Leveraging

LinkedIn
INSIGHTS INTO IMPORTANCE OF
BUILDING A GREAT LINKEDIN PROFILE TO
GAIN MAXIMUM VALUE (ALONG WITH
TIPS TO MAKE PROFILE STAND OUT!)
FOR STUDENTS!

Ebook by
Ajinkya Chopade
 CONTENT

Chapter 1: Introduction to LinkedIn

What is LinkedIn?

Why use LinkedIn?

Chapter 2: How to build your LinkedIn profile?

Chapter 3: Network Building

Find meaningful contacts

Chapter 4: Common mistakes in LinkedIn profile

Chapter 5: LinkedIn Checklist

Chapter 6: Benefits of using LinkedIn

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 1
INTRODUCTION TO LINKEDIN
WHAT IS LINKEDIN?

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the internet. You can
use LinkedIn to find the right job or internship, connect and strengthen
professional relationships, and learn the skills you need to succeed in your
career.

The site also offers things you won't find in other places, like a full-featured career
board, where you can search for and apply for jobs.

Many employment services are now compatible with LinkedIn - when applying for a
position, you may be able to share your LinkedIn profile, which sometimes means you
won't need to painstakingly enter your work experience into a long online form. If
you're new to LinkedIn, here's a quick tour around the site.

LinkedIn is like a tool that can be used by everyone in order to improve professional
network and Job searching activities. This is the most widely used tool for career
enhancement, which also helps you to grow your business by making valuable
networking. Over 660 million professionals use Linkedin (out of which 62 million users
are from India) to cultivate their careers and businesses. Over 30 million companies
have a profile on LinkedIn.

MORE THAN
660 MILLION +
200
USERS
COUNTRIES!

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WHY USE LINKEDIN?

LinkedIn offers useful resources for job seekers, providing information, acting as a
billboard to highlight your unique value proposition, and making your information
public for recruiters who may be looking for what you have to offer.

LinkedIn is the top online site for professional, social, and career networking.

The site functions as an online directory of individual professionals and organizations

and facilitates the process of professional networking without having to leave your
office.

As of 2020, LinkedIn had more than 660 million members in more than 200 countries,
including executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies.

Linked is an Online Resume.

While individuals use LinkedIn for professional networking, connecting, and job
searching, companies use it for recruiting and for sharing company information with
prospective employees.

"To grow your career professionally and , you should be an active member of
LinkedIn, because LinkedIn will connect you to the information, insights and people to
be more effective".

Many people use Linkedin to grow their contacts, professional career and there is a
job section where you can search and apply for jobs anywhere in the world. There are
setting on LinkedIn where you can also let recruiters know that you are searching for
jobs.

"Active participation on LinkedIn is the best way to say, ‘Look at me!’ without saying
‘Look at me!"

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Following are some points that can give you an idea about why one should use
LinkedIn :
People are researching you. Many people follow you and try to get more
information, insights about you.

LinkedIn gives you a chance to control what people discover about your skills and
more importantly about your personal brand.

LinkedIn is the most efficient way to manage and grow your network. You can stay
connected with all your co-workers, Learn where people are working on and what
they are sharing on LinkedIn. Celebrate their promotions and career movement.

LinkedIn is the ultimate personal branding platform. It is the best and most widely
used tool to increase your visibility and staying connected with your professional
community.

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2
HOW TO BUILD YOUR LINKEDIN
PROFILE?
Follow the following points:-

Sign Up for LinkedIn:- Ready to get started? It's simple. Navigate to

LinkedIn.com, enter your first and last name and email address in the indicated
area, and create a password.

Choose a Professional Photo:- You'll want to make a good first impression on

anyone who views your profile, and a big part of that is the picture you choose.
You should opt for a professional-looking photo rather than a casual shot.

Write a Good Profile Summary:- Your LinkedIn profile summary is a chance to

put your best foot forward, especially if you are interested in new job opportunities.
LinkedIn has a character limit for this section, and you want to make the most of it.

