, Louisiana, and the Gulf Region during Hurricane Katrina and Rita. The Saints have used their team resources, players and finances to help rebuild the community.

As a side note I would like to mention that Rita was very down to earth during the interview process. If she wasn’t credentialed and on the schedule to speak at the Beyond Sport Conference I would have though she was a regular attendee. I appreciate the fact that she wasn’t lost the common touch with all the success she is having with the New Orleans Saints.

To find out more about the New Orleans Saints website I have included the website address below:

Team Website: http://www.neworleanssaints.com/

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Social Media: The Relationship Economy


We all live in a global village in a community that is not bound by geography but trust, where Social Media and social sharing is redefining relationships. Our network consist of a mix of friends that we know in real life and E-quaintances that we have connected with online. It is a common occurrence to strike up a conversion with someone at an event and say aren’t we Facebook friends.

Connected World

In this connected world the line is blurring between the digital and real, professional and personal, public and private. We now spend more time in social networks then we do on email, according to Nielsen it consumes 22.7% of our online activity. This equates to approximately 5 hours per day, which means it is impacting our relationships and decisions. The digital landscape is changing the way we consume our news, build relationships, purchase products, and how we engage in conversations, ‘In the Real World.’

Today we can talk to brands directly online (20% of the tweets mention specific brand names.) When we go to restaurants we can check-in online with location based social networks like Foursquare. We can share with our network where we are eating and our dining experience in real-time.

Building Trust

Let me be clear nothing in the world will ever beat face-to-face interaction. Social Networks however have become a very powerful tool in building trust in an attention-based economy. One of the most valuable currencies that we have is trust and those that are digitally savvy can leverage the power of social networks to build genuine relationships in the real world.

The ability to view a person’s status updates in their social network, their tweets and their online activity tells a lot about their behavior and who they are as a person. Engaging in conversations in social networks has the ability to increase the speed of transactions in developing relationships, doing a business deal, or getting to know someone.

In the final analysis in the digital world that we live in it is not about the Technology. As you look to navigate life on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and in other social networks remember the basics. You are having a conversation, you are connecting with people. How would you talk to someone face to face? Would you walk up to someone for the first time and say hey follow me and by the way would you by this product?

Tips to Remember

1. Talk to people online like you would if you were face to face.

2. Be Authentic

3. Relationships are fragile so treat them with care.

4. Remember that everybody has ulterior motives just make sure your building relationships that are mutually beneficial.

5. Relationships are not measured in quantity but quality.

Remember with every tweet, status update, comment, blog post and face-to face interaction you are either building or tearing down relationships.

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Top 20-iPad Apps for Personal Branding, Entrepreneurs + Biz Professionals

What is an iPad? Is it an oversized iPhone? Is it a MacBook Pro with fewer features? I listen to the critics and the pundits talk about the iPad and weigh in and give their opinion.

What is the iPad to Me

“The iPad is not a tool but a ball of Clay. Creative Thinkers will re-imagine uses for the iPad and disrupt industries.”

- Hajj E. Flemings -Personal Brand Strategist

The iPad is the latest is a series of disruptive products produced by Apple: iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad. The iPad is set to disrupt the media, publishing, entertainment and business industries.

I am writing this blog post as an owner and practitioners of the iPad. I have read quite a few posts from people suggesting the top apps and it is clear to me that they don’t own an iPad or have used it for any period of time. ( I will now get off my soap box : )

As a personal brand, entrepreneur, and consultant I have found that it helps me to manage my business in very creative and efficient ways. Listed below are the 22-apps that I have used and believe are critical business use.

Productivity

1. Time Master – Time Master is a great time management app that is great for consultants, entrepreneurs, attorneys, and contractors. This app allows you to track time and expenses and export billing to excel. You have the ability to add modules that will allow you to export to Quickbooks.

2. Sound Note – Sound Note is an app that allows you to take written notes and record audio notes and save them as M4A format. The app allows you to track what you were typing and drawing while recording the audio.

3. Text Plus – The Text Plus iPad app allows you to send text messages from your iPad. This app is great to use when you are in meetings and you need to respond to text message or send one and it isn’t appropriate to text from your phone.

4. Task Pro – Task PRO is a powerful, flexible and elegant task management application for the iPad. It fully supports sub-tasking, a powerful mechanism that gives you complete control over managing and organizing your tasks. It’s very simple and intuitive to use. You can easily create simple Todo list, or have multiple complex projects side by side.

5. WebEx – The Webex app allows you to access WebEx meetings on your iPad, wherever you are! This app gives you full meeting experience with simultaneous data and audio.

6. GotoMeeting – The GoToMeeting app is an easy way to attend online meetings – and now you can take it to go! View slide presentations, design mockups, spreadsheets, reports – whatever meeting presenters choose to share on-screen.

7. Desktop Connect – The Desktop Connect app allows fast, full-featured desktop viewing. View and control Windows, Mac OSX and Linux computers as if you were sitting in front of them, or observe others as if you were watching over their shoulder. This app allows you view webistes with Adobe Flash.

8. iThoughts HD (Mind Mapping) - iThoughtsHD is a mindmapping app that will import and export mindmaps to and from many of the most popular desktop mindmap applications such as Freemind, XMind, Novamind, MindManager, MindView, iMindmap and PDFs.

Storage

9. Dropbox – Dropbox is an app that allows you to sync, and, share files online. Great for storing files for your business and projects that you are working on. Great for businesses that need to have multi-member teams access to files.

10. Box.net – Box.net is an app that allows you to sync, and, share files online. Great for storing files for your business and projects that you are working on. Great for businesses that need to have multi-member teams access to files.

11. Mobile Me – MobileMe is an app that allows you to automatically pushes new email, contacts, and calendar events to your iPhone, Mac, and PC. So your devices always stay in perfect sync. MobileMe is also great for storing files on a cloud.

12. Google Mobile Apps – Google Mobile app allows you to access Google search and Google apps like Docs, Calendar and Gmail. If you view docs in desktop version you have the ability to edit docs.

Finance

13. Square – Square is an app that allows you to accept credit card payments anywhere on your iPad without having a credit card merchant account. All you need is to plug in the free credit card reader into the headphone jack to authorize payments out of the office.

Documents/Presentations

14. Office 2 HD – Office2 HD supports creation and editing of Word and Excel files. It does support Word and Excel import and export though, unlike the iWork suite. Office HD 2 supports Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, iDisk, and SugarSync online storage services.

15. Docs2Go – Documents to Go is a cloud file support app that allows you to view, import, and export: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Documents To Go supports Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, iDisk, and SugarSync online storage services.

16. Evernote – Evernote is a great app to capture notes, text, photos using your computer, phone, and the web. Keeping notes from meetings, research on various topics.

17. Keynote – Keynote is one of the apps form the iWork suite. This presentation application on the iPad allows you to send your presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint or PDF format to anyone via Mail or iWork.com public beta, or copy it to your MobileMe iDisk, your Mac or PC, or to the web using WebDAV.

18. Sign my Pad - Sign My Pad is an iPad PDF signature app that allows you to download PDF files modify them with: text, a radio button or checkbox, the date and your signature. This app allows you to save time in scanning, faxing, and gives you the ability to sign important documents on the go.

Social Networking

19. Tweetdeck – The Tweetdeck iPad app allows you to access, organize, and manage your Twitter accounts and is great for tweeting on the go.

20. Twitter – The Twitter iPad app allows you to access, organize, and manage your Twitter accounts and is great for tweeting on the go.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. Enjoy your iPad.

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