subject: Marketing manager seeking position part 9- Using Linked In [print this page] Marketing manager seeking position part 9- Using Linked In
One of the best ways to market yourself during the job search is on LinkedIn. And it needs to be said that even when you are working you always want to brand yourself as a professional in your industry. You never know when you will be laid off.
There are multiple articles available on how to use LinkedIn. The following tips are what I have done and found that works that weren't mentioned in my last blog post.
1. Measure your success
Why do we need to measure how much our profile is viewed? Well, first off, we need to know if our profiles are optimized correctly. If you aren't showing up in searches and people aren't looking at your profile to learn more about you, there is something very wrong. Build it and they will come is nonsense and we all know it.
There is a statistics section called "Who viewed my profile?" and you can look up the trends of your profile for the past 90 days. It is interesting for me because I have been spending copious amounts of time targeting my profile for a marketing manager position and building my personal brand. My visits numbers fell in September but are on the rise again in October with the high being in August. The appearances in search numbers also fell in September to dramatically increase in October.
My stats currently say my profile has been viewed by 8 people in the past 15 days. Now, this number has been as high as 24 people in 15 days but I would say an average is one view every two days. I have also shown up in search 12 times in the past 7 days. And as exciting as these numbers are, the most important measurement for me is contact. I know I am being looked at and that is great! But what I really need is for prospective employers to contact me. And yes, my phone number and email are public.
All this information tells me that I am doing well on views and interest. What my job is, that LinkedIn can't track for me is actual touch points. How many people have requested connections and how many calls have I received for interviews? I can tell you that I have had two calls for interviews in the past 2 months. Now that is what this is all about for me! Finding the right job!
2. Get recommendations
I have worked diligently on my recommendations. I have at least one for every position I have ever held and try to get supervisors to recommend me. This sometimes means you have to write the recommendation yourself. Yes, I said it! We all know it happens often and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Some people just don't know where to start or what to say. I work with creative designers who aren't super savvy with words and need help. They always edit to put their personal touch to the recommendation sometimes adding things and other times deleting things. It's okay to do this! They want to recommend you, so give them a hand!
I was talking to a client about LinkedIn and how it can be used for new business and the job search. He was about to lose his job because they couldn't get funding to complete a medical trial for FDA approval. I sent him a connection request and he wrote back that he had never seen a more complete profile with so many recommendations. Proud moment for me.
What good recommendations can do is show your ability to work with all levels in the organization and gives a prospective employer the ability to get a preview of your references.
3. Past Positions
When possible use numbers to demonstrate your success at each position. This can be difficult when you are not responsible for calculating or have access to the final results of a marketing campaign. I have held positions where we were tracking foot traffic into the sales offices but at the time did not know that I needed to keep track of our successes so I do not have that information to include.
Have a clear job title for each position. Sometimes we have very creative titles such as Strategy Consultant, and sometimes we list ourselves as Marketing Professional. Neither of these job titles tells a prospective employer what you are looking for or what your experience is. I have had both titles on my LinkedIn profile in the past and through all my research learned this is certainly not the way to go. Another tip for your job title is to change the ones in the past that really did not capture what you were doing. While at KPA my actual title was Account Executive but that did not capture my responsibility to manage budgets, staff and traffic. So, I changed it to Marketing Manager on my profile because that is actually a better fit. My resume has AE as my title only because that was what was on my business card at the time.
4. Connections
Everyone has an opinion on connections. Do you accept everyone who asks? Do you only accept people you know? I struggle with this because when you accept every person who requests the spam gets out of hand quickly. If you only accept people you know, then you are hurting yourself. LinkedIn is about connecting with other professionals and when you have 500+ you can reach out to many more people.
My solution has been to limit who I connect with but to join as many groups as I can that fit my goals, needs and interests. This allows me to connect with many more people and limit the amount of spam.
5. Websites
I have my blog link and my portfolio link posted in this section. It's another way to stand out from the crowd and show a prospective employer what you have done.
I found a free website doyoubuzz.com where I was able to post a radio spot I had written and directed as well as post images of chochkies I had done for a client. It also includes my resume. I would love to have other work I have done but like the stats and results of campaigns, I didn't know at the time I would need it. Lessons learned!
And of course I have my blog posted. This gives me an opportunity to show that I am an active user of marketing communications tools and gives a sample of my writing style. My blog's main purpose is to discuss my experience as a marketing professional. Now, I will be the first to tell you, I am not a writer. I can write and when really inspired, I'm actually good. During college I had a PR professor actually tell me that I was not a good writer and that most people who think they can write, really can't. Taking that with a grain of salt I continue to write and have done very well. I have written numerous TV and radio commercials, print ads, brochures, and newspaper copy.
And I have my Twitter username as well. I do not Tweet as much as I should but have found I can spend my entire day reading articles, re-tweeting, and DMing. Everything in moderation is healthy.
So those are the top 5 tips I have for using LinkedIn and my experience with it. I wish you the best of luck in adapting these tips into your profile and if you are in the job market, the best of luck finding the right position for you.