Improve and Tweak Your Profile:- Recommendations are another great way to
make your LinkedIn profile stand out. Positive recommendations are written by
previous employers, clients, or colleagues can show a hiring manager what kind of
employee you are and what your strengths are. You have the ability to request
recommendations from your LinkedIn connections.

Use LinkedIn Endorsements:- Endorsements are a quick and easy way for your
professional contacts to help show other users where your expertise lies.

Include Your LinkedIn Profile Address on Your Resume:-Including your

LinkedIn URL on your resume makes it easy for prospective employers to visit
LinkedIn to learn more about you and your skills and qualifications. LinkedIn will
assign you a URL unless you create a custom one. To create a custom URL, click
the "Me" icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and select "View profile" from
the drop-down menu.

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 Sending Messages and Invitations:- Once you sign up for LinkedIn and create a
profile, you can start to build a network of contacts, including people with whom
you connect on a professional basis, and educational basis, or based on another
common interest.

How Big Should Your Network Be?:- How many people do you need in your
LinkedIn network to make it an effective tool for job searching and career
networking? The short answer is, it depends. The right connections are more
important than the actual number of connections you have. Ideally, you want
connections that are relevant to your line of work, that can potentially lead you to a
job opportunity or can provide valuable advice.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile for SEO:-

Customize your public profile URL with your name. You should edit your profile
so that your LinkedIn profile URL looks like
http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname. To edit this URL, visit your profile, click
on “edit” next to your public profile URL, and then “edit” once again on your
public profile settings page. With your name in the URL, it is more likely for
your profile to rank for searches for your name because search engines look
for relevant keywords in the URL. Additionally, this is a much easier URL to
remember and share with others as you meet them.

Optimize keywords in your summary section. This is a full text section

which is indexed by Google. Including your favorite keywords in your summary
helps you rank higher in search engine results for these keyword searches.

Applying for Jobs on LinkedIn:- Job seekers can search and apply for jobs
directly on LinkedIn. In addition, you can view and contact your LinkedIn
connections who may be able to refer you for a job. Targeted searches such as
the advanced people or company finders can sharpen your scope and help you
find exactly what you are looking for.
Searching Company Profiles:- LinkedIn company profiles are a good way to find
more information on companies in which you have an interest. You'll be able to
see if you have any connections at the company, new hires, promotions, jobs
posted, related companies, and company statistics.
More Tips for Using LinkedIn:- After reading this article and the related links,
hopefully, you have a solid grasp on how to use LinkedIn effectively. Below are a
few more tips for using the site.

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 Keep Your LinkedIn Profile Up to Date:- The more complete your LinkedIn
profile is, the better your chances to be found and contacted. Use your LinkedIn
profile like a resume and provide prospective employers with detailed information
on your skills and experience.

How to Update Your LinkedIn Profile When You're Unemployed:- Updating

your LinkedIn profile to reflect that you're unemployed can create an issue. Even
though you might be unemployed, you must still present yourself in a positive light
to prospective employers and to networking contacts.

Using the LinkedIn Mobile App:- The LinkedIn Mobile App features include
searching and viewing profiles, inviting new connections, accessing LinkedIn
answers, and actionable network updates. You can send and receive messages,
look up user or company profiles, and even upload your resume to job openings
all in the palm of your hand. Use the app to keep your job search moving forward
when you're on the road.

Following graph, shows that 92% use LinkedIn to fulfill their professional needs
and business requirements.

“Active participation on LinkedIn is the best way to

say, ‘Look at me!’ without saying ‘Look at me!”

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3
NETWORK BUILDING
Connect with people with whom you have worked or done business, or generally
people with similar interests or work in your industry. Invite thought leaders in your
industry to connect so that you might establish a relationship with them and,
eventually, gain access to their network.

