1. LinkedIn As a Shop Window

These days, employability is about visibility. And when you’re on the job search, being seen means being prominent on LinkedIn in terms of profile and activity. Think of it as an online shop window for your skills and like any successful retail outlet, it needs to look appealing, have a great product and already be busy with activity. The list of things you can do to optimise your profile is extensive – anyone who wants to know more, free feel to contact me directly. However, there are 3 must-do’s that can be considered a minimum standard for anyone who has already signed up for an account.

Complete your profile
If you are going to do one thing on LinkedIn to improve your marketability, then this is it. This may seem like a labourious thing to do, but as LinkedIn acts like a search engine with filters, its pretty obvious that profiles with gaps in key data fields will simply not appear on search results. Make sure you complete the Headline, Summary, Specialities, Experience and Education. And don’t be a camera shy – whilst the profile photo isn’t searchable, it makes your profile look more active and authentic – essential when you want to appeal to recruiters looking for talent.

Configure your account settings
It seems that our default response when considering privacy is to set the bar high. Whilst its normal to feel this way, it’s important to recognise that this sentiment is counterproductive if you are on the job search. Whether you like it or not, when you are looking for work you are a salesman for your skill-set and people need know you’re open for contact. Typically, this means configuring your settings so that you are able to receive messages and invitations from anyone who can view your profile.

Add connections
LinkedIn is about connections. The degree of connectedness you have increases the size of your digital footprint and makes you more easily found. There is an active debate on the merits of ‘quality over quantity’ but such arguments are moot if you are stuck in the single figures in terms of 1st degree connections. Work actively to build your network, especially if you are new to LinkedIn, and issue invitations to connect to your friends, colleagues and clients – don’t wait for invitations to come to you.

2. LinkedIn As a Classified Page

LinkedIn can also be seen as a Job Board, and thanks to comparatively expensive per slot advertising costs, the majority of LinkedIn adverts are directly managed by employers, rather than recruitment agents. For the Job Seeker, this means that the recruitment supply chain has just shortened and responding to such an advert gets you into direct contact with an employee of the company you want to work for. Searching for jobs on LinkedIn is easy – simply go to the Jobs tab, use the Advanced search to filter results and generate a list of opportunities that match your criteria.

3. LinkedIn As A Mass Messaging Tool

LinkedIn is getting more ‘social’. The use of the LinkedIn Status Update feature has undergone a revolution since the barnstorming arrival of the Twitter in 2007. This is a now a powerful tool not only in telling your contacts about your employment status, but plays a major role in ranking the profiles on LinkedIn’s search facility. The mechanics of how this works in not known, but a CIO.com interview with Parker Barrile, Director of Product Management, suggests that judicious use of status updates can have an major impact on your profile ranking. Note of caution; be careful on the etiquette when using this feature – the last thing you want to do is ‘overshare’ and become tedious with your ‘I want a job / I need a job’ updates.

5. LinkedIn As A Market Intelligence Tool

There is more to LinkedIn than technical tools to help you in the Job Search. We should remember that its basically a self updating database of millions of professionals; some of these people will work for companies you have an interest in. Contributions of a certain type can be used in clever ways to pick up intelligence on a particular market or a particular employer. Is it relevant to you that company X has just hired 3 people with a similar skill-set to you? Or that person Y has just been promoted to a senior role that might you might report into? Or that person B has just left company X?. Conducting a Company search on your target employer can reveal what their hiring posture is, and what degree on internal change the business is going through – hugely valuable information for a Job Seeker looking for a way in.

5. LinkedIn As A Private Eye

As Chatroulette has proven beyond any reasonable doubt, its generally a good idea to do some research on people you’re about to talk to. This is especially the case when those people are the HR Manager and the Departmental Head of the company you’ve just applied to join. Well when it comes to doing a little bit of professional snooping, there’s no better tool than LinkedIn. With use of the People Search function and a little intelligent guesswork, you can become the happy owner of biographical titbits on your future employers that can grease the way during small talk, and provide you with a head start in building rapport. You might as well have a look, because you can bet your last penny that any modern employer will be doing the same to you.