Social Media Archives - Career Pivot

Do You Have a LinkedIn Profile Update Strategy?

October 29, 2018 by Marc Miller 2 Comments

LinkedIn Profile Update Strategy?

You have plans to update your LinkedIn profile, but do you have a strategy on how you will leverage the update?

If you turn on Sharing Profile Edits in your LinkedIn settings, all of your LinkedIn connections will be told that you have updated your profile. I know, I know you have been told to keep it turned off. There are times when you want to tell your network that a change has been made. This could be:

Acquired a major certification
Been hired for a new job
Received a promotion
Launched a new business
Published a book or an article

What will happen is, you will get lots of LinkedIn messages that will be congratulating on your new accomplishment. You have their attention, you should be prepared with a strategy on how you will respond.

I recommend you respond to every single LinkedIn message! Yes, every single message with a standard, but a strategic response.

Turn On Sharing Profile Edits

If you have a lot of minor updates to make, go ahead and make those first.

When you make the major change that you want everyone to hear about, turn on “Sharing profile edits” in your privacy settings like you see below.

Only set this when you are ready to make the major change.

I will use the example of when I added my podcast to my LinkedIn profile.

Create a Strategy with a Clear Call to Action

As soon as you make the change, you should be prepared to:

Thank them
Tell them about the change
Give them a clear call to action

What do you want them to do?

In my case, I added the following to my LinkedIn profile:

When anyone said congratulations I responded with a stock answer:

Dear [insert first name]

I have been podcasting for one year now. Next week will be the anniversary episode and I encourage you to listen to it. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/repurpose-your-career/id1170333446?mt=2&ls=1

I would also appreciate while you are in iTunes to write a review.

Marc Miller

What do I want? I want the reader to listen to the podcast. I point them directly to iTunes.

Did my podcast numbers spike the next week? Heck yes.

My call to action was clear and I made it very easy. Each evening I would make a copy of the stock answer into my computer’s clipboard and then I would respond to each congratulatory LinkedIn message.

New Certification

The idea for this post came from a note from a former client who is currently unemployed and looking for work. He just attained his PMP certification which should make him a bit more attractive to employers.

He added his certification to the last name and to his accomplishments section of his LinkedIn profile.

I suggested he should craft a response like the following:

[First Name],

Thanks for reaching out to me and offering your congratulations. It was a lot of hard work to complete the coursework, studying for and passing the exam. In some ways, I was surprised I passed on the first try.

I am currently looking for a project management role in the [insert industry]. Would you have a moment for a quick phone call to get some sage advice? If you are willing please schedule 15 minutes on my calendar at https://meetme.so/mycalendar .

I would really appreciate it if you would pass on any leads you might have.

[signature]

The call to action was to schedule a quick phone call and he made it easy to schedule a time. Notice what we asked for was some sage advice. You want to use a magic word of advice. This can also be referred to as asking for A-I-R or advice, insights, and recommendations.

Note: I am a big fan of ScheduleOnce and I have no affiliate relationship with them. I am just a very happy customer.

Simple LinkedIn Update Strategy

The key is to ask for a call to action and make that something easy to do. You want to eliminate as many barriers as possible in allowing them to take action. If they need to send an email that asks when are you available or look up your phone number or anything else, your contact is less likely to take action.

K.I.S.S – Keep it simple stupid. Make it easy for them to help you.

Finally, please remember that most people would like to help you if they can. Not everyone will be able to help you. However, for the ones that make the effort make sure and say “thank you”.

Have you taken the time to create a LinkedIn Update Strategy? If so, comment below and tells us about it.

Note: When you are done with this process, you probably want to turn off the Sharing profile edits field in your LinkedIn privacy settings.

Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above.

Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

Do You Need Help With ...

Job Search	Career Pivot/Change	Career Success	Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media	Multi-Generational Workplace	Networking	Entrepreneurship

Do Others Prejudge You Based on Your LinkedIn Profile? [Updated]

March 21, 2018 by Marc Miller 2 Comments

Do You Prejudge Someone After Looking at their LinkedIn Profile?

Do you prejudge people? If you say no … well, I do not believe you. We all do whether we like to believe it or not.

