CAREER PURSUIT 2021

13 EXPERT ADVICE - EMPLOYMENT DO’S A brief summary of what to do on LinkedIn to engage, stand out, and get noticed for the right reasons. • Search on LinkedIn. Search companies and people within your industry that you can learn and be inspired by. • Engage with these people. Leave a comment on their posts, so they know who you are. • Share relevant points, articles, and pictures. This will also help to boost your engagement. • When updating your profile, ensure you have turned off ‘Share profile edits’. When editing your profile, LinkedIn will automatically share what updates you’re making to your profile. To turn this off: 1) Click on your picture at the top of the page (on a mobile, click the wheel at the top of the page). 2) Select ‘Settings and Privacy’. 3) Click on the ‘Visibility’ tab and select ‘Share profile edits with your network’. Ensure this is set to ‘No’. WHAT TO AVOID These are the top things to avoid doing on LinkedIn if you want to remain attractive to recruiters and prospective employers. • Don’t treat it like Facebook. This isn’t somewhere to be sharing cat videos or buy/sell/swap posts. By all means, share content with your connections but make sure it’s relevant, engaging, and clean. • Upload your CV to your ‘About’ section. Your ‘About’ section isn’t your CV. It’s short, snappy, and straight to the point to draw engagement. If you feel compelled to upload a CV or portfolio, then upload it as a separate document. • Don’t send connection requests without adding a message. I get hundreds of connection requests every week. Most are looking to sell their products or services to my business, and if they don’t include a brief introduction or a brief explanation of why they want to connect with me, it gets deleted right away. People don’t want blind engagement; they want meaningful connections. Even if you’re using the mobile app, you can include a message. CREATING ENGAGEMENT AND ENGAGING Engaging and creating engagement with people on LinkedIn is a great way to build authority, get your name noticed by the right people, and build trust. If you’re hiding in the shadows, you won’t be found by recruiters. • Groups. Joining LinkedIn groups and engagement groups is a sure-fire way to get your engagement going through the roof. Plus, you never know who you’ll meet. • Ask questions. When sharing a post to your news feed, why not ask a question with a call to action at the bottom? Getting a conversation going in the comments section will boost your post up the news feed. It will show it to your connections who have engaged and even to 2nd- or 3rd-degree connections. • Engage with your followers. If someone leaves a comment on a post you’ve shared, make sure you reply to it. Conversation is king. • Engage with your ‘Not Yet Followers’. If you’re connected with the right people, you’ll find all sorts of engaging posts and topics being shown in your feed. Engage with people in the comments and they may well follow you too! In summary, with 675 million professionals engaging with LinkedIn every year, it’s undoubtedly the best way to boost your personal brand and professional profile, all through your fingertips. If you follow these steps, I’m confident you’ll be on the right track to career success. Marc Clifford − On The Line Digital Email: marc@onthelinedigital.com Facebook: @onthelinedigital Instagram: @marcpjclifford LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marcclifford1