LinkedIn is one of the most powerful platforms for looking for a job. It allows you to build a detailed profile on an engaging template and gives you access to a huge pool of recruiters and domain experts. Using the tool right can quickly take you to your dream job interview. However, most people are making grave errors while creating their profiles on LinkedIn.
Here is a list of the top 10 commonly committed mistakes on LinkedIn profiles that every job seekers should steer clear of.
Your picture does a good deal of talking for you in any virtual arena. Not putting one or being careless about your choice of a picture for your LinkedIn profile will make you lose out. Any recruiter would consciously or sub-consciously judge a few traits like professionalism, sincerity and confidence from your pictures. Make sure your pictures convey all of it and whatever else you wish for your first impression to be.
In addition to giving the first impression, a picture makes you memorable. People will find it easier to recognize you and connect with you in person at a networking event if they have seen a clear picture of you on LinkedIn. Not to mention, profiles with pictures get much more views than equivalent profiles without pictures.
For someone to click on your LinkedIn profile and read through the contents of it, the headline should be appealing enough. If your profile’s status is incomplete, clichéd, or altogether amiss you are massively lowering your chances of being discovered. When writing a headline, think of something that is descriptive, short and slightly creative.
Always include a few keywords and phrases that uniquely identify your LinkedIn profile – something that recruiters looking to hire in your domain and level of expertise may use as their search terms on Google. A complete and well-written profile is way more likely to show up in search results than a lousily written one. So if you want your profile to be found and truly stand out pepper it with relevant keywords and make it search-friendly.
Grammatical errors in a LinkedIn profile are fatal. Nothing conveys laziness and a lack of professionalism as does a profile with typing and other sorts of trivial errors. If you appear least interested in perfecting and refining your own profile, you’ll certainly be taken for someone who wouldn’t put in much effort into making their job perfect either. Use spelling and grammar checks to perfect your profile. And, always remember to proofread a few times before posting.
Adding too many people meaninglessly is near buffoonery. If you do that, you are taking up a most childish gimmick to look popular on a network. Avoid it at all costs or you might as well be marked as a spammer on LinkedIn and get a deactivation warning. Instead, add people you genuinely mean to connect with. You certainly can initiate contact with a stranger, but do so with a relevant message and a clear aim in mind for establishing the new connection.
LinkedIn is a platform for introducing yourself, finding relevant connections and keeping your professional credentials updated; it’s not just a job-hunting site. One of the best ways to use LinkedIn and accomplish something out of it is by joining groups. A relevant group takes you to the people whom you can grow together with. If you are looking for a career change and want to be introduced into a new field, joining a related group and reading/responding/querying regularly on it can be an excellent foundation for the change.
If you get a profile visit from someone and are interested in establishing communication with that particular person, don’t text the person with an opening line of, ‘I had a profile visit from you’. It is infinitely better to simply introduce yourself and say you are interested in connecting.
Groups have a purpose, and meandering away from it to totally irrelevant chatter is a waste of everybody’s wavelength on the group. Members will start recognizing you as that annoying person who makes spammy posts if you keep bombarding promotional links or other meaningless content on the group’s page. Be specific, descriptive and professional in your posts – remember, it’s not Facebook (not that silly content on Facebook is any less annoying!).
Gross as this may sound, some eager LinkedIn users do go to the extent of asking total strangers or near-strangers for recommendations. If you are a college fresher or are going to be using LinkedIn for the first time, remember not to ever indulge in such behavior! It will certainly not fetch you any worthy recommendation but will put you at a risk of getting reported to LinkedIn for inappropriate use.
LinkedIn is a professional network; use it as one. For everything else, go to social networks, dating sites, or any other appropriate forums on the Internet. When you log in to LinkedIn, only keep your professional identity at the front of your head. So do not post personal anecdotes, pictures or opinions unrelated to your profession on the platform.
Hope these pointers help you create an impactful profile on the world’s most popular professional networking platform!
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