Find Meaningful Contacts

Start with people you know. First reach out to friends, colleagues, relatives and
business contacts as this will help you build the first layer of your network.
Find people by company. Search under the “Companies” tab so you can start
looking for employees that are working in your industry. You can use this method
of search to find the contacts for the types of companies your business is trying to
target.
Start asking and answering questions on LinkedIn Answers. In this medium, you
will be able to interact and connect with thought leaders, as well as establish
yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Update your status often. Your status appears on your profile and in the LinkedIn
Network Updates email to your connections. Thus, others may take notice of what
you are working on and decide to connect or click through on links in your status.
Connect your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Enabling this feature will help you
leverage both of these networks to build connections on both sites.

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4
COMMON MISTAKES IN
LINKEDIN PROFILE
Grammatical Mistakes and Typos:- All of your information is great; however, if
there are some grammar issues and typos here and there, these errors will erode
your credibility.

No Profile Picture:- Not having a profile picture is a huge no-no. Be sure to

upload a professional headshot. On LinkedIn, “professional” is the key.

Inappropriate Profile Picture:- You did upload a profile picture, but it’s a cropped
vacation picture or a photo that also has your spouse, partner, etc. in it. Another
big no-no. Again, we’re focused on “professional.” Group photos have their place
on Facebook, not LinkedIn.

A Boring Title:- Under your name, LinkedIn will list your profile title. Yes, you may
be a Sales Professional, but you could also describe yourself as “Enthusiastic
Professional ┃ Marketing & Sales Leader ┃ 10+ Years.” People are drawn to
interesting titles, and this is a great place to summarize your selling points and
excite your profile visitors.

A Generic Profile URL:- LinkedIn provides every account with a personal URL.
This is a long, ugly Web address. It’s time to customize your URL to a more
personal address—specifically, to your name. Once you do so, you can use that
URL on personal business cards and your resume. The other benefit of a personal
URL is the consistent branding it provides. By creating the same customized URL
for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., you’re strengthening your brand and your
page rank with search engines.

No Summary:- The summary section on LinkedIn cana be viewed the same as

the summary section at the top of your resume (or the “About Us” section of your
website, for business owners). You want to make sure that this section lists your
skills and abilities in an exciting and upbeat way. This summary will determine if
someone continues to read your profile.
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 Not Using Sections:- LinkedIn provides sections for your information, from work
experience to education to certifications to publications. Though you can just
upload your resume to your profile, it makes for a difficult read—and it’s not
searchable (big mistake). By using the sections, the reader can jump quickly to a
particular section to learn more about you.

Mention your Skills:- If you have a list of skills that aren’t recognized by LinkedIn,
it means that you are not searchable on the site. For example, when entering your
skills, if you type in the word “Sales,” LinkedIn will provide a drop-down list of
potential matching terms. If you don’t choose from that list, your skill will most
likely be unsearchable by recruiters. You see, that drop-down list represents the
most common search terms used by recruiters. If they use “Sales Director” and
that’s not listed on your profile, your profile will not show up in their list of possible
candidates. Always use the skills from the drop-down list that best represents you.

You Haven’t Joined Any Groups (Or Are Not Participating):- View LinkedIn
groups as online networking. Join groups that are within your niche or target
market, and then participate. Ask a question, start a discussion, or participate in
someone else’s discussion.

Not Using Sections:- LinkedIn provides sections for your information, from work
experience to education to certifications to publications. Though you can just
upload your resume to your profile, it makes for a difficult read—and it’s not
searchable (big mistake). By using the sections, the reader can jump quickly to a
particular section to learn more about you.

Mention your Skills:- If you have a list of skills that aren’t recognized by LinkedIn,
it means that you are not searchable on the site. For example, when entering your
skills, if you type in the word “Sales,” LinkedIn will provide a drop-down list of
potential matching terms. If you don’t choose from that list, your skill will most
likely be unsearchable by recruiters. You see, that drop-down list represents the
most common search terms used by recruiters. If they use “Sales Director” and
that’s not listed on your profile, your profile will not show up in their list of possible
candidates. Always use the skills from the drop-down list that best represents you.

