3 Ways for Executives to Boost Credibility on LinkedIn

For the savvy executive, LinkedIn can be the foundation of a thriving personal brand. It helps professionals across industries and verticals to influence consumers, establish professional relationships, and gain name recognition in their fields. But with 8.2 million C-level executives on LinkedIn, simply showing up is not enough. Leverage these strategies to stand out from the competition and create a vibrant, authoritative executive profile on LinkedIn.

3 LinkedIn Best Practices for Executives

Develop a Consistent Brand

Studies show that profiles with photos get 21x more views and 36x more messages than unbranded profiles. To optimize your executive brand on LinkedIn, focus your efforts on creating a profile that’s authentic, engaging, and consistent across all platforms.

Profile Picture

Choose an image with clean lines, fresh colors, and a minimum of background noise.

Background Picture

Background images set the tone for your profile, allowing you to simply and effectively convey a message about your executive brand.

Headline

Don’t fall back on the default headline of your current job title. Instead, customize your profile to communicate not only where your career is, but also where it’s going.

Summary

Your LinkedIn summary is a condensed version of your executive resume. Utilize keywords to show up in searches for your ideal career.

Search Smarter, Build a Better Network

Instead of making more connections, focus your efforts on making the right connections. Use LinkedIn’s targeted search tool to find trends in your industry, top leaders in your field, and better job openings.

Search “Content”

Refine your LinkedIn search to find useful, timely content within your industry. By researching pertinent keywords, you can keep your finger on the pulse of your vertical, giving you an edge over the competition.

Search “Jobs”

Once you’ve siphoned the most relevant keywords from your content searches, it’s time to put them to good use. Instead of searching for job titles, do a “job” search using industry keywords and pertinent skills. You’ll limit your competition while elevating your job opportunities.

Search “People”

The “people” search tool on LinkedIn helps you network more effectively by finding hiring managers, learning more about the employees at specific companies, and leveraging your existing network to get warm introductions to influential leaders.

Become a Visible Expert in Your Industry

Every week, LinkedIn feeds get 9 billion content impressions. 45% of those views come from C-level decision-makers. And yet, only .2% of LinkedIn users have published an article on the platform. Creating original content is one of the most effective ways to build credibility, expand your network, and place yourself at the center of the conversation for relevant topics in your industry. To increase engagement on your LinkedIn content, write longer articles, publish lists and how-tos, and add multiple images to each post.

When it comes to building an executive presence on LinkedIn, you need a strong foundation. Does your profile need a professional touch? Executive Resumes Atlanta has years of experience tailoring LinkedIn profiles to help executives elevate their careers. Contact us today for a professional assessment of your LinkedIn profile.

Colleen Reyerson

How Busy Execs Can Engage on LinkedIn

A well-rounded LinkedIn account is crucial to personal branding in the digital age. But it’s not all about getting recommendations and preventing your boss from catching wind of your job search. LinkedIn has outpaced its original purpose of “online networking tool”, helping execs put their best foot forward before first contact even occurs. Not only does an active account make you an attractive prospect to executive recruiters, it helps you be found; the more you refine your brand on LinkedIn, the happier their algorithms will be, and they’ll show their appreciation by putting more eyes on your professional profile.

3 Ways to Advance Your Brand on LinkedIn

Be present. You can’t succeed if you don’t show up. If you’re not active online, recruiters will question your commitment to your career. Elevating your personal brand on LinkedIn can be as simple as sharing an interesting article—with a quick commentary to highlight your proficiencies and encourage engagement—or as advanced as writing regular blogs on topical issues in your field. Just don’t forget about LinkedIn’s roots! Network within your industry by engaging with posts made by other execs.
Be dependable. Every executive can empathize with a busy schedule, but long periods of inactivity on LinkedIn followed by bursts of updates are a sure way to undermine your credibility. Sporadic posting makes potential job candidates seem flaky and unfocused or, at the very least, desperate for a career change. If you find yourself relegating LinkedIn updates to the backburner, add it to your weekly calendar. Consistency is key, and as few as fifteen minutes a week can show recruiters that you’re serious about your professional brand — and your career.
Be real. Not every post needs to be a scholarly essay tailored to turn heads and influence recruiters. One of the most impactful ways to engage with followers on LinkedIn is to drop the professional facade. Talk about what matters to you, even if it’s not work-related. Many of the most successful execs on LinkedIn have made a name for themselves by giving followers a glimpse behind the curtain, proving themselves to be highly motivated in every aspect of their lives.

LinkedIn has transformed the world of professional advancement forever. Is a lackluster profile hindering your executive job search? Call Colleen at Executive Resumes Atlanta for a complimentary assessment of your LinkedIn profile.

