Who Cares What Your Status is on LinkedIn? Job Search Tactic #4

Lots of people care!

Your network wants to be given an opportunity to clap for you!

That’s why you should be updating your status every 24-48 hours.

• Your network wants to know how your job search is progressing
• Your network wants to know the type of companies with whom you’re interviewing
• Your network wants to know the executives with whom you’re interviewing
• Your network wants to know the techniques you’re using to generate job leads and referrals

They want to hear about the silly interview questions you’ve been asked, the most intelligent questions, the ones that were easy and ones that stumped you.

Your network wants to be able to support you in your job search. If they don’t know what you’re doing, how could they possibly support you?

Status updates are the amazing simple short statements about what you’re doing that you feel is important to share with you network. You have 140 characters to type a status update. Each time you type a status update, everyone in your network will see it on their home screen when they view network status updates.

This is one of the most powerful tools LinkedIn offers and yet, very few networkers use it – forget effectively – they don’t bother to update their status at all – what a waste of a free networking tool.

I am a master networker. Many of you know that I am a LinkedIn Networking Expert. I teach and coach networking to some of the most successful coaches, CEOs, Presidents, and senior executives. How does a master networker and LinkedIn Networking Expert use status updates in social networking?

SECRET HINT: Think of your status updates as frequent alerts to keep your network aware of what you’re doing, how it might impact them personally, and as a “marketing” tool to keep your “brand” in a top-of-mind presence with them every single time they log onto LinkedIn.

Every day or two, I take a moment and I type a short statement about something I think a large portion of my network on LinkedIn might like to hear about.

• Have I just written an interesting new blog post
• Have i just attended a life-altering workshop on self-motivation
• Did I just read a passage from Daniel Pink’s new book, Linchpin, that I wanted to share before I forget it

Are the 3 ideas I got out of the on-line webinar this morning that Brad Remillard taught on Leveraging LinkedIn in your job search (you like the way I worked that shameless plug into my blog post?) valuable to share with others?

All kidding aside,

My partner, Brad Remillard, will be leading a powerful webinar on March 26th to teach you how to leverage all the LinkedIn tools  to find your next job through LinkedIn.

CLICK HERE to sign up right now for this unique LinkedIn Job Search webinar.

Only our private job search network of loyal readers here on our blog, in our LinkedIn Discussion Group, and those who have downloaded our FREE Job Search Tools will receive this special discount.

If you get ONE great idea from this webinar on how to improve your job search, it will have been worth the investment of time. NOT ONLY will you get one idea, I’ll guarantee you’ll get a dozen ideas that you can immediately implement within hours of completing the webinar.

After you finish the webinar, Brad and I would love to hear about the 12 different things you started doing on LinkedIn, such as updating your status more frequently, and which ones immediately started to work for you.

Barry Deutsch

PS – would it help if we put together a status update checklist (like a daily dozen status update ideas) that you could use every day to go down the list and say “I did #2 yesterday, today I’ll do #9)?

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Hurting Your Job Search?

At a recent Vistage meeting of about 20 CEOs we were discussing using social media as a way to find people.  One of the CEOs indicated it is also a great way to eliminate people.

I wasn’t overly surprised to learn that many hadn’t thought about social media for hiring, but I was surprised to learn that many don’t use it as a screening tool. Obviously, after hearing the story from the one CEO, most will reconsider.

The CEO stated that they had been in the process of interviewing a candidate for a sales position, and like most hiring processes, it takes a couple of weeks to get through all of the interviews. Over this couple of weeks the company started tracking this person’s tweets on Twitter and looked up the candidate’s profile picture.

OOPS a major faux pas.

Apparently as it was relayed in the meeting, this person’s picture was – let’s just say not professional, and the tweets were completely inappropriate as viewed by the company. The language was foul, the topics discussed rather vulgar, and for a professional sales person raised a lot of red flags.

The company was afraid of a sexual harassment lawsuit and how this candidate would communicate with employees and customers. Not to mention what customers would think if they saw this person’s profile picture and followed them on Twitter.

Social media is a double-edged sword. I follow Twitter on a regular basis, and I am surprised at how many people looking for a job use inappropriate language, brag about being lazy, tweet about how glad they are about not working, or demonstrate a lack of willingness to be employed. They come across as wanting a job but not willing to work. This is not what a future employer is seeking.