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 You Haven’t Joined Any Groups (Or Are Not Participating):- View LinkedIn
groups as online networking. Join groups that are within your niche or target
market, and then participate. Ask a question, start a discussion, or participate in
someone else’s discussion. It will show your expertise, but more importantly,
people will see your name and profile title (you know, the new one you just
created). Every member of the group receives a summary email of that day’s or
week’s activity, so by participating, you’re getting your name out there in front of
potentially hundreds of people.

You’re Using Canned Text:- Just because LinkedIn provides the text when you
request to connect with people, that doesn’t mean that you should use it.
Remember, networking is all about the relationship. You will receive more
responses to your connection requests when you personalize the message.

You’re Connecting with People Through the App:- The LinkedIn app is
definitely getting better, but you still want to be careful when sending out
connection requests. Make sure you can edit the scanned text that they provide;
otherwise, you’ll appear spammy.

Being Too Obvious:- So you decided to check out some profile pages, but you
forgot to switch to “anonymous.” When you forget to do so, others know that you
have viewed their profile. And if the person has a premium account with LinkedIn,
they know when you viewed their account, too. If you don’t want them to think
you’re stalking them, remember to go anonymous when you’re checking out the
profile of the recruiter who will be interviewing you for a particular job.

(In)Credible Recommendations:- It’s great to have a lot of recommendations, it’s

not so great when they’re your friends and family just saying that you’re wonderful.
Credible recommendations should come from your manager, subordinates, and/or
customers.

Not Using Advanced Search or Company Pages:- This is a big mistake for
many job seekers. Not only can you click on the “Jobs” link in the toolbar of
LinkedIn; you can also use the “Advanced Search” function. You can also go to a
particular company’s page and check out their job listings. By conducting a search
or checking out open positions on the company’s LinkedIn page, you will see who
posted the position and if you have any connections in common. It’s all about who
you know, right? Many companies list their job opportunities on LinkedIn first,
before the other career sites. Take advantage of these options.

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5
LINKEDIN CHECKLIST
Headline:- Your profile headline is the first thing someone sees after your name.
Make it memorable. It should help someone understand the role you want to do
next and/or contain keywords important to your profession. You have 120
characters.

Photo & Background:- Image Choose a professional, high-quality headshot for

your photograph. Also, use the blue space at the top of your profile to further
brand yourself by inserting an image.

Email:- List all your active email addresses so they are associated with your
LinkedIn profile. You can set the default email which will be viewable by your
connections and the account that receives InMail and updates from LinkedIn.

Vanity URL:- Your LinkedIn profile has a URL (an Internet address). You can and
should edit this by adding your name (www.linkedin.com/in/yourname). This also
looks more professional when you include it on your resume, business card, or
email signature.

Other Web References:- If you have a personal website, professional Twitter

account, or links elsewhere on the web, you can add them to your profile within
the “contact info” section at the top. You should change the label from “other” to a
short, descriptive title.

Personal Details:- Your birth date and marital status are the least important
details. You may choose not to include this information on your profile.

Embed Media:- Add media (documents, video, images, audio) to your profile to
make it an online portfolio. You can embed these links in your summary, work
experience, and education sections.

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 Summary:- Consider this section as the answer to “tell me about yourself.”
Highlight the best of your background, experience, and skills. You could also
provide insight into your leadership style, personality, values, longer-term goals, or
outside interests. Keep the reader’s attention by using short paragraphs. And
make it more personal by writing in the first person by using “I”, “Me” or “My”. Add
a specialties section within your summary to list important hard and technical
skills. aincluding your email address to make it easy for people who are not
connected to contact you. Make the most of the 2,000 characters available.

Work Experience:- Include all the significant work history and include strong,
keyword-rich descriptions and accomplishments under each position. Your work
experience should be the same as listed on your resume. You may choose to
include more or less detail for each job.

