To: Write or Flight (English 301 Group)
From: Corbyn Kwan (English 301 Student)
Date: March 7, 2023
Subject: Ten Best Practices for Professionally Networking on LinkedIn
Dear Write of Flight group members,
I am writing to share my summary of my research on the 10 best practices for networking on LinkedIn. Below are my findings:
- Complete your profile – Profiles that are complete will make your profile more discoverable, allowing recruiters to find your profile much more easily.
- Choose a good profile picture – Your picture is people’s first impressions of you. First impressions are critical and a high-resolution picture that focuses on your face will be received better than a low-resolution picture which is mainly the background.
- Build your network – Add mutual connections on LinkedIn through their recommendation feature. By growing your network, you will be able to ask these new connections for potential job opportunities.
- Join LinkedIn Groups – Groups exists that may fit your particular interest. For example, if you are looking for a tech internship, joining a LinkedIn tech internship group would allow you to find job opportunities that you weren’t aware of.
- Cold messaging – In the worse case, they ignore you. In the best case, you might get your dream job so don’t be scared. When starting a cold message, try the following: 1. Reference a shared connection, 2. Compliment them, 3. Reference a post they made.
- Share content – When you do something amazing (i.e. finished a project, or achieved a scholarship), post it on LinkedIn so others know the amazing stuff you do.
- Highlight your skills – In the LinkedIn skills section, include the skills you have. This allows recruiters to search based on your skill set. For example, you can add technological skills such as PowerPoint, Excel
- Make your profile public – If your profile isn’t public, you won’t be discovered. You can make your profile public in your privacy settings.
- Keep your location updated. Recruiters typically search by location. So make sure to update where you live so that recruiters can contact you based on your location.
- Get a custom URL – When you create a LinkedIn profile, typically your URL is a combination of your first name, last name, and a combination of letters and numbers. You can edit this by going to the “Edit Profile” option.
In conclusion, using LinkedIn as a professional networking site can be a powerful tool to build and maintain your professional network. This will allow you to find job opportunities that you may not otherwise have access to, and also allow recruiters to discover you.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at corbynkwan@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Corbyn
Sources:
Deehan, J. (2023). 20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2023. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/business/sales/blog/profile-best-practices/17-steps-to-a-better-linkedin-profile-in-2017
Turner, J. (2021). Linkedin Cold Message Examples That Get Replied To. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-cold-message-examples-get-replied-josh-turner/
Cox, L. (2022). How to Craft the Perfect LinkedIn Profile in 2022: 21 Easy Steps. Hubspot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/linkedin-profile-perfection-cheat-sheet
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