Firstly, why do you want to be found? Clearly if you are searching for a job, it’s crucial! But if you aren’t it is still important to be kept up to date with companies that are recruiting and the types of roles available, year round. If this pandemic has reminded us of anything, it’s that the world can change dramatically in the course of weeks and so can your career!
The key is to try to think about your profile from the searcher’s perspective. A surprising fact is that it is already hard to find you on LinkedIn, don’t make it more difficult! You might think that is as simple as typing in “Facebook” and “Marketing manager” to find you. But it isn’t. This will lead to some results, but there is an incredible amount of people that will not appear in this way.
Making it as easy as possible to be found is important now and will always be, so help out hiring managers, talent acquisitions professionals and recruiters alike by making a few, quick changes to your profile:
- Firstly, an easy one, double check your job title is spelled correctly – “Manger” will not show up when we are searching for a “manager”. Yes, it is quite common.
- Title – having a cool title like “Helping the best companies in the world supercharge their social footprint” might be great for your friends and family, but you will not be found by hiring managers, in-house talent acquisition or recruiters
- Industry codes – thinking about it from a searcher’s perspective, is your industry clearly showing the industry you work in? Sometimes people confuse this with their job title for example inputting “Marketing” industry when they are a Marketer within “consumer goods”. If you are unsure which industry you would be on this platform, quickly double their industry list at https://developer.linkedin.com/docs/reference/industry-codes
- Picture – it doesn’t need to be perfect but be aware that people will make snap judgements in the space of less than a second as they are scrolling through people, so just ensure you look presentable
- Keywords in the body of your profile whether in the summary or under a specific job. Think about what a company specifically needs from a ceo, cmo or head of sales job. For example, turnaround, digital transformation, change management, Market entry and rapid growth
- Mention the amount of people you have managed and where possible annual revenue of the company. I appreciate this is not always possible, but this makes it really easy to assess your suitability for an Executive role and not waste your time if the position we have in mind is far too junior or senior
- Key achievements – This is another one to be cautious of but outlining % increase in sales, head count managed, successful advertising campaigns/events/social media, new clients picked up, size or nature of deals won etc
- Company – Explain clearly what your business does. There are quite a lot of start up companies currently with minimal information available other than their website. There are also a lot of disruptive companies which can be hard to define. Imagine explaining the company to a family member or friend. This avoid you being contacted about unsuitable roles.
- Engage – share posts relevant for your profession, connect with old acquaintances, Executives in your business (where will they be in 5 years?), comment on other people’s relevant posts, message people who connect with you to thank them and “follow” people of interest.
Having a profile that can be found, growing your network and being active on the platform will really help you to be front of mind for anyone looking to hire.
If you have any questions or would like any help improving your LinkedIn profile, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by going to the “contact us” section at the top of the page!
