Building your LinkedIn brand and profile
Companies spend billions to ensure you have a certain opinion of their products, and that perception is their brand image. You have your own brand image in your professional life, and it’s up to you to own, define, and push your brand. LinkedIn allows you to define a profile and build your own brand based on your professional and educational background.Your LinkedIn profile can become your jumping-off point where any visitor can get a rich and detailed idea of all the skills, experiences, and interests that you bring to the table. Unlike a resume, where you have to worry about page length and formatting, LinkedIn gives you a place to present additional information:
- Lists of groups you belong to
- Memberships or affiliations you have
- Honors and awards you have received
- Professional interests.
- Presentations for others to view
- Website links to other parts of your professional identity
Looking for jobs on LinkedIn
LinkedIn makes it easier than before to do some of the following tedious job search tasks:- Finding the right person at a target company, like a hiring manager in a certain department, to discuss immediate and future job openings
- Getting a reference from a past boss or co-worker
- Finding information about a company and position before the interview
- Searching posted job listings on a job board like the one on LinkedIn
LinkedIn research shows that “People with more than
20 connections are 34 times more likely to be approached with a job
opportunity than people with less than 5 connections.”
Finding information
You can use LinkedIn to find out more than just information about your job search. You can use this immense database of professionals to find out what skills seem to be the most popular within a certain industry and job title. LinkedIn now has thousands of detailed Company Profiles that not only show company statistics but also recent hires, promotions, changes, and lists of employees closely connected with you.Best of all, LinkedIn can help you find specific information on a variety of topics. You can do a search to find out the interests of your next sales prospect, the name of a former employee you can talk to about a company you like, or how you can join a start-up in your target industry by reaching out to the co-founder.
