Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Should you really eliminate buzzwords from your profile?

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LinkedIn has published their list of  most overused words and phrases in members’ LinkedIn Profiles for 2011. The number one most overused buzzword in LinkedIn profiles globally and for professionals based in the United States is “creative.” [Read more…] about Should you really eliminate buzzwords from your profile?

Tips to make the most of the “Apply with LinkedIn” button

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LinkedIn recently announced a new option for job seekers and hiring managers, their “Apply with LinkedIn” button. Adam Nash, VP of Product Management for LinkedIn explained the new button is part of LinkedIn’s strategy to:

  • Be the “home” for people’s professional identity. He noted LinkedIn’s focus on helping LinkedIn users put their best foot forward when applying for jobs.
  • Provide insights for users and opportunities to learn from a community, thus making people better at their jobs
  • Be “everywhere,” helping professionals access their networks access information and resources.

Nash noted LinkedIn is a “professional operating system for the web” and an “extension of “professional web,” a designation he believes the new “Apply Now” button solidifies. He explained the button helps package and “bring the power of LinkedIn to anyone.” Whether someone is applying for a job, or hiring for a large or small company, he believes this new tool will help.

Any employer or job seeker (who has a LinkedIn profile) may use the button free of charge. In fact, LinkedIn reports:

 “Thousands of companies have the Apply with LinkedIn plugin accessible on their websites today, including LinkedIn, Netflix, LivingSocial, Photobucket, Concur subsidiary TripIt, Foodspotting, GazeHawk, Munch On Me, and Formative Labs. LinkedIn has also teamed up with key Applicant Tracking System (ATS) partners who have enabled the Apply with LinkedIn plugin for their customers today, including Peoplefluent, Jobvite, SmartRecruiters, Bullhorn, and Jobscience.”

“How people hire hasn’t really changed in 15 years,” Nash said. He explained that today, we have an opportunity to know who the people hiring are and to identify whom they know. “Business software needs to acknowledge those relationships,” he said. Distinguishing it from other online applications, LinkedIn’s button offers anyone using it information about how they are linked to the person posting the job and/or the organization, whether or not the job is posted in LinkedIn.

Most job seekers would agree the opportunity to immediately know if they are connected via their LinkedIn networks to the hiring manager or someone in the target company is a great resource. However, easy isn’t always the best approach for job seekers. While this solution eliminates those pesky hoops job seekers usually need to jump through to apply for work, to best take advantage of the opportunity to apply using “Apply Now,” it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

Read the rest of my tips on my post on in U.S. News & World Report.

Tips to consider when evaluating your LinkedIn network

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What’s the most important thing to consider when building your network? Size? Quality of connections? Other factors? LinkedIn published a study that said men are better online networkers than women because they tend to have a greater ratio of connections compared to women.

The study did not look into the quality of the connections for the various groups. But when it comes to networking, having a large network isn’t always the key factor to success. Job seekers and others should always take into account the depth and breadth of their contacts in addition to the number of people in their circle. In other words, consider the quality of your connections in addition to quantity.

Watch this short video with tips to help you evaluate your network to be sure it will be ready to work for you when you need it!

For more details, click through to my U.S. News & World Report post on the topic.

photo by Roberto Verzo

How LinkedIn can help you find a job or a gig

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I’ve been writing regularly on my book’s site, Social Networking for Career Success, sharing some tips and highlights included in the book and thanking the many contributors who share their advice and expertise in the manuscript.

I believe LinkedIn is the first social network all job seekers and entrepreneurs should use and master.

Here are links to recent posts about LinkedIn on my book’s site:

Craig Fisher, who provided some LinkedIn tips about using keywords in chapter 5, allowed me to highlight advice from one of his recent blogs about using LinkedIn.

Tim Tyrell-Smith, manager of a LinkedIn Success Story group, and Timothy Puyleart, who runs a very successful, niche LinkedIn group, offered excellent advice about the advantages and challenges of creating LinkedIn groups. Learn more in the post highlighting LinkedIn groups.

Stay tuned for more links to posts with social networking advice thanking contributors to Social Networking for Career Success. Take a look at the entire list of contributors and links to their blogs and Twitter accounts.

photo from LinkedIn Press Center

How to show multiple career goals on LinkedIn

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Today, my friend Hannah Morgan, @careersherpa, shared a link to a Quora question about LinkedIn. It asks, “How do you show multiple career objectives on LinkedIn?”

This is my reply…What do you think?

This is a difficult proposition, since LinkedIn forces you to select one industry and it isn’t set up to highlight multiple career objectives. Additionally, if your target jobs are too diverse, you risk confusing the reader about your goals. If the job types are similar enough, it makes sense to share your flexibility in the summary section, using a story illustrating your abilities in more than one area. Be sure to highlight how your skills and accomplishments quality you for each type of job.

Other suggestions:

  • Have recommendations covering all of your career goals, from people who know your abilities in different areas and can address your skills in each.
  • Manage your own website, which gives you a lot more flexibility to highlight and showcase your various areas of expertise than LinkedIn provides! (Take a look at www.getasocialresume.com for one option to create your own “social resume.”)

Learn more about Quora and how you may use it as a way to help propel your career!

Answer the question on Quora and please add your ideas to the comments below!

For more about how to use social media tools to propel your career goals, please consider pre-ordering my book, Social Networking for Career Success.

photo by Horia Varlan