As I wrote yesterday, there are numerous articles, books and blogs on how to maximize the use of LinkedIn. Some say one thing and then next says the exact opposite. I want to give you my overall philosophy on how your resume, LinkedIn and other social profiles should be put together and maximized.
Your resume is the most business like of all tools. There is little room for demonstrating more than your professional experience, background and accomplishments and in fact, disclosing personal information is usually looked upon unfavorably.
While every effort needs to be made to keep all your social media professional such as leaving off the naked tequila shots from college, you are afforded some ability to better round out your persona and transform yourself from a couple of pages of black and white.
LinkedIn is really your next step. While I advocate keeping the resume 100% straight arrow in content, I look to LinkedIn as 85% or 90%. I think you need to round yourself out. Number one, put up a good picture but don’t put up the cheap grey, or worse, brown background. Never put a picture on a resume. Already you look better!
Write a compelling summary. Humanize yourself but don’t lose your professionalism. Another no-no, don’t just cut and paste from your resume. While LinkedIn can reinforce what you have stated in your resume, here you have an opportunity to add layers of color and interest.
Take advantage of the specialties area. Anyone ever hear of key word search?
Take a look at some of the LinkedIn applications and make use of them. If you travel, TripIt is a good thing. Say your going to be in Kalamazoo next week. Wouldn’t it be great to meet a 1st Level LinkedIn acquaintance?
To be continued….(always wanted to write that.)
Your approach may be not that original but very well-structured. And as social networking has been becoming more and more popular, pieces of advice like this may always come in handy and certainly, your profile should be absolutely "clear"!
Posted by: job search | October 20, 2009 at 07:50 AM