Skills and Expertise List all the skills and areas of expertise that are most
important to your profession and you want to highlight.

Education:- Include all the institutions you’ve attended. List your concentration,
major, and/or minor. If you are a recent graduate, include club committees and
groups you were active in.

Certifications, Test Scores, Courses:- These sections are particularly helpful for
new graduates. List the most relevant and important information.

Projects You can reference class projects, special work assignments, and side
gigs as a project. This is another way to showcase skills and experience.

Recommendations:- Ask for recommendations from colleagues, managers, or

even clients who know your work.

Honors & Awards, Publications, Patents:- Complete these sections with as

much detail as necessary to highlight why it is important.

Status Update:- Regularly update your status so your network can see what you
are up to. A status update could include a link to an article, information about a
presentation you are attending, or it might be a question you would like feedback
from your contacts.

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 Groups:- Join college alumni groups, professional associations, and any industry-
related groups. Participate by answering questions, sharing links to interesting
articles, and engaging in conversation with other like-minded professionals.
Make it An All-Star Profile:- Don’t leave information blank or overlook the criteria
LinkedIn uses to boost your profile to all-star. Your industry and location, an up-to-
date current position (with description), two past positions, education, a minimum
of 3 skills, profile photo, and at least 50 connections.
Make It Public:- By default, LinkedIn sets your profile to be viewable to the public.
For active job seekers, this is the best option.

If you can get better at your

job, you should be an active
member of LinkedIn, because
LinkedIn should be connecting
you to the information,
insights and people to be more
effective.

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6
BENEFITS OF USING LINKEDIN
LinkedIn has many features apart from sharing content and gathering feedback. It can
be a valuable recruitment tool or business expansion tool because 1 out of every 3
professionals is on LinkedIn. You can have your own personal brand, interact with
people through brand pages and groups. You can increase your connection and build
a relationship with your connection that will help you with your career development.84
% of users get several business opportunities from LinkedIn.

The benefits of using Linkedin are:

Gain exposure to Hiring Managers and Recruiters:- 93% of recruiters use
LinkedIn to research and recruit candidates. LinkedIn allows you to have an online
personal brand which makes you visible to key decision makers and recruiters.
This means when your name is put into a search engine such as google, you have
an online personal brand and you are appearing in search results.

Demonstrate your knowledge, credibility and leadership expertise:- Having a

LinkedIn profile helps build trust with employers and recruiters as they can see
your recommendations and connections and evidence of where you have added
value.

Use LinkedIn as a research tool:- Having a LinkedIn account also means that
you can use the site to research companies, interviewers, recruiters, and hiring
managers — this is helpful before submitting applications and researching who’s
interviewing you and conducting interview research.

LinkedIn has a great job board:- New opportunities exist throughout the
LinkedIn site that may not exist on traditional job boards. You can directly apply for
roles using LinkedIn apply, save job searches, as well as flagging to recruiters that
you are open to hearing about opportunities.

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 You can gain social proof for your skills and talents:- Let others recommend
and endorse you for your skills and past work. When others recommend or
endorse you, anyone who sees your profile can see these and it shows you have
other experts backing up your claims to have certain skills. This is very powerful in
making connections. You can build your credibility through the endorsements and
testimonials that LinkedIn allows your contacts to leave on your profile.
Follow Companies:- LinkedIn is a brilliant tool for researching organizations and
people that work at them. You can use this to target people within your network
that work for organisations that you really want to work for.
Join LinkedIn Groups:- Groups are a brilliant way to meet people with similar
professional interests and expand your network from other graduates to
professionals already working in your industry. Groups allow you to take part in
discussions. This is a great way to exhibit your knowledge on topics related to
your industry, ask questions and start conversations with key people in key
organisations.

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 NETWORKING ISN'T HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU
KNOW, IT'S HOW MANY PEOPLE KNOW YOU.

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