An important way to develop my network is to be on LinkedIn. This is a great social networking site that focuses specifically on people finding employment. It’s also useful for employers to find out information about you in a quick manner.

In term 1 of my second year of University, I went to a talk called LinkedIn and Social Media Masterclass. I was still fairly new to LinkedIn at this point and decided that this talk should hopefully provide me information on how to improve my LinkedIn profile.

I first learnt that personal branding is important. You need to be aware of how you present yourself online. I don’t know how many people have repeated that it is important to be aware of what you are posting online. Luckily I’ve always had all the privacy settings turned on on my Facebook account. You have to be accepted as one of my friends to see anything on my timeline. I’ve heard about how important it is to keep your work and private life separate, and thankfully I have always done this.

The most important part of this presentation were the tips provided to have a good profile on LinkedIn such as:

• Important to have a good photo
  • I unfortunately missed the opportunity to get a professional photo done when the option became available at University, so my aim is to keep an eye out for when this occurs again so I can have a professional photo taken
• Use the right language and terminology
  • My future boss could be reviewing my profile right now, I need to make sure the language is sophisticated and I should spell-check everything. One misspelled word could mark the end of an opportunity before it even began.
• Your headline is really important
  • I’m hoping that as I develop my skills and experience I can continue to upgrade this headline to show off who I am
• Stick to the Netiquette
  • Following on from using the right language, I learnt from this talk that you should still message potential employers with the words ‘dear’ and ‘your’s sincerely’. While this may be a social media site, you aren’t there to make jokes, you’re there to secure jobs.
• Twitter is a good social media site to be active on
  • Making a professional twitter account is beneficial as you can follow companies that interest you. Reports say that while twitter is being used less, the rise in companies using it is big.
• Get 100% completion on your profile
  • 40% more likely to get views.
• Join relevant groups
  • LinkedIn is all about creating networks and making new connections. By joining groups and being an active member, you can get your name out and people are more likely to view your profile.
• Follow companies that interest you

Overall, I think this session was extremely useful and helped me see how important LinkedIn really is. My goals following this are to join a few groups and actively post on them. This will get my name out there and hopefully that’ll start taking me in the right direction. I also need to get a professional photo taken.