Leveraging LinkedIn for Career Success

With over 300 million members, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network.  Joining LinkedIn is like exposing your resume to millions of employers, potential clients, and referral partners.

Yet, students and alumni often complain that they do not know how to use LinkedIn to grow their network.

Here are four tips for expanding your presence on LinkedIn:

1. Optimize your profile for higher rankings.

In order to be found on LinkedIn, you need to do much more than simply make your profile public.  You must populate your profile with “keywords” – the words that others will type into the LinkedIn toolbar when searching for people like you.

The LinkedIn algorithm takes into account the placement of keywords and the frequency with which you use the same keywords.  The most effective places to liberally sprinkle keywords are: your headline, summary, previous jobs, and skills.  Having the right keywords can make your profile appear higher in the search results.

2. Upload a professional photograph of you smiling.

According to an eye tracking study conducted by The Ladders, recruiters spend 19 percent of their time looking at your photograph on LinkedIn.  Although your current job title and education also receive significant attention, the photograph was looked at the longest.

Therefore, it is imperative that you upload a professional-looking photograph.  You do not need to hire a professional photographer, but you should create a strong connection with the viewer by smiling while making direct eye contact with the camera.

3. Grow your network with LinkedIn Groups.

LinkedIn limits most connection requests to first-degree connections (people that you personally know).  However, if you are a member of a group, you can message anyone in that group.  This widens your network considerably.

The best groups to join are those in your industry or in your local geographic area.  Also, look for alumni groups.  If you are a La Verne Law graduate, consider joining the University of La Verne College of Law Alumni group on LinkedIn.

You can also start your own group.  LinkedIn often features multiple alumni groups for a particular school, based on interest.  For example, an alumnus could start a Northern California La Verne Law group or a La Verne Law Solo Attorneys group.

4. Obtain endorsements and recommendations.

Endorsements on LinkedIn signify the number of times that your colleagues verified your skills, which you can input yourself.  The more endorsements that you have for a particular skill, the higher your ranking on LinkedIn for the keyword related to that skill.

Recommendations are statements written by people who are familiar with your work or education.  Because employers may view recommendations as references, make sure that they are strong.

One of the best ways to get endorsements and recommendations is to give them to others.  If you graduated from La Verne Law, an easy way to get started is to visit your profile and click on University of La Verne College of Law.   From there, you may find classmates that you can endorse or recommend.