Thom Singer’s keynote speech at Product Camp Austin 14 was on how someone decided to prejudge him based on seeing him speak. This person thought that she would not like Thom. However, when she actually met him in person, she discovered he was a really nice guy.

She had prejudged him based on seeing him on stage.

Hmmm…do we do the same with LinkedIn and other social media platforms?

Do you prejudge someone when you view their LinkedIn profile?

Do others prejudge you?

Note: This post was originally published in March of 2015 and updated in March of 2018.

LinkedIn Profile

My presentation at Product Camp, “Leveraging LinkedIn – Creating a Professional that People will Remember“, was about establishing your brand on LinkedIn.

People will prejudge you based on your LinkedIn profile.

If you have no picture what will people think?

Yeah, yeah, I know we are not supposed to do that, but we do. This goes hand in hand with all of the discussion about Unintentional Bias.

Let’s discuss what you can do about establishing your brand on LinkedIn. We can then manage how someone might prejudge you!

LinkedIn Picture

I previously wrote a post called 3 Key Elements of your LinkedIn Photograph.
The three key points were:

Framing and Clothing
Background
Chin Line

LinkedIn Background Image

Since this post was originally written, LinkedIn allows all users to create a background image. This gives you the option to add some style to your profile.

What do you think a readers impression of you will be if you use the default background image like the one below:

What do you think their impression will be if they used a personal photo like the one below:

My guess is a smile will come to your face when you see the last one and you will want to read the rest of the profile.

People will prejudge you based on your background image. It is your opportunity to use the image to create a favorable impression of you.

(More: 6 Key Attributes to Your LinkedIn Profile Header [Updated])

The vocabulary you use in your LinkedIn Headline and Summary is critical.

The default LinkedIn headline is “Current Job Title at Company Name”.

The headline is 120 characters long. USE ALL OF IT.

Instead, insert phrases like “Product Management” or “Merges & Acquisitions” and separate each with a “|”.

You may also want to use your tagline in your headline. A good example is Jason Alba‘s headline:

JibberJobber.com – Online Job Search Organizer helping pros in over 100 countries Own…

Jason is the owner of JibberJobber.com one of the leading online job search platforms.

You also might want to check out my LinkedIn profile to see an example.

Yes, people will prejudge you based on the headline.

(More: 1st Place to use Keywords is in your LinkedIn Headline)

Summary

The Summary section of your LinkedIn profile should contain your brand story.

Many of you will copy the summary section from the beginning of your resume and paste it into your summary section. This is typically written in 3rd person and is incredibly impersonal. The LinkedIn profile should be a personal and let your personality shine.

Tell me who you are and not what you have done.

You can tell the reader what you have done in your experience section. Write the summary in 1st person as a story. The first sentence should grab you.

When you first look at a LinkedIn profile, you can only see the first two lines of the summary like the following:

I have an opening sentence of “I have had an eclectic career, to say the least.” My goal is to get you curious enough to click on the ‘Show more’ to read the rest.

I have written four posts on the process of writing your brand story.

If you want the reader to prejudge you in an authentic way, then tell an authentic story!

We will be prejudged based on our LinkedIn profile. What we want to do is paint an authentic picture of ourselves so that we can develop a real-life relationship.

Do you prejudge based on what you see and read online?

By the way, I’m honored to share that my presentation won the best session at Product Camp Austin!

Winner for Best Session #PCATX14: Marc Miller “Leveraging LinkedIn – Creating a Professional Brand That People Will Remember.” @CareerPivot

— ProductCamp Austin (@PCAustin) March 7, 2015

Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above.

Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

Do You Need Help With ...

Job Search	Career Pivot/Change	Career Success	Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media	Multi-Generational Workplace	Networking	Entrepreneurship

How Do I Increase Targeted LinkedIn Profile Views?

January 10, 2018 by Marc Miller Leave a Comment

Targeted LinkedIn Profile Views?

We all want more LinkedIn profile views. We want people coming to our profile but what we really want is for people who can affect our career to review or view our LinkedIn profile.

Whether you are looking for a job or looking for leads to new clients, one of the keys is to get more views of your LinkedIn profile from recruiters, hiring managers and prospects.

First look at how frequently your profile is viewed.