Colleen Reyerson

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

In today’s digitally-driven job market, creating a strong LinkedIn profile is secondary only to presenting a well-rounded executive resume. Unfortunately, many executives lack the experience or expertise to create an impactful profile without stealing lines from their resumes. Cloning your resume on LinkedIn gives recruiters a redundant (and often lackluster) perspective on your executive experience. Although they may seem similar at first glance, LinkedIn and professional resumes have distinct purposes in the executive job search. To fully utilize each job search document, executive resumes and LinkedIn profiles should differ in several key ways.

Why Not to Clone a Resume on LinkedIn

Sharing the same content on LinkedIn and your executive resume is redundant.
Any tangible job leads will invariably result in sharing your resume. A LinkedIn profile teases the full scope of your executive experience, encouraging recruiters to contact you for the full narrative. If you’ve cloned your resume on LinkedIn, you lose an opportunity to share additional information.
LinkedIn and resumes serve different functions. While LinkedIn profiles do display executive history, skills, and recommendations, it is primarily a networking tool.

How LinkedIn Profiles and Executive Resumes Should Differ

Create a distinctive personal brand by playing to the strengths of each job search tool.

Resumes should have a highly professional tone and focus. LinkedIn profiles shift into the networking sphere, allowing professionals to show more of their personalities when discussing career narratives.
While a resume tells a complete professional story, a LinkedIn profile should be crisp and concise, with an additional focus on keywords pertinent to the specific job search.
Executives should filter proprietary information out of their LinkedIn profiles, which are public to any professional.

For assistance creating an impactful executive profile on LinkedIn, contact Executive Resumes Atlanta.

Colleen Reyerson

Promoting Skills on LinkedIn

Most job seekers, from CEOs and CMOs to entry-level workers, know the benefits of LinkedIn for online networking. But although most tech-savvy professionals utilize LinkedIn to build connections and seek fresh talent, few take advantage of everything this professional networking tool has to offer. The true benefit of online networking doesn’t lie in creating a profile that equates to a sales pitch, getting the most connections, or “online stalking” prospective companies. The true networking power of LinkedIn lies in its ability to recommend, build, and endorse specific skills.

Building Skills on LinkedIn

You wouldn’t email a hiring manager an executive resume that failed to enumerate your qualifications. So why hit save on your LinkedIn profile – which is, in essence, your online resume – without first listing your skills? It’s astounding how many intelligent businesspeople – from board members to COOs – upload partial profiles on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn recommends that business professionals list specific, quantifiable skills on their profiles. The more finely tuned the listed skills, the more quickly headhunters (and LinkedIn’s search algorithms) will see the value in your experience. Effectively utilize the “skills” section on your LinkedIn profile by supplementing your hard-earned professional skill set with specific, endorsable soft skills. Valued skills vary from industry to industry, but LinkedIn research concludes that certain soft skills have a higher rate of return on job inquiries.

Adaptability
Levelheadedness under pressure
Analytical thinking

The Power of Endorsements

Writing an excellent LinkedIn profile is only the beginning of creating a strong personal brand. When a colleague feels you excel in a certain area, they can endorse a correlating skill. This tells recruiters you’re not “resume-padding” and allows coworkers to easily advocate your talents. A few things to remember about LinkedIn endorsements:

Endorsements are a two-way street. If a colleague endorses a skill on your profile, common courtesy dictates you endorse one of their skills as well.
That said, every endorsement reflects on your professional image. Don’t endorse someone on LinkedIn if you wouldn’t recommend them in person.
Coworkers can endorse skills that are not listed on your profile. You can later add those skills (and the attached endorsement) to your LinkedIn page.
Users with robust skills and endorsements are 13% more likely to find new careers.
More specific skill endorsements (e.g. endorsing SEO instead of Marketing) build better professional connections.
If an endorsement doesn’t enrich your personal brand, remove it from your profile.

Have questions about creating a powerful profile on LinkedIn? Call Executive Resumes Atlanta.

photo from FreeDigitalPhotos

Colleen Reyerson

3 Tips to Maximize LinkedIn Marketing

Most business professionals are familiar with LinkedIn’s online networking system, but few know just how many career opportunities bypass them daily. Executives are inundated with personal branding and social media marketing information. In the wake of so much information, it’s advantageous to take a step back and remember the basics of LinkedIn marketing.

How to Successfully Navigate LinkedIn

Mine recommendations, not endorsements. “Endorsement” is the buzzword in the LinkedIn personal marketing sphere, but as with any networking tactic, the more personal option makes a better professional impression. Accept endorsements from respected colleagues for your top executive skills, but don’t ask for endorsements. Instead ask a few superlative members of your executive team to write a recommendation. Recommendations are more personal, more compelling, and better display your executive skills.
Timing is everything. The key to LinkedIn success is to stay active, even if you’re not actively searching for a new career. Follow revolutionary leaders in your industry, update your profile to reflect new challenges and skill sets, and refrain from asking for multiple recommendations and endorsements at once. LinkedIn timestamps their data, making it obvious to recruiters (and your current employer) when you’re scrambling to update your LinkedIn profile in the hopes of landing a new job.
Give and take. Networking is not solely about seeking opportunities, but about forming mutually beneficial business relationships. If a business associate endorses one of your top skills, peruse their profile for a skill you can substantiate. When you write a professional recommendation on LinkedIn, ask your connection to return the favor. Be specific about which professional successes, leadership situations, and executive skills you’d like them to praise. But remember to choose your connections wisely. Endorsing the merits of a coworker is not simply a reflection of them, but of you as well.

