Write Your LinkedIn Profile for Your Future
I was speaking to one of the best upcoming tech bloggers the other day about LinkedIn, and how I view it. To me, LinkedIn isn’t a place to dump a snapshot of where you’ve been. It’s an opportunity to stay connected to people, and to demonstrate where you are now, and where you plan to go next. To that end, I’ve got a little advice for you to consider applying to your own profile.
Write Your LinkedIn Profile For Your Future
First Impressions
First, your headline matters. It’s what people see when they accept your invite, and it’s probably the fastest first impression one receives. If you work for a company, put that name in the headline. When I don’t see a company name, I wonder if you’re solo.
Your Summary
Here’s where I think the most work can be done. When I look at my profile, I think it’s a bit long, but otherwise, I’ve done the following:
- Lead with what I do most.
- Lead with the type of business I want to do.
- Move into the reasons why you’d do business with me.
- Move from there into all the nuances of what I do.
In every case within the summary, your plan should be to write from the mindset of the prospective employer (or client), such that when they read it, they think, “I need to hire this person.”
Tip: refresh your summary every two weeks.
Your Work Experience
Here, I do something you might not expect. I make sure my past experience still supports my current and future aspirations. I write the past work experience summary to highlight those functions I performed that will still be useful to the current and future goals. Why? Because if you’re still reading that far down my summary, you want to kick the tires a little on my experience.
Tip: Refresh your past work experience sections every four weeks or so.
Power Moves: Recommendations
Ask people for recommendations. Be smart about it, though. Ask people who can vouch for your abilities.
I receive a few requests for recommendations a week from people I know from Twitter. I’m sorry, but I can’t really vouch for you. And this, to me, the reputation engine part of LinkedIn, is the most important part of the product. I will only recommend people that I would hire for myself, or that I would work for. At the time of this writing (August 2008), I’ve written 146 recommendations.
In both cases, I feel that recommendations are powerful.
What’s Next?
A list of next steps:
- Review your LinkedIn profile. Look at it as if you’re a prospective new boss, or a client. Would you hire YOU to do something? If not, rewrite it. Keep it tight. Do as much editing as you can.
- Enter your blog’s RSS feed on the profile page. People want more color.
- Add a photo. Not one of those weird grown up versions of a school class picture. Find a good candid. If you don’t have one, go to a social media meetup. Someone will snap you a good one. Worried about discrimination? Guess what: they’ll figure it out eventually. Get it out of the way up front.
- Start writing quality recommendations for people you can vouch for. If they can do the same for you, ask for one back. If not, hold off. No sense making someone feel awkward.
- Grow your network. LinkedIn and I don’t agree on this. I say connect to whoever. It helps you build a network. (I only recommend people I can vouch for, and to me, that’s where who you know or don’t know really matters).
- Keep looking at your profile as it applies to your future.
My own LinkedIn profile is here. If you want to connect, I use linkedin at chrisbrogan dot com as my address.
And you? What’s worked well for you?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
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LinkedIn Needs To Re-Think Its Plans
Shiv Singh reports at Going Social Now that Adam Nash of LinkedIn pitched the audience at O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns (wish I could go, but couldn’t) about why people should advertise at LinkedIn. Ouch. No, please. That’s not the big story for LI, is it? No.
LinkedIn Is Sitting On SO Many Opportunities
As the best known and most powerful professional social network (note: “professional”, Facebook fans), LinkedIn has a LOT of data and information that’s valuable in ways other than as ad fodder. It just feels like there are lots of untapped applications that could be written atop that data. You mentioned a while ago opening up the platform (Remember, I asked Mario Sundar to convey my LinkedIn tools I need right now a while back?). Why not open it up for commerce?
Okay, if money making is just a side opportunity, cool, but if this is the big strategy between now and 2009? Screw it. I’ll go make a professional social network, use all my resources to beg, borrow, and deliver value to people formerly in my LI network, and see if I can’t make something bigger happen than what seems to be lacking over in the land of blue wizards. (BTW, seeing a lot more of that “stuff is broken Wizard” lately.)
Am I moaning and complaining? A bit. Why? Because I really love LinkedIn’s potential and really want it to do more for me.
Please, Adam, tell me this is just one stop on the way to application greatness, and not the plan?
Will Companies Value Your Personal Network
Your job resume tells people what you’ve done in the past and where you’ve done it. Is that the sum of your capabilities? What about your resourcefulness? What’s the value of the people you can reach in your various networks, online or otherwise? And how should companies value this facet of your professional experience? Do companies need to consider how this might impact their departments?