This can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/me/profile-views/

The first thing I want you to notice is the total number of viewers to your profile over the past 90 days. LinkedIn used to track the trends from week to week and provide that data for you but that is no longer.

How many are enough views? That depends. This is very similar to how many connections do you need. You can read more about that topic in the post Search enough How Many LinkedIn Connections are Enough Connections?

The more niche your skillset the fewer connections you need. The broader the audience you are trying to attract the larger your LinkedIn network should be.

Why Do People View Your Profile

I believe there are 3 main reasons why people will want to view your profile.

Search – If someone like a recruiter is performing a search, their goal is to view a set of profiles that meet the search criteria.
Content That You Post – When you post content that people like, whether it is your own or curated content, readers may want to look at your profile.
Reflexive View – When people see that you have viewed their profile, they very often reflexively view your profile.

Let’s look at what you can do to attract people to view your profile for each of these criteria.

Attracting More LinkedIn Profile Views Via Search

If you want to get more views from recruiters, the solution is to understand how they are performing searches.

Primarily, they are searching for current job titles and keywords. Your current job title is any position that the end date is present. You can look at my 3 jobs listed in my profile. This includes my primary business, my podcast and my volunteer work that is closely aligned with my business.

I point this out because this allows me to have 3 current job titles that could be found in searches.

You then need to place keywords strategically in your profile. Please check out the post, Why Are You Not Being Found? Try Thinking Like a Recruiter on the importance of the current job title and how to insert keywords without being spammy.

If you have the current job title and keywords that recruiters are searching you will get more LinkedIn profile views from recruiters who are searching for people like yourself.

Attracting Views from Posting Relevant Content

One would think the more you post, the more times people will see your content and click on it. LinkedIn is like Twitter and FaceBook as they have implemented algorithms that filter the content that any user will see. If you post a particular article on LinkedIn only a subset of your connections and followers will see that content.

I am a user of Buffer to schedule all of my content. On one of their recent podcasts, they discussed how on most of the social media platforms the more you post, the fewer people will see each post. On LinkedIn, I now post 4 times a day based on times that buffer suggested to me.

What Content to Post?

I post 3 kinds of content:

New content I create each week
Evergreen content or content that I wrote that does not go out of date from my archives
Curated content from my favorite websites

On any given day, I automatically post 2 evergreen posts from my archives. This is selected by a tool I use called HiPlayApp which schedules posts into the buffer queue.

When new posts are created, which I do 4 times a week, I will manually schedule into the buffer queue. Usually, I will have them post 2 -3 times during that week.

It is the last option, that will be most interesting and profitable for you. Several times a week, I go look for interesting content and I start scheduling them into Buffer. I might schedule an entire weeks worth of content in about 15 minutes. The key is to know where to find new relevant material that your followers will find interesting.

One option is to use a Twitter list to follow a small number of Twitter ids. I harvest a lot of content from email newsletters I receive.

This is an option that you just have to play with. Even with a free Buffer account, you will be able to see statistics on which posts are interesting to your audience.

The more relevant content you post the more LinkedIn profile views you will receive from like-minded people.

The Reflexive LinkedIn Profile Views

Some people will look at your profile if they see that you looked at their profile. This is particularly true for recruiters who are heavy users of LinkedIn.

Step 1 is to make sure that what is displayed when you look at someone’s profile. You can check this here https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/profile-visibility.

You will see something like the following:

You can set up your account so that when you view someone else’s profile they see:

Your name and headline
Private profile characteristics
Private

Unless you are doing some competitive analysis you should always display your name and headline. It is also key that you have a good photograph. Without a photograph, the odds of someone clicking on your profile drops tremendously.

Systematically Look at Profiles at Your Target Companies

Now is the time to get very systematic in your approach. Start viewing profiles a few each day at your target companies and then monitor who looks back.

DO NOT STALK!

Rotate through your list. Be systematic. Look at a few LinkedIn profiles a day.

Due to the fact that you are only looking at profiles that are at your targeted companies, you will get LinkedIn profile views from people you want to view your profile.

What to Do When Someone Looks at Your Profile

When someone looks at your LinkedIn profile send them a LinkedIn Inmail or a connection request stating that you saw that they looked at your LinkedIn profile, and you would like to ask them some advice.

