Business in dialogue

Marketers are often reproached that they are not marketing themselves. Especially online, personal branding can be easy and effective but is often overlooked. When I asked a friend this morning why she didn’t had a profile picture on Facebook, she explained that she was looking for a job and realized that her crazy profile picture might work against her. And that’s true, it is very likely that possible employees will do a quick search on you on internet.

Where Facebook and other social media platforms can give employees a first impression, it is LinkedIn that is mostly used for professional purposes. It is the largest professional network on the net, with  more than 90 million users in 200 countries who conducted nearly two billion people searches last year. It is easy to find people, but then again, in order to stand out you need to keep your resume up-to-date and differentiated from the others. If you are a job seeker or not, it starts by completing your LinkedIn profile. There is a tool that helps you do that and increasing your findability at the same time.

Now, LinkedIn continues to make adjustments and improvements and one new added section is “skills”.  Sharlyn Lauby explains in her blog how you can optimize this new skill section in your LinkedIn profile. I will try to summarize the main points:

The new section helps you organize your skills and assets immediately after your education credentials. They will stand out more and show what a well-rounded job candidate you are. The new feature on LinkedIn allow you to use multiple keywords to describe your skills, making you more discoverable for a recruiter. He looks for specific set of skills, and when they match yours he will contact you. Therefore it important to list your true qualifications and skills and not list yourself as an expert in your field if you are not.

LinkedIn users, jobseekers and candidates are highly recommended to list their qualifications and skills in this section because this is where you can differentiate yourself from others. Even if you’re not looking for a job today, your LinkedIn profile serves as a professional introduction of your experience and expertise. LinkedIn profiles should be viewed as a personal marketing brochure to connect business professionals and create opportunities.

Apart from Skills, LinkedIn offers other sections as well. Take a look if they are relevant to you and your industry. Marketers, don’t forget about youself!

Tags:   LinkedIn · Personal Branding · SkillsNo Comments