With Sales, it’s a No-Brainer
Sales is a relationships game. The more folks you know, the deeper your Rolodex, the better your chances of finding the right hinge to close the sale. Building networks of value, where you can be helpful is made far simpler with these tools. They don’t do the work for you, but they give you new ways to reach out and establish connections, and stay just a little more in touch with other people’s environments. A salesperson who’s not exploring tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and yes, even Twitter, is missing some potential opportunities.
How does your organization stack up in this regard?
For Other Departments, It’s Still Pretty Good
Imagine the difference of employing seven software engineers versus having access to thousands of engineers. How powerful is your internal marketing team when they are aligned with social networking tools and the ability to listen to your customers via these tools? What does your HR team miss by not having their listening powers tuned into the robust stream of human capital that roams Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn?
Customer Service is Trickier
In this time of economic downturn, customer service is often viewed as a cost center. Reducing average handling time, and reducing representative headcount are the realities, and no matter what the mission statement says, except for the amazing companies, you’ll find that customer service is more of a “must have” requirement than an empowering strategy. And yet, there’s gold in these hills. It’s just harder to do. For thoughts on how to advance customer service, see Lionel Menchaca and Frank from Comcast for a few simple examples. My take? There can be MUCH more going on here.
And YOUR Personal Network?
When I look at the networks people have built around them, there’s value there. Tangible value. Consider someone like Liz Strauss. She reaches out deeply into her community to build events like her popular and successful SOBCon. She gives and gives, and then when she needs something back, Liz has a strong network of multi-layered contacts to reach into for her needs.
It’s amazing, really. Liz alone is a powerhouse to hire, but if you really did give credit for her extended network, which reaches into the largest companies in the US, UK, and for all I know, the rest of the world.
How do you place a value on that? What does it mean when you can reach deeply into your network for nonprofit fundraisers, or job placement, or contact to land business deals? If you are an employer, or someone involved in the hiring of talent, how much is this influencing your thoughts?
I think this is something that goes into the consideration and metrics of hiring practices in the next handful of years (at least for some sectors). What do you think?
Photo credit, Jurvetson
Five LinkedIn Tools I Need Right Now
Alright, Mario, listen up. I need the following five tools from LinkedIn, and I’m going to ask everyone in my community to chime in and tell you what they might need, too. Sure, you might not be able to get me these all by close of business Friday, but let’s see how much we can manage, okay?
A Cork Board
I need a LinkedIn cork board, where I can put sticky notes to remind me to write C.C.’s recommendation, and where I can put John Swords’ hiring need details. It’ll be where I remind myself to swap out my pic next time I have a moment. AND, I want to be able to allow friends to put sticky notes up there without seeing mine. (So, two boards.)
Groupings
I want private groupings within my address book. I don’t think alphabetically. Do you? I need LinkedIn to let me group my media friends together, my enterprise IT friends together, my friends who live around Philadelphia. And I want multiple groupings for the same contacts.
Commenting
What if I could add a layer of metadata to my entire LinkedIn profile? I might want to tell stories around the details, or layer in how many projects I used to do back in the old days. I got the idea by looking at the FriendFeed tools. In fact, what if the recommendation tools were a bit thinner. They’re not super difficult now, but it’d be amazing how many more “thumbs up” votes you’d get if that were a click versus a written recommendation. (Maybe layers of voting in that case?)
Visual Data
I need to SEE how people connect, and where they are the hub and where they are the node. Even if the other people don’t choose to expose all their contacts, I might get a sense of someone I need to reach being accessible in different ways, instead of you providing me just a link. It would also be instant “influencer” candy, especially if you could do things like show “velocity of connections” and “frequency of logins and updates” in a dashboard way, too.
Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that LinkedIn feels relatively static. This one dynamic would offer a sense of motion that wasn’t there before, and would provide me with data as to how FRESH someone’s efforts are.
An Open Platform
Oh, you mentioned that one back in June of 2007. I’d love to see this happen. Why? Because frankly, you’re sitting on some HUGE opportunities, and they can be monetized, and you could be generating revenue, and I would be willing to pay for features that you’ve not rolled out yet.
What’s Your Take?
As the need for better social network tools and more robust networks come about, I believe the “needs” I’ve listed above are only the starting point. What do you think? What’s your wish list for LinkedIn? Do you think I’m too far off base with my wishes?
And by the way, I really really really admire Mario Sundar and believe that LI owes him more than what they’re paying him, no matter what that number is.
Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You
LinkedIn is a professional network built around one’s employment capabilities. It is often referred to (I believe somewhat incorrectly) as an online version of your CV or resume. People who use LinkedIn expertly, like Christopher S. Penn, will be the first to say that this service is sorely underrated as a place to develop business, grow your capabilities, and promote your projects and opportunities. Here are some thoughts on amping up your LinkedIn presence.
