CHAPTER 5
Use LinkedIn As Your First Impression
Stand Out Online
I must come clean right up front. I am LinkedIn’s biggest fan. I am so sanguine about LinkedIn, people think I own a lot of stock in their parent company (Microsoft) or I work for them (that part is true: I have done work for them in the past). But my excitement for LinkedIn is actually rooted in my passion for personal branding.
I’m an unexpected entrepreneur, having held roles in corporate branding for the first chapter of my adult life. I only stopped “working for the man” because I was so passionate about the idea of personal branding. If there had been a role for a chief personal branding officer, I would have stayed in the corporate world for the rest of my career. But that wasn’t the case. These days, my work has evolved to focus mostly on digital branding, and LinkedIn has become the primary tool my corporate clients deploy.
Why LinkedIn?
There are literally hundreds of online branding tools you can use to increase your visibility and grow your personal brand, but trying to work on all of them would take too much time; focus is critical. I recommend you start with only one tool—and for most of us, that tool is LinkedIn. You’ll find that it’s the place people go, and it has become valuable to companies.
It’s the Place People Go
LinkedIn is often the first place people go when they want to learn about you in a professional capacity. It’s assumed that all professionals who are serious about their careers have a LinkedIn profile. How would you feel about someone you met at a networking event whom you discovered didn’t have a LinkedIn profile? Would you be skeptical? And if people are researching you through a Google search, they’ll likely end up at your LinkedIn profile because, as I mentioned in the last chapter, Google’s algorithm often bumps sites like LinkedIn to the top, so your LinkedIn profile will typically show up in one of the top three spots on the results page—and that’s where most of the clicks happen.
It Has Become Valuable to Companies
Once upon a time, companies were leery of their people being on LinkedIn. Bosses feared it was only used by people who were looking to jump ship. Today, companies are encouraging their people to use LinkedIn because they know it does a lot more than help individuals to advance their career—it helps the company, too. We’ll talk about this in detail in chapter 12.
Adopting a New Mindset
In working with professionals, from C-suite leaders to entry-level employees, I have learned that when it comes to LinkedIn, everyone wants to start with the sexy stuff—reaching out to build a network of connections and posting content for others to see. That’s all great (and we’ll talk about that in the upcoming sections of the book). But doing that before you polish your profile will work against you. You need to start by building a powerful, magnetic, and (of course) authentic profile. That’s what delivers your first impression and serves as the foundation for all the other activities you will pursue in LinkedIn.
When LinkedIn was born in 2003, it was a service with incredible potential, but for the most part, it served two primary purposes: to provide a digital version of your resume, and to be a platform for virtual networking. Its key focus was job searching.
LinkedIn became the place you absolutely needed to be if you’re looking for a job. It also came with a double-edged sword. Back then, creating your LinkedIn profile was met with trepidation by LinkedIn members: “I don’t want my manager thinking I am looking for a job.” And it was met with suspicion from the other side: “If my people are on LinkedIn, they must be looking to leave.”
If you still think of LinkedIn in these terms, you’re stuck in 2003. In this world, Friends is the number 1 TV show, the Concorde is still flying, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was just elected governor of California.
The most pernicious byproduct with this mindset is that it made LinkedIn binary. Because of the job search focus, it became a place you didn’t visit very often. Sure, if you were looking for a job or had a major career event—like a promotion or a new job—you’d visit your profile to update it. But back then, you rarely went into LinkedIn, and you surely didn’t visit your profile daily.
Now that LinkedIn has matured, you must adopt a new mindset about the site.
Although LinkedIn is still used as a job search and recruiting tool, its greatest value comes from the features that allow you to learn and grow, and to become a part of communities. Most of these features have been added over the past several years. Together, they make LinkedIn the single most valuable digital branding tool you have—besides yourself, of course.
It’s not just about being found. LinkedIn also ticks all the boxes when it comes to online branding. There’s little you can’t do with LinkedIn when it comes to showcasing your expertise, increasing visibility, and nurturing your network. We’ll talk a lot about this in the next chapter and in part 4 of the book. I will share with you my favorite tips, tricks, and techniques for maximizing LinkedIn.
MINDSET RESET
LinkedIn’s primary value comes from helping you do your job better and deliver greater value to your employer.
To get the most out of that value, you still have to start by focusing on LinkedIn’s role in delivering your first impression. Your profile is you when you aren’t there. Since LinkedIn is the place people (including current co-workers) go to learn about you, it’s an opportunity to be visible to decision makers—being found by people who need to know you. With all the features it offers to personalize your profile, you can paint a portrait of the value you deliver in a differentiated and compelling way. It is a living virtual document that grows with you, becoming a comprehensive collection of your most important wins and giving you access to knowledge that will help you score those wins. But no matter how you’re using it, LinkedIn delivers your first impression.
