Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile - Make Yourself Heard
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Some of what I’m going to talk about next involves filling in any remaining gaps. But for other aspects, you’re going to have to actually put yourself out there and ask for things. I know that’s not easy for some folks – fancy asking your current supervisor for a LinkedIn recommendation? – but they can make a difference.
Let’s look at some of the easier gaps first. You can go to your education area and edit it to provide additional notes on your experience at the school. As a separate thing, you can add activities and societies you participated in at the school. I notice from Kawasaki’s “after” picture that he talked about what each college meant to him, not just his activities, so I choose to include some of that as well. I also debate whether to include my first two years at a community college. Well, I can always add that later. At any rate, this is another good place to use some keywords, so I emphasize the time I spent writing and researching. Even for a history major, it was nothing to sneeze at, as I participated in two optional programs that put those skills to the test.
Here’s a quick screen shot of the information I’ve added so far that wasn’t in my LinkedIn profile before:
Now does it really make sense to go to this kind of work? Well, I admit I should have Googled to see what my status was before I started this article. But either way, I’m pretty visible, and would want to put my best foot forward. Unfortunately, LinkedIn still doesn't show it as well as I'd like. Take a look at this Google search on my name:
My bio on SEO Chat ranks for the third link, and you'd think that's my LinkedIn profile in the sixth position (fifth link if you don’t count the indented one – which goes to an article I wrote for SEO Chat). I seem to be cursed with a pretty common name, at least as far as LinkedIn is concerned. There are eleven of us with the same name, and I'm the seventh one that turns up in a search on LinkedIn itself. That's just a little frustrating (though the eleventh one is a CEO in the UK). It almost makes me understand a little better what our chief technology officer, Rich Smith, feels.
So, does it make sense? That may depend in part on your goals. It probably won't hurt. And since I've updated my profile, I've been contacted by a former co-worker who gave me a recommendation and asked for one in return, so it's helping me to network. That's a start.
I’m not finished with this topic. I’m out of space for this article, however. Next time I’ll cover some more things you can do with your LinkedIn profile to raise your visibility, and hopefully get into what LinkedIn is doing with its new company profiles.
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