Write to be Read
The first horror show I see when reading other people’s LinkedIn profiles is that they’re written completely dry, as if robots are the only thing that will read them. Though one should write with robots in mind, this is still a human network, so write as if you want someone to actually read your profile. Here’s the first paragraph of my summary:
I show businesses how to use social media technologies for external community building and outreach, and for internal collaboration. I have over 10 years experience with social media and 16 years experience in enterprise computing environments. I blend emerging tech knowledge with enterprise culture understanding.
You can tell what I do, have a sense of what I’m hoping you want from me, and get a hint at my unique value proposition to businesses on this regard. It’s not the best paragraph ever written, but it’s definitely clear in explaining my core interests.
Make your summary explain, succinctly, why someone would want to tap your shoulder for business. If you’re not sure why, that’s another matter altogether. Read it aloud a few times to see how it sounds.
Make Your Job Descriptions Work Two Ways
I want people who read my profile to see that I’m happily employed, that I work for a “real” company, and that my company has capabilities in certain areas. If you work for yourself, be clear about that, too. There’s no shame in being a solo operator. Just be clear that you’ve chosen to build a profile to signal your professional capabilities, and write it in such a way that people understand where you sit.
Further, make sure that when people read your job description, they are thinking about how to put you to work on their issues. I state my company’s primary functions in the first sentence of my current role, so that people can see what I’m bringing to the table alongside my own personal skills. Thus, my job description states what I’m doing, but also what I can do.
Recommendations are Your Friends
I ask for recommendations all the time. I’m not shy about it. Why? Because I want other people’s words to guide you to choosing me for your business needs. I want you not to have to take my word for it, but instead, to know what others have to say. Don’t be shy about this, but also be very realistic about asking for recommendations.
I will not recommend people whose professional work I’m not familiar with enough to suggest to a close, personal friend. I’m willing to “friend” anyone, but I only recommend people I can vouch for professionally.
Connection Strategies
LinkedIn has an official opinion on connecting up with others. They recommend that you only connect with people you know well personally. You’re welcome to take their opinion on that.
I’ve chosen to accept with anyone who connects with me, and I’ve only had to drop one person ever for abusing that connection. Why? Because in my view, expanding my network means that you will find the person you need by searching through my network, and that I, at least in theory, can help you get to the person you need for your business efforts.
Your mileage may vary. I will do it my way, as most folks who connect with me eventually come calling to reach someone else that I’ve added, and I feel good every time I can be helpful.
Some Last Thoughts
- Check your contact settings. Be explicit about who you want connecting with you.
- Consider putting up a photo.
- Use the groups features and find groups where you might want to contribute.
- Participate in the Q&A function to share your expertise (it’s like free advertising, when done tastefully).
- Update at least every three months. Your role has changed. Make sure your profile reflects that.
For the bonus round, I recommend staying up to date via LinkedIn’s community superhero, Mario Sundar.
What about you? Any other advice you’d offer to others?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
LinkedIN Gets Pretty
LinkedIN is a necessary tool in your business arsenal. It’s a professional-minded social network, centralizing their activity around the “build your profile, and then connect up with people who matter to you” activities. LinkedIN isn’t exactly FUN. It’s business-y, and you can use parts of it to ask questions, develop relationships, fulfill needs, find employment, and more, but if someone says, “Hey, I’m going to spend a half hour working on my LinkedIN profile,” I’d be surprised.
So the fact that they gave themselves a nice facelift, added personal photos to the site, and have quietly added some new functionality, comes as a pleasant bonus.
Social networks are apparently blue. LinkedIN, to their credit, has always been blue. Facebook: blue. MySpace, blue. But did LinkedIN get somehow blue-er? Not sure. The design is clean, crisp, and has just a slight bit of a widget feel to it. I like it.
What I like more? Even more information visible to me.
What’s your take? Have you logged in? Do you like it?
Are we already connected? (If not, you’re invited to email me a connection request).
Love to hear your thoughts.
A Sample Social Media Toolkit
There are countless ways to get into the game with Social Media, but sometimes, we get hung up on evaluating tools and thinking about which are the best for the job. We go further into thinking about the variety of tools and why we’d use which ones for what, and then, next thing you know, the day’s over and nothing’s been done. Here are a few sample tools and what they can be used for, and from there, maybe some new ideas will spread.
Quick note: I know and use and admire and communicate with LOTS of providers of these tools. For every one of these categories, I could probably name between four and sixteen more people. If I didn’t list you, I probably still love you. Maybe that will be a post for another time, a big fat list of resources.
The Quick List
For the sake of summary, let’s list out what’s in our toolkit, and why, and then we’ll go into detail AFTER that:
- Listening Tool - Google Reader
- Search Tools - Technorati and Google Blogsearch
- Home Base Blog - Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org to host your own).
- Scratch Blog - Tumblr
- Better Reach - FeedBurner
- Mobile Blogging - Utterz ( Qik for streaming video from your phone).