Sure, there are lots of social networks that help you remain visible to your target audience, express your point of view, and be part of an interconnected community. And many of them will be valuable to you in building your digital brand. You need to determine which media are right for you based on where your target audience goes for information and how that audience likes to communicate. (We’ll talk about other social media tools in part 4.) But for every career-minded professional, until another social media platform comes along to replace it, LinkedIn is the essential site.
Fun Fact
There are more than half a billion members of LinkedIn as of this writing, so it’s the largest professional network in the world—and the only one that operates everywhere. In China, Facebook and Twitter are banned.
As more people understand the tremendous value in LinkedIn, that number will grow.
Now before you build that brilliant profile, let’s take a big-picture look at LinkedIn. Then you’ll be ready to craft your profile in chapter 6.
Do This, Not That
| Do think of LinkedIn as you when you can’t be there in person. | Don’t think of LinkedIn as a resume. |
LinkedIn: Your Personal Branding Team
LinkedIn has quickly transformed into a rich, customizable, multifaceted personal branding platform. LinkedIn can become your powerful partner in long-range branding and career management. Here are all the functions it adds to your team—without having to add to your payroll:
It’s your agent. Often delivering the first impression to a prospect, your LinkedIn profile is you when you aren’t there.
It’s your business developer. Replete with the right keywords, your LinkedIn profile attracts and connects you with people who need what you have to offer. You may not know who might be looking for you, but a profile packed with the right search terms will help you get found. It’s called “planned serendipity.”
It’s your professional association. It allows you to be part of the right communities and conversations. More and more, you need to be connected to others who share your expertise and interests. LinkedIn groups and other features make it efficient for you to be part of targeted discussions so you can remain current and participate even more than you could with your local professional association.
It’s your publicist. Move over, CNN. LinkedIn lets you showcase your expertise and express your point of view. Through the way you write your summary to the content you share in your activity feed, the groups you join, and the conversations you have, you can tell people who you are and what you believe.
It’s your graphic designer. It helps you paint a 3D portrait of the value you create. LinkedIn now allows you to integrate images or videos into your profile summary and experience, making it a true multimedia portfolio of who you are, what you have to offer, and why your work is valuable.
It’s your reference check. By allowing your community to applaud your accomplishments, LinkedIn provides validation for everything you say about yourself. Endorsements help confirm your strengths and skills. Recommendations allow you to put the spotlight on testimonials that are associated with your various roles.
It’s your mentor. It helps you learn and grow. LinkedIn Influencers and Topics help you stay on top of news and ideas, as well as the wisdom of key influencers. Groups also allow you to stay current about relevant and timely issues, and they help you build relationships with people who can guide you in your career decisions.
It’s your recruiter. LinkedIn not only helps others find you, it helps you find the ideal people you need for those open positions on your team.
It’s your salesperson. If you’re looking to get in to see a client or potential business partner, your complete and compelling profile can make the difference between being invited to pitch and having a door closed in your face.
It’s your contact manager. It allows you to organize and manage all the people in your professional life. You can add your email and phone contacts to your LinkedIn connections—making it the only tool you need to find the key players in your community, even when they switch jobs and their email address changes.
It’s your researcher. Whether you are looking to learn about a new field, want to see who the experts are in a specific industry, or would like to know more about a particular company or product, LinkedIn gives you the 4-1-1.
Perfecting Your Profile
Now that you’re convinced of the value of LinkedIn, let’s focus on perfecting your profile.
BRAND HACK
Go from boring to branded. If you think of your profile as a mere resume, it will become nothing more than a proof tool—a list of facts. But when you think of it as a career portfolio, it becomes a vivid, memorable 3D portrait of who you are, what makes you great, and why people should care.
Before you start creating your profile, evaluate where you are. There are two important attributes that make your profile powerful: credibility and likability.
Do You Know Your Credibility Score?
Credibility is critical. If you aren’t credible, you’re disposable. Your credibility rises as you prove that you are who you are and you do what you say you’re going to do. And you can truly boost your credibility when you can tout the acknowledgment and respect of others—especially those who are revered in your area of expertise.
PONDER THIS
Get your credibility score by ranking yourself on a scale of 1-5 on the following questions:
• Are you respected? Does your profile include external validation of what you say about yourself (recommendations from high-profile leaders, references to quotes of you in publications)?
• Are your top three endorsements tied to the skills for which you want to be known?
• Does your profile include blog posts, media, and other items that demonstrate your skills?
• Is your profile expertly written, free of grammatical and spelling errors, and pleasing to look at because it contains the right amount of white space?
Do You Know Your Likability Score?
According to Tim Sanders, author of The Likeability Factor, “You can win life’s popularity contests.” Sanders’s research has shown that the more you are liked, the happier your life will be, and he coaches readers on four specific factors:
• friendliness: your ability to communicate liking and openness to others
• relevance: your capacity to connect with others’ interests, wants, and needs
• empathy: your ability to recognize, acknowledge, and experience other people’s feelings
• realness: the integrity that stands behind your likability and guarantees its authenticity.