This is a step in the AIR, Advice, Insights and Recommendation method. The magic word to use is “advice”.

The point is to engage them in a dialog and using the ploy of looking at their LinkedIn profile to get them curious enough to look at yours!

Will this always work? NO!

A lot will depend on how they use LinkedIn.

Give it a try!

Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above.

Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

Do You Need Help With ...

Job Search	Career Pivot/Change	Career Success	Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media	Multi-Generational Workplace	Networking	Entrepreneurship

6 Key Attributes to Your LinkedIn Profile Header [Updated]

December 18, 2017 by Marc Miller 1 Comment

LinkedIn Profile Header

The first thing you see on your LinkedIn profile is the LinkedIn Profile Header section. There are 6 areas that I want to address in this article.

Note: This is an update of a 2013 post called 5 Key Attributes to Your LinkedIn Profile Summary

Photograph

Having a high-quality image of yourself is critical. The picture should portray the story you will be building using your LinkedIn Profile. In my honest opinion, the most important aspect of your LinkedIn photograph is the background.

If you do not have a photograph, the odds of someone clicking on your profile when displayed in a search drops dramatically.

To read more on LinkedIn pictures check out my post, 3 Key Elements of Your LinkedIn Photograph.

If you would like to test your LinkedIn photograph, check out Photofeeler.com.

Your Linked Profile Header should ALWAYS have a photograph

Headline

The LinkedIn Profile header headline field is 120 characters in length. Use all of it! It should be keyword rich and should demonstrate your personal brand. By default, LinkedIn will fill this with Your Current Job Title at Current Company. If you have multiple current positions, by the way, I have 3 current jobs, it will pick the first position. Do not let LinkedIn fill this in for you.

I point this out because this allows me to have 3 current job titles that could be found in searches. Please check out the post, Why Are You Not Being Found? Try Thinking Like a Recruiter for why this is so important.

Location

Since most searches on LinkedIn are done geographically, setting your location is key. If you live in one city but are looking for work in another, you will want to set the location to the city where you are looking. I had a client living in Georgia but looking for a position in Dallas. I had them set the location to Dallas and they immediately were being found by recruiters in Dallas.

If you are looking for a job in a different location, then I highly recommend you get a Google Voice number with an area code where you would like to work.

Vanity or Custom URL

You should always generate a vanity or custom URL for your Public LinkedIn Profile. Your LinkedIn public profile is what LinkedIn exposes to Google and the other search engines. This can be found in your Public Profile and URL settings.

Your vanity or custom URL is what is used whenever someone is viewing your profile. LinkedIn changed to using the vanity URL when displaying a profile in 2016 or 2017.

Contact and Personal Information

LinkedIn has made it fairly easy to enter all of your social media properties, websites, and contact information in one place.

Take notice that the websites are clearly named. In order to do this, you must use the “other” option when filling in the contact info form. This allows you to customize the name of the website. See the contact info form below.

LinkedIn Background Image

Everyone now has the capability of setting their background image. This is the large (1,584 x 396px recommended) image that sets the tone for the profile.

Personal Photograph

You could use a personal photograph. See the picture of the railroad bridge in Austin Texas that someone is using.

This is a great example of using an iconic landmark to make a point.

Stock Photograph

You could use a stock photograph from websites like 123rf.com. Below is an example of the image used by a bi-lingual educator.

I suggested that she add some foreign language text to the image to deliver a more targeted message. I suggested she use Canva.com to accomplish this.

Custom Image

Lastly, you could construct a custom image similar to what I am currently using.

This was constructed by one of the members of the Career Pivot community using Canva.com. I want you to take notice that the email address and phone number are part of the image and cannot be screen-scraped by spammers.

Canva is one of my favorite tools that has a freemium option. I only pay if I use one of their stock images which are $1 per image. I acquire all of my images from 123rf.com and I have no financial relationship with either 123rf or Canva, I just love their products.

LinkedIn Profile Header Should Deliver a Consistent Message

I want you to think about the message the entire LinkedIn profile header delivers to the reader. The headline, your photograph, and the background should deliver a common and coordinated theme.

