Mistakes You’re Doing While Making Your LinkedIn

LinkedIn now markets a service for recruiters that permits them to search for profiles and store the results, as well as communicate with candidates within an interface user pay for access to. However, even recruiters who do not pay for access can still make use of the platform to search for candidates.

And the greatest thing about LinkedIn? It’s free!
If you’ve an account, you may think that you’re in the clear, however, the vast majority of people aren’t. A majority of you have made small mistakes with your profile that are impacting the search results. So, if you’ve got an account, follow these suggestions to improve it. If you don’t, utilize them as a starting point for creating your very first profile.

Mistakes You’re Doing While Making Your LinkedIn

Mistakes You're Doing While Making Your LinkedIn

Not Listing Every Position

A lot of people list only their two or three most recent positions, however, this is a mistake since employers often search for candidates who have worked for a specific organization previously. If you don’t mention this company in your work timeline, they will not be able to locate the company.

Additionally, LinkedIn allows people to look up former colleagues (which it does by searching for names of employers). If you don’t have a list of all of your companies, you’re missing out on the opportunity to connect with a variety of people.

The key point is that The search results of Linkedin depend in part on the number of contacts you’ve made Don’t be a slave to doing every interaction that is possible (I’ll discuss this more in a bit later).

The first thing I would suggest is to write down every job you’ve held. Be sure to record all your certifications and associations since recruiters might decide to look for them instead of by the company you work for.

The Job Descriptions Are Not Written For Each Position

It might seem like it’s a pain to write a description of every job, but this is essential for two reasons:

  1. Employers want to know the things you’ve done, and this is the time you’re able to describe your accomplishments and achievements.
  2. The descriptions are likely to include keywords that recruiters use in their search and could assist you in being found.

Write down a description of the roles you played and don’t focus on boring descriptions of the responsibilities, but rather on the way you performed your job, its effects, and outcomes. Check out the profile of my blog for some examples.

Insufficiently Writing A Compelling Summary Section.

It’s essential to write an impressive summary. This is because the summary section of your profile allows you to write your story in only 2,000 words. It’s the first thing that people will be able to see when they visit your profile. It’s also a great location to include keywords that will assist recruiters to find your profile when they’re looking for someone with your skill set.
It’s a good idea to look through job advertisements to find keywords that are commonly used because these are the keywords that recruiters are likely to be searching for.

Not Changing The Auto Sub-header Supplied By Linkedin

If you type in the title of your current job, LinkedIn automatically places it under the name of your profile.
Do not leave this headline as it is! It’s not unless the job title is impressive enough that you’d be able to convince people to employ you due to it. (For example, if, for instance, you’re an expert in joke writing in the show The Daily Show, that may be all you need for a title!) However, for everyone else, our jobs aren’t the most memorable feature of us.

If you do a search on LinkedIn the result page will look like this:

Look at the sub-header there. This means you can inform recruiters of your current title at work or give them something that conveys your expertise. I suggest the former.
Here’s more information on how to create a compelling LinkedIn headline.

The Network Is Not Extensive Enough

There’s been a long-running debate over whether you should only join with people who you know personally and be able to confirm (this is the way that the company suggests) or if you should become what’s described as an “open networker” and join to anyone who asks.
I’ll likely write about this later and it’s mostly based on the goals you have on LinkedIn and your personal values. However, if you’re trying to be seen in the most amount of searches, then there’s no doubt. The open network is definitely the best way to take.
If your aim is to maximize visibility, do the LinkedIn search using the term “LION.” This is short for “Linkedin Open Networker” which means LinkedIn is open to making connections with strangers. Connecting with them could boost your visibility tremendously since they all have numerous acquaintances that they have their own.
If you are of the opinion that networking openly isn’t your thing, and you truly wish to limit your connections to friends and acquaintances you know, then ensure that you add as many as you can by using the numerous options LinkedIn provides.

Create Your Personal Url

If you create a profile on LinkedIn, LinkedIn can automatically give your profile a URL that users can browse your profile directly. It is usually composed of letters and numbers. But you can change this URL so that it contains your name (www.linkedin.com/yournamel).
It’s not so in the case of LinkedIn’s internal LinkedIn outcomes, but rather for external Internet search results. When a prospective or hiring client is looking into your profile it is important for them to discover convincing and credible information. LinkedIn has a huge influence on Google and other search engine sites, consequently, your LinkedIn profile is among the most effective ways to make sure that you appear on page one of Google for your name.

Make Your Profile Public.

The other day, I was looking over an online presence for a client and discovered a LinkedIn profile that had little or nothing. “That’s impossible,” he said to me “I filled the whole thing out.” After some chatter, we realized that he’d made his profile unintentionally show the majority of information available on the Internet.

Be aware that not all potential employers or customers will see your profile once you log into LinkedIn. A large portion of them will discover it through a Google search. If you’ve set the majority of your profile to be private it will not be attractive.

To alter this, go to the tab ‘edit profile’ and search for ‘Public Profile. Then, click the small “edit” beside the address, and you’ll arrive on the page where you are able to decide what you want to publish. If you do not have a good reason to avoid this, I suggest sharing everything.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is becoming an indispensable platform for executive and professional job seeking. They not only post job openings and offer the chance to research and connect with those who work in the companies you want to join, However, they are also advertising the database of their users to hiring managers. It gives you a great opportunity to boost your profile and be in front of the appropriate people. If you’ve committed one of the mistakes mentioned above, don’t waste time fixing them.