In the world of personal branding, it’s especially important to consider these factors in terms of your first impression. Your ability to demonstrate your likability begins with your first interaction with someone, and as we discussed that first interaction is likely to happen online.
Does your LinkedIn profile convey your likability?
PONDER THIS
Get your likability score by ranking yourself on a scale of 1-5 on the following questions:
• Are you interesting? Your profile needs to go beyond the facts—beyond your accomplishments and credentials. It needs to make you human and fascinating—making your audience want to know more. Your summary is the best place to demonstrate that you’re interesting.
• Are you transparent? When you read your profile, does it seem vague, like you’re hiding something?
• Are you generous? If your profile screams “Me, Me, Me,” it will repel more than attract. Do you acknowledge others? Do you volunteer for organizations or offer to mentor others?
• Do you stand out? To get people to feel curious about you, your profile needs to be differentiated.
Remote Control
It’s easier to show how likable you are when you’re chatting with someone at the watercooler or coffee station. There, you’re more likely to ask about your colleague’s recent trip to Italy than hold forth on the Six Sigma process you use in your work. To deliver the same likability, be deliberate about what you want to share about your personal life in your LinkedIn profile. Be human in a world of automated machines.
Combining Your Results
At CareerBlast, we created the LPTI—the LinkedIn Profile Type Indicator (Figure 5-1). When you combine the results from these two scales, you can determine if your profile makes you seem anemic, affable, accomplished, or admired.
Figure 5-1. LinkedIn Profile Type Indicator
We have all heard it: “People want to work with people they know, like, and trust.” Your LinkedIn profile needs to make people feel that they know you, then it needs build trust (that’s the credibility piece) and get people to like you.
When you evaluate yourself in the two measures of credibility and likability, you will see where you show up in the four-box model: anemic, accomplished, affable, or admired.
Anemic
There’s work to do. Your profile does little to build your credibility or help you connect with others. The great news is that, with a little effort, you can upgrade your profile and change the current perception. Reflect on your significant achievements and the things that people admire about you, as well as your audience’s needs. Then refine your profile to include those key points.
Accomplished
Great start! You clearly communicate that you are skilled and have racked up numerous achievements. Now it’s time to tweak your profile so that you are more approachable and immediately likable. To connect more deeply with others, share a bit more in your profile about who you are, what you’re passionate about, and what you do outside of work.
Affable
Pretty good! Your LinkedIn profile exudes likability, making it easy for people to connect with you on a personal level. It’s time to prove that you are not only likable, but also skilled and influential. To take your profile to the next level, add your workplace accomplishments and accolades from others. Show people who are checking you out that you have professional expertise, a honed point of view, and value to offer.
Admired
Bravo! You have built your LinkedIn profile thoughtfully and strategically. You deliver a powerful first impression. You not only communicate your accomplishments and accolades, but also connect deeply with others through your authenticity and transparency. You are both credible and likeable, demonstrating that you are truly admirable.
To get your complete results, complete the complimentary LPTI quiz here: www.careerblast.tv/LPTI. It will reveal where you need to apply the most effort to your LinkedIn profile. We’ll work on that profile in the next chapter. But before we do, here are two final, vital pointers:
Reorient your view of your profile. The best way to evaluate your profile is not to look at each of the LinkedIn elements in the order in which they’re displayed. Instead, look at them from the perspective of the value they deliver for you (Table 5-1).
Table 5-1. LinkedIn Profile Components
| COMPONENT | LINKEDIN CONTENT CATEGORIES | QUALITIES |
| The Big Three | Headline, Headshot, Summary/About (this is your first impression) | Relevant, Magnetic, Compelling |
| Contact | Vanity URL, Contact Details, 3 Websites | Accessible, Visible |
| Validation | Endorsements, Recommendations, Experience, Education | Proven, Acknowledged |
| Other Elements | Articles and Activity, Accomplishments, Interests | Thorough, Professional, Well-Rounded, Involved |
Don’t annoy your connections. Before you start crafting your profile in chapter 6, do this one important thing. When you’re updating your LinkedIn profile, it can annoy your contacts if they’re alerted to every little change you make. Turn off “profile edit sharing.” When you’re on the homepage, go to Settings & Privacy (a menu option under “me”) and under “Share job changes,” choose “No.” Then you can make all the changes you want over several sessions, and you won’t alert your connections to each comma you add or word you change.
That’s it. Now you’re ready to translate the real you to the virtual you.
Summing Up
Chapter 5 was exclusively focused on LinkedIn—the most powerful online platform for delivering your first impression. You understand the important intersection of likability and credibility and are ready to turn this learning into action. That’s what we’ll discuss in chapter 6. You’ll learn exactly what to do—and what not to do—to build a stellar LinkedIn profile, tapping the power of concepts that most LinkedIn users either skipped or never noticed. This will help you stand out.