For those of us who are … artistically challenged, we need to get help. I have always found that one of my friends has been able to help me. My current headshot was taken by Sherwin Field from Field Photography and is someone who has pivoted from working in the corporate world to being a freelance photographer in the 2nd half of life.

Do you have all 6 components of your LinkedIn Profile header working together?

Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above.

Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

Do You Need Help With ...

Job Search	Career Pivot/Change	Career Success	Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media	Multi-Generational Workplace	Networking	Entrepreneurship

How Many LinkedIn Connections are Enough Connections?

February 20, 2017 by Marc Miller 3 Comments

Enough LinkedIn Connections?

How many LinkedIn connections do you need to make the magic happen? The answer is … it depends.

It depends on how many people are in your niche. If you are in a highly specialized niche then less may be better.

It depends on the size of the networks of your 1st-degree connections. If everyone in your network has a small network (less than 10 connections) then you will need more.

If your prospective client base or the industry you work in is large you will need more.

It all depends on the size of your total network. LinkedIn used to tell you the size of your total network. With the latest version, you can only see how many 1st degree connections you have, which for me is 4,604.

Specialized Niche

I recently was working with a gentleman who was looking to move into a very specialized niche of mathematical modeling. Searching LinkedIn using 3-4 keyword phrases we found almost 3,000 profiles.

We then started to find the influencers in the industry and connected with them. Next, we found people who were working in the industry and had a similar background. We sought out people who looked, smelled and tasted like our client. Check out my post on this topic titled Finding People Who Look, Taste and Smell Like You.

The third step was critical, connecting with recruiters at target companies. Recruiters have large networks, and if they are recruiting in a specialized niche, they will be connected to many in the niche.

When accepting LinkedIn connections, you can be selective on which ones you accept.

My guess and it is only a guess if you reach 200 connections you probably have enough LinkedIn connections to get the magic to happen.

Skilled Professional in a Well-Defined Industry

Let’s say you are a marketing professional in a well-defined industry like financial services. 200 connections will not be enough to get you to the level of visibility needed to manage your career.

How many? Well, definitely more than 500 which LinkedIn defines as the limit it will display.

I recommend you follow the same process as someone in a niche industry:

Find influencers and connect
Look for people who look, taste and smell like you and connect
Locate recruiters at your target companies and connect

You will need to be more aggressive in finding and connecting with people. You may also want to be less selective in accepting invitations.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that if you reach 500-600 connections you probably have enough LinkedIn connections to get the magic to happen.

Freelancer, Consultant, Coach, …

People like myself who work with a worldwide audience need a much broader network that is not easy to define. This is why I have over 4,500 connections.

A good example of this is the LinkedIn Profinder function. It wants to match clients with service providers via your LinkedIn network. As a service provider, the larger my network becomes the more people who will be matched with my services.

I send very few LinkedIn connections except when it will benefit a client or promotes my business. On the other hand, I receive many LinkedIn connection requests.

Last week, I was a sponsor of Product Camp of Austin unconference. I gave a presentation based on my blog post Why Are You Not Being Found? Try Thinking Like a Recruiter. I told everyone who attended my presentation to feel free to send me a connection request but asked them to tell me that they had attended my session in their connection request. About a dozen connection requests have been received. I also asked them to like my FaceBook page because it was lonely.

When I receive a LinkedIn connection request, I make a quick assessment as to whether it is someone who is real (not spam) and with whom it makes sense for me to connect. I accept their request and send them a LinkedIn message:

Dear [first name],

I just accepted your LinkedIn connection request.

How did you find me?

Marc Miller

Believe or not, most people do reply. I get a significant number of people who found me from a LifeHack.org article titled 50 Great People To Follow On LinkedIn, No Matter Your Industry.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that if you reach 1000+ connections you probably have enough LinkedIn connections to get the magic to happen.

What About You?

How many LinkedIn connections are enough connections for your success?

There is no simple answer.

Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above.

Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

Do You Need Help With ...

Job Search	Career Pivot/Change	Career Success	Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media	Multi-Generational Workplace	Networking	Entrepreneurship

COACHING PACKAGES

FROM OUR BLOG

This Is Not What I Signed Up For Moment

RESOURCES

CONTACT ME

Career Pivot

512-693-7132