Take care to ensure that you manage your LinkedIn profile properly and professionally during your job search. Others are watching and listening to you.

If this was helpful to you, it will probably be helpful to others. Please consider passing it on so they too can benefit. You might add it to your Facebook page, update it on your LinkedIn status, or email it to friends or to your network. We all need to help out. One tip can make a huge difference to someone.

GET A FREE LINKEDIN PROFILE ASSESSMENT. On March 26th we are offering a webinar on, “How To Find Your Next Job Using LinkedIn.” We will tell you the number one reason  so many recruiters view your profile and never call you. THIS IS NOT A JOKE OR HYPE. It is a fact that most candidates never think of. CLICK HERE to learn more about how to get your FREE profile assessment and the webinar.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group and stay connected with the other 4600+ members. CLICK HERE to join.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

How Would You Rate Your LinkedIn Profile?

I recently asked this question on LinkedIn, “How would you rate your LinkedIn profile?” The choices were, poor, fair, good or very good. I wasn’t referring to completeness based on the LinkedIn scale. I wanted to know how you would rate your profile based on how good or compelling it is.

Would a recruiter, HR professional, or hiring authority be so impressed that they can’t wait to contact you? That is the goal of a LinkedIn profile. Why else would you have one if you are in a job search?

So that is my question to you, “How do you rate your LinkedIn profile?” We would really like to know.

Poor

Fair

Good

Very Good

Now the really important question, “How would you rate your resume?” Let us know that too. Just simply send us a comment. You can do that at the bottom of this article.

Did you rate them both the same? Most rate their resume good to very good and their LinkedIn profile poor to fair. WHY?

Both of these are marketing documents. That is all a resume is. It is put together to market you. In our best selling job search workbook,“This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” we don’t like to use the word “resume.”  Rather, we prefer to call it your Personal Compelling Marketing Brochure.

Your LinkedIn profile is your online marketing brochure. It must sell you. Your profile can be even more compelling than a resume because of all of the added features LinkedIn allows you to add to your profile. Most are not possible on a resume.

So here is the next set of questions, “How many hours have you dedicated to developing your resume?” My experience is that most candidates spend hours not only developing their resume, but revamping it, changing it, redoing it, updating it, and so on. For many, this is a never ending process.

OK, so then, “How many hours have you dedicated to developing your LinkedIn profile?” We would really like you to be completely honest and answer these questions. Just add your responses to them in the comment box at the bottom.

Still  not convinced about why you need a great and compelling profile on LinkedIn?  Here are some additional reasons that might convince you.

• For my last three placements, all of the candidates came directly from LinkedIn.

• Two clients recently told me they hired mid-level sales people directly from LinkedIn.

• Before posting an open position on a job board, most recruiters go to LinkedIn first.

• I’m currently working on two searches and I found all of the candidates using LinkedIn.

• LinkedIn now has over 45 million users.

• More and more internal recruiters and HR professionals start their searches on LinkedIn.

• Companies can save thousands of dollars searching LinkedIn versus searching resumes on a job board.

Given all of this, would you reply to a job posting with a fair resume? Would you expect a call back from a hiring authority or recruiter if your resume was “fair?”

If your LinkedIn profile isn’t better than your resume, you are leaving a very valuable tool in your tool box. When I’m coaching job seekers, one of the first items we work on is their LinkedIn profile. It is not uncommon that within two weeks of completing the profile makeover for these candidates, that they start receiving inquiries.

So let us hear from you regarding how you responded to these questions. We are really interested.

Don’t know how to build a great profile?

Get a FREE LinkedIn Profile Assessment. To help you build a great LinkedIn job search strategy, we are having a webinar on March 26. This webinar will ensure you not only have a great profile, but in addition, teach  you how to find contacts, how recruiters use LinkedIn, and how to ensure that if someone comes to your profile that you are positioned as the expert.  CLICK HERE to learn more.

Also, Barry and I have had extensive discussions regarding LinkedIn on our weekly radio show that airs every Monday at 11 AM PST at www.latalkradio.com on channel 2. We add all of these recordings to our audio library. These recordings are free for you to listen to or download. CLICK HERE to review our audio library.

