Are your LinkedIn efforts paying off for finding a job? Are you putting in the right amount of time to get your profile noticed? LinkedIn is at its best when maintained regularly and optimized to allow hiring managers to reach out to you.
Mashable spoke with LinkedIn’s career expert, Nicole Williams, who provided these six tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile to attract more recruiters to you:
1. Develop a Keyword Strategy
If search engine optimization is not your expertise, here is a mini lesson. LinkedIn’s search functionality makes it easy to find people by their name, skills and any other words that appear in their profile — which is why these words should be chosen with thought.
First, make a list of terms associated with your skills and experience. Ask yourself, “What words would someone search for to find me?”
Next, take those terms and rework them from the perspective of a searching recruiter. For example, you may have the term “digital strategy” in your LinkedIn profile; however, a recruiter would be more likely to search for the term “digital strategist.” You want to organically incorporate these key terms into your profile to attract both the search engine and human reader alike.
2. Say Cheese
Williams says that “hiring managers are seven times more likely to view your profile if you have a photo; it’s a must have.”
Not only does a photo allow your profile to stand out in the search results, but also shows recruiters that you are active on the network and LinkedIn is a viable way to contact you. Williams suggests using a photo that places you in the context of your job. You want to help hiring managers envision you in that position.
3. Be Vain
Williams also prompts all passive and active job seekers to claim their vanity URL. This is a customized URL that drives directly to your profile.
This makes it easier for hiring managers to find you and share your information with other hiring managers. If your preferred vanity URL is already claimed, incorporate a relevant key term, for example www.linkedin.com/in/CarlySimonSinger.
4. Rack up Recommendations
Solicit recommendations from people you have worked for or with. “Make a strategic plan for your recommendations,” says Williams. “Approach different people and suggest particular skills or experiences you would like them to highlight.”
This strategy helps provide hiring managers with a more holistic view of you and your past work. However, the most important part of the recommendation is not necessarily the content, but that it exists at all.
5. Strategic Connections
The more connections you have on LinkedIn the more likely you are to come up in a hiring manager’s search results. Strategically identify people you’d like to be linked to and approach them with a custom connection request.
Groups work similarly and if you and a recruiter are in the same group, you can rise to the top of their search results. Join groups that are relevant to the industry you are in and a few recruiters in your field will most likely be members as well.
6. Now Share with your Connections
“Don’t just set up your profile; actively engage in LinkedIn,” says Williams. Share useful content or comment on the shared content of others to make your profile more viewable. Interacting with others on the platform not only makes you visible to them, but also their connections.
Do you have your LinkedIn tips of your own? Share them in the comment box below. You can connect with me on LinkedIn here.