Today, we are going to talk about how college students can use LinkedIn to establish a positive online presence and also create networking opportunities, as well as find potential jobs.
Did you know that 85% of employers rely on digital footprint to find and learn more about potential employees?
What that means is before you even get a chance to go in for an interview, most likely your potential HR manager will type in your name and research your name through google to learn more about you. So, LinkedIn is actually one of those websites that can help you establish positive online presence and also create a first good impression.
LinkedIn can help you.
It’s a great opportunity to find jobs.
It’s a great place to network and expand your connection
and also a great way to find mentors that can assist you in your career development path.
Fun Fact: 85% of jobs are found through networking. Establishing a good presence on LinkedIn will help you find and expand potential network of connections and create genuine relationships. So in today’s video, I’m going to talk about 3 things you can do to establish positive presence on LinkedIn.
Update your profile.
Create and share content on LinkedIn.com.
Engage and create genuine relationships with people in your network.
Let me break that down for you step by step.
1. UPDATE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE - This is really important because as I said, first impressions count and if someone types your name, chances are a LinkedIn page is going to come up as number Make sure to have a great headshot of yourself. A professional headshot is very influential in making a first good impression so make sure you have one that captures your head and your shoulders.
SUMMARY COUNTS - Don’t skip on summary and make sure to add as much description about your experience at work, school and any professional organizations you belong to in your summary section. Make sure you write from the first person perspective. Do not write from the third person perspective.
GET RECOMMENDATIONS - LinkedIn allows you to post recommendations from other people about you. So whether you have an internship or you work a part time job or a class project that you’ve done, make sure to get recommendations from either professors or your bosses or your peers that you can add to your LinkedIn profile. It’s very easy to do. All you have to do is send a request via LinkedIn and the person who is providing a recommendation will add it to your profile. All you do is accept the recommendation for it to appear on your profile.
IN THE INTEREST SECTION, FOLLOW COMPANIES THAT YOU HAVE INTEREST IN OR PLACES WHERE YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK - Make sure to go to that company page on LinkedIn and click "follow" button. See what type of information they post, what type of job openings they have, what type of conversations their employees post on Linkedin. Follow these companies and that will assure you that you will be able to learn as much as possible about the workings of each one of the companies that you potentially want to work at.
2. CREATE AND SHARE CONTENT - This is really important in establishing solid Linkedin presence because when you create content and share it, it will help you create new connections, make relationships and also establish yourself as a subject matter expert in your field. I hear it a lot from students that, “I’m not really a subject matter expert yet. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t have any ideas.” You are wrong. Here is the thing - you have the most amazing advantage of coming out from learning something new everyday, so share those experiences that you have.
Make the most out of your essays, projects or homework that you’re working on. Make sure to publish them on your LinkedIn profile because it makes your LinkedIn profile really strong and full of content.
Share firsthand accounts, what obstacles have you overcome or what type of things you have been challenged with that you were able to overcome.
Follow the headline. If you are following industry blogs and influencers in your area, make sure you start noticing the topics they write about and develop your own content calendar. You can start with developing quick and easy 200 - 300 word blog post. Maybe one blog post a week that you can post on LinkedIn profile. That will really help you get yourself familiarized with your subject matter expertise and also start developing a skill set and establishing yourself as a go to expert in your area.
3. In order for you to maximize your presence on LinkedIn, you need to build great relationships with people in your network. The biggest mistake I see people making is approaching someone in their network right away, looking for a job, an internship or some sort of a favor that they need. Here’s the thing, the person you are approaching likely does not have any experience with you yet. They know very little about you and chances of them wanting to help you are probably very slim. So before you need something from the person you are approaching, try to put something on the table and offer something in return.
Start by following their profile on LinkedIn. We’ve talked about identifying the companies that you’re interested in and starting following them. But also find some people from those companies that are active on LinkedIn and send them a connection requests, a personalized note with the connection request, asking them to connect and learn more about the company. Everyone will be willing to help students because we all started somewhere.
When you start following their posts, make sure to engage by posting comments. Genuinely be interested in the types of challenges they post on their LinkedIn profile. Add your commentary. Add relevant comments.
Eventually ask if you can be of any assistance or help. What this does is it creates a relationship with the person you are about to approach. Eventually, when the time comes, when there’s a potential opening whether an internship or a job, guess what, you’ll be top of mind for them..
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