Finally, consider joining our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. There are more than 4,4oo members, and a wealth of articles and discussions to help you in your job search. CLICK HERE to join.

Brad Remillard

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Hurting Or Helping Your Job Search – Audio Recording

LinkedIn is without question one of the most powerful business networking tools available – and as an extension – one of the most useful tools for professionals, managers, and executives conducting a job search. Many candidates are not effectively leveraging the power of LinkedIn to build their brand, differentiate themselves from peers, extend the value of their resume, and networking with recruiters and employers to uncover the hidden job market. We identify and discuss the wide range of FREE tools and components on LinkedIn that can be leveraged to improve the effectiveness of your job search. Learn how to build a powerful profile to attract recruiters and employers conducting searches.

CLICK HERE to download or listen to this recording

LinkedIn – Your Online Resume is Worthless

Not having an effective LinkedIn Profile for your job search is the same as having an ineffective resume that gets tossed into the trash can all the time. STOP letting your online resume (LinkedIn Profile) be thrown in the trash!

LinkedIn provides an extraordinary online tool – your profile – a virtual resume and portfolio for you to do personal branding, self-promotion, and lay out a portfolio of your abilities, skills, and accomplishments.

The entry level account is FREE. This is the proverbial “no-brainer”. So, why are most profiles WORTHLESS? Why don’t professional job search candidates at managerial and executive levels consider this an important part of their job search?

TEST OF LINKEDIN PROFILES FOR JOB SEARCH

I’m in the middle of conducting a retained executive search for a Sales Executive. Like most recruiters, I’m using the search function in LinkedIn to find executives in specific industries and geographic areas. Everyone knows that LinkedIn is a significant tool for sourcing in the hands of recruiters, human resource professionals and hiring managers. I’m only searching for candidates that have flagged their account that they are open to career opportunities. I’ve now reviewed over 400 profiles.

Less than 20% have anything beyond a “skeleton” set of information.

Less than 2% have a decent profile fully completed with extensive descriptions of their accomplishments, an outstanding summary, lots of recommendations, and have their contact information (such as phone number and email address) available.

Less than 1% have taken the time to really leverage all the tools LinkedIn provides on your profile – slide presentations, attaching documents, reading lists, linking your blog and twitter accounts, and on the list goes. It’s absolutely amazing the value LinkedIn provides to job seekers.

As a recruiter reviewing profiles, it takes me about 5 seconds to look at a profile and make a first impression of whether I want to continue looking at it. If the profile is not complete, I will not bother to spend any more time with that potential candidate. You’ve just missed an opportunity which could have been the ideal job to move your career forward after you’ve been out of work for 9 months.

CONFUSION – WORTHLESS LINKEDIN PROFILES

I DON’T GET IT!

WHY DO THE VAST MAJORITY OF JOB SEEKERS HAVE A WORTHLESS ONLINE RESUME (LINKEDIN PROFILE)?

IS IT NOT TIME TO FIX THIS OBVIOUS OVERSIGHT?

HOW MANY JOB OPPORTUNITIES HAVE SLIPPED BY YOU BECAUSE RECRUITERS LIKE ME HAVE SKIPPED OVER YOUR WORTHLESS ONLINE RESUME (LINKEDIN PROFILE)?

IMPROVE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE NOW

Brad and I have spoken extensively about the need to fully flush out your LinkedIn Profile as one of the tactics in an effective job search. We’ve talked about it in our weekly Internet Radio Talk Show. You can download the specific episodes about LinkedIn from our broadcast archive.

We even put together a FREE one-page LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Scorecard to determine if your LinkedIn Profile is effective in being found by recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers. You can download the Scorecard right now and frighten yourself on your inadequate profile. You might want to also bang your head on the wall a few times over the potential job opportunities for which you’ve been ignored.

Take action right now and fix this simple element of your job search. STOP being ignored. Create a profile that allows you to instantly capture the attention of recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers that are looking for someone JUST LIKE YOU.

Barry Deutsch

Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group and learn how to improve the effectiveness of your job search through leveraging the tools LinkedIn provides to create a powerful job search profile.