- Social Conversation - Twitter
- Social Profile - Facebook
- Business Profile - LinkedIN
- Social Bookmarking - Del.icio.us
- Collaboration - PBWiki
- Shared Documents - Google Docs
- Instant Messaging-Web Based - Meebo or Campfire
- Photo Sharing - Flickr or Zooomr
- Video Hosting - Blip.tv (also YouTube)
What They All Do
Google Reader and the two search tools make it easy for you to set up a quick network of searches on topics, brands, company names, and whatever else you want to follow in your space. (If you didn’t get my Five Starter Moves free PDF document, drop a note in the comments, and it describes HOW). The “Shared Items” feature and the email to others feature makes this a great way to share interesting articles with others, by the way.
When I say “home base” blog, I feel that in MOST cases, making your main website a blog is preferable to something static. Why? Because it hints at recurring content. It fills search engines with things to think about.
A “scratch” blog might be one that you don’t even publish to the outside world, but the beauty of Tumblr is that you can blurt short text, audio, video, and other things onto the site. I keep a few around for a few different purposes: one for private notes, and one for multimedia posts.
I use FeedBurner to improve the quality of my RSS feeds, to give people more options to subscribe to my posts, and for some extra functionality.
Utterz is a simple tool you can use from ANY mobile device (the barrier to entry is whether or not it has the #2), and post either audio, text, photos, or video. Qik does live video streaming, if your phone supports making movies.
Twitter allows for one-to-many messaging from multiple points (web, IM, 3rd party app, or mobile device). It’s also good for presence, and sharing quick status information.
Facebook actually does lots of things and is a full-featured social network, but at the baseline, fill out a personal profile with lots of information about you, and links back to your main site and/or your blog, and it will do a great job of helping people find you. Other features exist, including groups and several 3rd party applications. There’s lots to explore there.
LinkedIN is a popular site for posting a summary of your current job role and responsibilities, as well as a work history. There is now a group feature there as well, and you can use this tool extensively to reach out and meet new colleagues in your field, prospective employees, and there are all sorts of other uses for such information, if you give it some thought.
I like del.icio.us (pronounced “delicious”) for social bookmarking because it means my bookmarks are out on the web, so I can access them from anywhere. It also means that I can add tags and other metadata to the bookmarks to improve the ways I search for them.
We’ve used wikis for collaboration projects, such as planning an event (we built PodCamp on a wiki, and it’s still running strong!), or sharing status information that might need to be changed by more than one person. There are tons of free wiki software projects out there. I think PBWiki is simple, flexible, and easy enough to share with others. The only tricky thing about explaining wikis to colleagues who aren’t up to speed is the name itself. If you just say “collaborative web page” or some such, it’s easier.
Google Docs works as a great replacement for sharing word processing and spreadsheet functions. It’s free, secure, and makes for less file clutter, as you’re sharing a link to a shared, common document instead of sending around various versions. They also have a presentation software, though I haven’t had much experience with it just yet.
Instant messaging isn’t dead. There are still plenty of great business uses for quick one-to-one conversations. Meebo is a great tool because it lets you bridge several services at once (Desktop apps that do the same thing are Adium for the Mac and Trillian for PC) and chat with people about quick hit items.
Photo sharing and video hosting can be used in lots of ways. They make for richer interactions, add some dimension to the media you’re making with your company, and give you an opportunity to express your story in different ways than straight text.
How You Might Use These Tools
I won’t go into each and every tool, but here is a quick rundown of some tools and how you can use them for business purposes:
- Listening tools - understand how people react to your organization, follow your competitors’ news stories, learn more about things that might impact your business.
- Blogging - communicate your company’s news, discuss the industry as a whole, share information and learning, respond to things you find while listening, internally- as a status platform.
- Mobile Tools and Social Conversation- status and presence information, visuals from field engineers, audible daily meeting messages.
- Collaboration and Shared Documents- project plans, intention documents, status reports, meeting minutes, shared creative projects.
- Instant Messaging- meetings while virtual, backchannel during conference calls, quick integrated conversations.
Personal Use
Lots of these tools are often explained in their typical use as a way to communicate outwards to lots of people, and yet, as I explained above in my “scratch blogs” use, there are all these great tools to use for yourself as a creative type looking to capture information on the fly. Remember that tools have an obvious first use, but sometimes, they have a different use when applied to a different kind of problem. Don’t lose sight of that option.
What Would YOU Recommend?
These are all just part of one sample kit. You probably have different kit ideas and different use cases. For instance, what would a mobile journalist want to build? What would an audio producer add in there? How would you take advantage of even more web tools that aren’t exactly media but that you love for different reasons?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Photo Credit, FurryScaly
