LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds. There is a new user signing up every second! As of this writing there are over 150 million members. Their stock price has been climbing. They had excellent recent financial results. Most career managers and job seekers have realized the importance of LinkedIn. However, there are still misconceptions. Here are four big ones.
Only connect with people you know
LinkedIn repeatedly warns that you should only connect with people you know. Savvy users know this is not the case. Consider the analogy of a pen pal. A pen pal is someone with whom you trade letters over a long distance. After many years you may have a chance to meet your pen pal. Normally this meeting is accompanied by tears of joy and many hours of laughter. That’s because your pen pal has become a close friend, or at a minimum, has become a close acquaintance.
It is the same concept with LinkedIn: if you send a customized invitation to a complete stranger on LinkedIn, there is a great chance that they will accept your invitation. You can then start a networking relationship based on giving. This new connection may eventually turn into a close friend – just like the pen pal!
Your profile is complete when you hit 100%
LinkedIn provides a rudimentary “Completeness” scale on your profile page. Unfortunately, the components that LinkedIn uses to calculate this scale are very, very basic and lulls new members into a fall sense of security. You can read about the details in this official LinkedIn blog post. Don’t be fooled! If you sit back and relax after hitting the 100% mark you are not taking advantage of the power of LinkedIn. Here’s an entire presentation on additional ways that you can fully optimize your LinkedIn profile.
You should use your current job title as your headline
The section magnified above is called your professional headline. Far too often LinkedIn users use this prime real estate for their current job title. This is a huge miss! Why? Because LinkedIn uses a search algorithm (much like Google) to return search results when members (many times recruiters and hiring managers) search for other members. LinkedIn places a lot of search algorithm weighting on the words in your professional headline. Also, every time you make a comment, ask a question or post an update, your professional headline appears. As you can see from the picture above, LinkedIn allows for many more characters in your headline than a typical job title. Use up the character allotment with a strong personal branding statement and key words that will differentiate you from the competition and, if crafted appropriately, will allow you to show up on the first page of LinkedIn search results.
LinkedIn recommendations are meaningless
If written properly, LinkedIn recommendations can play in integral role in your LinkedIn profile, your personal brand and ultimately in your career. After all, what is more powerful: you saying how terrific you are or someone else singing your virtues? Consider a book cover: are you more impressed with the author’s bio or the third party recommendations? The bottom line is that, in most cases, what others say about you has more impact than what you say about yourself. LinkedIn recommendations are important, but how do you go about writing and receiving recommendations to enhance your LinkedIn profile and therefore your personal brand? For a deep dive check out LinkedIn recommendations: love ‘em or leave ‘em?
What are some other LinkedIn misconceptions? Please leave a comment below and/or send me an email.
Matt
About the Author
***Download a free copy of Matt’s 70 page eBook, The Royal Wave and Other Strategies for Career Success***
Matthew Levy is a well-rounded HR professional, career coach, keynote speaker and author with fifteen years of broad experience in both specialist (e.g., recruiting) and generalist (e.g., HR business partner) roles at blue-chip companies, including Merck, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson.
Matt is founder and President of a career coaching practice, Corner Office Career Coaching. Matt works one-on-one with professionals, executives and students providing them with customized solutions to their career challenges. As a 20-year corporate HR professional with a large network that has also successfully conducted his own effective, cutting-edge job search, he is well qualified to help others reach their career goals. His job seeker blog has received 50,000 visitors and his articles have been run by nationally recognized job search and career management websites and guides. He also regularly gives speeches on career management and job search.
Matt works full time as a Global HR Lead for Johnson & Johnson. Prior to J&J, Matt relocated his family to Southern California to take a position with Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, where he led the talent acquisition function for Amgen’s commercial operations and corporate staff groups. Before Amgen, Matt spent several years at Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. There, Matt held a variety of positions in both recruiting and generalist capacities.
Matt graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Business Management from Ithaca College. He is an actively engaged member of several professional organizations including the Philadelphia HR Planning Society where he is on the Board of Directors and the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executives Group.
Matt lives in Doylestown, PA with his wife, daughter and son. He jogs through the Bucks County countryside to stay fit.
Great post, Matt. You simplify what can seem like a lot of work!
Mary, Thanks for dropping by! I’m hoping others will chime in with additional LinkedIn myths. Here’s another one: that LinkedIn Recommendations are worthless. I disagree with that as well! Matt
Matt, thank you for emphasizing and clarifying these important aspects of LinkedIn. I appreciate learning that a profile rated 100 percent complete does not necessarily mean that it is! I really like how you explain the value of connecting with people you don’t know (yet) through your very apt analogy. As you’ve said before, and it bears repeating, a customized LinkedIn invitation message is imperative. Keep up the great work! Vicki
Vicki, I always appreciate your comments! Yes, that “completeness bar graph” drives me a bit crazy because there is so much more one can do but I think many users relax instead of learning more they can do (adding applications, skills, certifications, updates, groups, etc etc). Matt
Really useful tips Matt. Looking forward to your next post. Good night from Philly!
Yiran, Thanks for stopping by! I’m just north of Philadelphia so we are almost neighbors.
I think this is a great article on Linked In misconceptions. I think another misconception that people have about Linked In is that too many people utilize linked in as a method to reach out to other people in an effort to benefit themselves, and themselves only. I think that people have to be cognizant of the fact that Linked in is a networking too and part of networking is finding mutual ways to benefit not just “you” but both “me and you”. I think there is a big lack of networking etiquette on Linked in.
I often receive a request from somebody to add me to their network and then indicate that they are my “friend”. But, i have no clue who they are. To me, this is a very big turn off.
In my humble opinion, people have to be very careful who they approach and how the approach them. Otherwise, they merely come off as “what’s in it for them” and for me that is a complete turnoff. However, when used effectively, Linked In can be a great networking tool. People just need be savvier with their Linked in networking etiquette.
Steven Feinberg
Steve, Thanks for your comments and I couldn’t agree more. Especially folks that use the “friend” option to make an invitation request! I explore LinkedIn etiquette with this article:
http://blog.cornerofficecoach.com/2010/04/26/linkedin-etiquette-using-the-standard-invitation-request-think-twice/
And I explore your other important point about mutually beneficial networking here:
http://blog.cornerofficecoach.com/2011/03/13/the-secret-to-networking/
Matt