Executive Resumes Atlanta is an Atlanta-based executive-level career marketing service. Call Colleen for more information about how a professionally written LinkedIn profile can help maximize your career success.

photo from FreeDigitalPhotos

Colleen Reyerson

3 Ways to Develop Your Personal Brand

Many executives lack the time, the skills, or the patience to develop a compelling and concise personal brand. Here are 3 guidelines for personal branding success from the high level career builders at Executive Resumes Atlanta.

Develop authenticity. In unskilled hands, executive self-promotion can come across as shortsighted braggadocio or a carefully crafted falsehood. The advent of social media has created a world of transparency in personal branding and online communication. Business executives should take care not to overshare in their online profiles, but authenticity is key to any personal branding effort. Develop a clear, focused brand that’s easily recognizable, both to those who know you in the real world and to contacts who only know you virtually.
Strategize. Developing a strong personal marketing brand requires time, forethought, and skill in executive promotion. Users who regularly update their LinkedIn profiles, monitor their networks for industry developments, and interact with online associates increase their likelihood of career advancement. Identify your personal marketing goals and map a plan for effectively establishing your brand within your target audience. If you don’t have the time or skills to effectively develop your personal marketing strategy, hire a professional career marketer to optimize your online presence.
Move beyond social media. Networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook can have a significant impact on a professional’s career prospects, but social media isn’t the only way to achieve executive success. Businesspeople who successfully expand their professional networks use a combination of real world and virtual marketing techniques. In addition to creating an active, enticing LinkedIn profile, executives should attend local networking events, create an impactful resume, and build strong working relationships with their peers.

The executive career marketers at Executive Resumes Atlanta have the skills and experience necessary to create an impactful personal brand, both virtually and in the real world. Contact our professional resume writers to strategize your career objectives, optimize your personal branding efforts, and advance your career.

photo from FreeDigitalPhotos

Colleen Reyerson

How LinkedIn Branding Could Affect Your Career

LinkedIn is a powerful social media networking tool that helps business professionals connect, develop their talents, and seek new career opportunities. Many new users assume that creating a distinctive, professional LinkedIn profile is the sole consideration when utilizing this networking tool. However, recent events remind even the most accomplished LinkedIn users that mindfulness should rule all LinkedIn activity.

A Cleveland executive penned a scathing letter in response to a young job seeker’s request to connect. The email, which went viral, began, “We have never met. We have never worked together. . . Apparently, you have heard that I produce a Job Bank, and decided it would be stunningly helpful for your career prospects if I shared my 960+ LinkedIn connections with you – a total stranger with nothing to offer me.” The executive escalated her rejection by announcing, “Wow, I cannot wait to let every 25-year-old job seeker mine my top-tier marketing connections to help them land a job,” before snidely concluding, “I suggest you join the other Job Bank in town. Oh wait – there isn’t one.”

Though the recent college graduate did not receive the aspired networking connections, the executive must face the ramifications of online reputation mismanagement as well: her rejection went viral, and surely made its way into the hands of her 960+ business connections. Executives seeking new careers would do well to note the shortcomings of both of these professionals in managing their personal brand online.

Learning LinkedIn Etiquette

When a new professional creates a LinkedIn profile, the website encourages him or her to connect only with those he or she knows personally. However, the nature of LinkedIn—in fact, the nature of social media itself—lends itself to perceived anonymity. From behind the façade of a computer screen, many people feel disconnected from the implications of their online actions. But as proven in the example above, failing to adhere to LinkedIn etiquette drastically reduces an executive job seeker’s likelihood of successfully achieving a new career. Executive professionals should utilize social media career reputation management services to connect with existing contacts, expanding their professional network by cultivating organic connections.

The Power of Social Media in Managing Personal Brands

Social media is, above all, a reputation management tool. An expertly honed executive resume can be—and often is—undermined by mismanagement of online presence. Recruiters scour LinkedIn and Facebook for professionals who fit their unique set of criteria, and often find personal photos, disgruntled comments from former employees, or poorly executed professional profiles that quickly unravel the careful image an executive career builder has projected on paper. The executive who penned the harsh rejection email did not anticipate losing years of painstakingly culled networking connections due to arrogance. Likewise, anyone navigating the professional world would do well to remember that every action taken online—be it uploading a family photo or sending a sharply worded email—might find its way into the hands of future associates, thus destroying the credibility of a tediously prepared online reputation.

Executive Resumes Atlanta provides uniquely creative and professional personal branding services to help high-ranking executives build superior resumes and manage their LinkedIn reputations.

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