If you’re a jobseeker, you probably know the importance of having the right photograph, headline and summary on your LinkedIn profile. But there are many more LinkedIn tools to help pull recruiters to your page.
Customise your web address
“Remember that LinkedIn is just a database. You put your information in it so that it can be found,” LinkedIn expert Sue Ellson emphasised in a recent webinar. An effective way for this to happen is by customising your LinkedIn public profile URL to your own name. (Look at your profile in editing mode to find this option.) A customised URL will help your profile come up much higher in search results when someone Googles you – and that’s something 95% of decisionmakers will do before making a job offer, says Ellson.
Fill in your ‘career interests’
Ellson also encourages all jobseekers – and those who have their own business – to fill in their career interests (under the ‘Jobs’ tab). You can indicate what job titles you’d consider, locations where you’d like to work, what type of job you prefer (full-time or freelance, for example) and in what size of company. Then click the ‘on’ button to let recruiters know you’re available. “It’s a way of telling the database that these are the sorts of things you’re interested in,” Ellson says. “I only look at things that work on LinkedIn and I’m really excited about this one.”
Manage your profile privacy
When you’re trying to attract recruiters to your page, turn off the ‘Viewers of this profile also viewed’ function to avoid showcasing competitors next to your name, adds Ellson. You can do this in your ‘profile privacy’ settings. Here, you can also opt to view other people’s profiles anonymously, but Ellson advises to think about that carefully. She actually recommends to openly view profiles of people you’re interested in. Because, she points out, when you look at somebody’s page, there’s a 30% chance that they look back at yours – which is much more effective than cold calling people on the telephone.
Source: figt.org
Photo: A name like Shields can make you defensive – Flickr
