No doubt about it, LinkedIn is the place to be and be seen when you’re building your personal brand and in an executive job search.
Not surprisingly, I frequently blog about LinkedIn.
Of the 20 or so blog posts I wrote this year about using LinkedIn, I’m spotlighting the ten best here. These are my most popular LinkedIn posts and/or the ones I feel are most important for executive job seekers.
My Top 10 Posts of the Year on Using LinkedIn for Personal Branding and Executive Job Search
⇒ 29 Biggest LinkedIn Mistakes
You’ve been using LinkedIn but nothing, or very little, is happening. Few people are viewing your profile. Few people, if any, are connecting with you or reaching out to you.
Executive recruiters and employers sourcing candidates aren’t contacting you with opportunities.
LinkedIn isn’t helping you accelerate your job search, like everyone told you it would.
Are you doing something wrong? Could be.
Here are 5 things you may be doing that will sabotage your chances of landing that great-fit new gig:
- Not targeting your search and profile content.
- Not reinforcing your executive brand and ROI to your target employers throughout your profile.
- Neglecting Personal SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
- Not including a profile photo.
- Not having a fully fleshed out profile.
Check out my post for the other 24 dangerous mistakes you may be making.
⇒ Essential Checklist to Optimize LinkedIn For Executive Job Search
My “Essential Checklist” details 35+ things you need to do on LinkedIn for executive job search and overall career management (even if you’re not looking for a new job).
My post lists suggestions in these areas:
- Building Your LinkedIn Profile
- Building and Engaging Your LinkedIn Network
- Research and Market Intelligence
- Keeping Your Personal Brand Top-of-Mind
- Keeping Your Job Hunt Undercover
⇒ 5 Ways to Keep Your Executive Job Search Confidential on LinkedIn
Most of my c-suite and senior-level executive clients need to keep their job search under wraps. They’re still employed, but looking to move on for various reasons.
They can’t broadcast that they’re actively seeking opportunities . . . on LinkedIn . . . or anywhere online . . . or to too many people.
But, they’ll probably need to add to, or change, the content in their LinkedIn profile to position themselves as good-fit candidates for their target employers. And they’ll need to ramp up their activity on LinkedIn.
How can they do this, while keeping it all confidential?
My post includes 5 specific things you can do to minimize exposing the fact that you’re proactively job-hunting.
⇒ How To Exploit the New LinkedIn for Best SEO
If you haven’t logged in to LinkedIn for quite a while, you probably don’t know that things changed there with the new 2017 User Interface.
Some things aren’t where they used to be.
But not to worry, with a few adjustments, you can boost profile views and up your chances of being found by executive recruiters and employers looking for candidates like you.
My post walks you through a few critical things you need to do.
⇒ How to Write a Dazzling LinkedIn Summary
After reviewing maybe thousands of LinkedIn profiles of executive job seekers since I became a LinkedIn member 10 years ago, I’ve noticed that most have non-existent or severely anemic Summary sections.
Even though plenty of evidence is stacked against it, they’ve neglected this key profile area.
The Summary section is where you tell your personal brand story, differentiating the value you offer over your competitors. Storytelling allows you to make a more vibrant connection with people than the dry resume-speak too often used here.
Follow my advice in the post to generate chemistry for you as a candidate.
⇒ 10 Years on LinkedIn – Why It’s Still Indispensable To Me
Proactive use of LinkedIn is just as important to me, as an entrepreneur, as it is to you, an executive job seeker.
Savvy job seekers and careerists know how important LinkedIn is.
They’re already on LinkedIn, leveraging all that the site has to offer – networking, blogging, researching, building brand evangelism . . . and staying top-of-mind with people who can lead them to job opportunities.
You need to be doing the same things, just to keep pace with job seekers competing for jobs with the employers you want to work for.
In my post, I lay out some of the specific ways LinkedIn helps me, compared to job seekers.
⇒ FREE eBook on Smart Personal Branding with LinkedIn
This year I did a massive revamp of my FREE ebook for Job-Hunt.org, which was first published in 2009.
It’s now called “Smart Personal Branding with LinkedIn – How to Use LinkedIn to Build Your Personal Brand and Land a New Job Faster!”.
As always, the ebook is FREE and you don’t need to sign up or provide your email address to get it.
Packed full of juicy tidbits, my updated ebook will help you understand:
- How to write and strategically position the right kind of content for your LinkedIn profile. You’ll start by defining your personal brand, and then write compelling content that will resonate with your target employers.
- How to build out and brand your LinkedIn profile using the various sections.
- Why keywords are so important and how to incorporate them into your LinkedIn profile.
⇒ How Many LinkedIn Connections Are Good For Executive Job Search?
I’m often asked by my executive job seeking clients:
“Does it matter how many people I’m connected to on LinkedIn, and who should I connect with – everyone who asks?”
Opinions differ on whether it’s more important to amass a lot of connections or concentrate on building fewer high quality connections. Your strategy is up to you, of course.
In my post, I tell you what I do regarding LinkedIn connections and why you probably should do the same.
⇒ 15 Savvy Tips To Boost LinkedIn Profile Views
When you’re actively pursuing new career opportunities, you need to make your LinkedIn profile dazzle, so it will be a traffic magnet.
More profile views means more people may be sending job leads your way, or otherwise help you with your job search and career.
To get more views on LinkedIn – and more potential job leads – your profile needs to be highly visible and findable. And you need to keep yourself and your personal brand top-of-mind with your ever-expanding network.
My post tells you how to do this.
⇒ The Value of Blogging Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Blogging is one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate your subject matter expertise, and communicate your good-fit qualities for the jobs you’re seeking along with something of your personality . . . that is, your personal brand.
But setting up and maintaining your own blog may not be a realistic endeavor for you.
Did you know that LinkedIn offers a long-form publishing (or blogging) platform?
Using LinkedIn’s Pulse platform, you’ll reap many of the benefits of having your own blog, with almost none of the headaches.
Read all about it in my post.
You’ll find 100+ more posts about LinkedIn in my blog archives.
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