Are You Telling Your Story on LinkedIn?

Many times, clients and friends seek confirmation that their view of LinkedIn as merely an online resume is the correct one.

(You know that look, someone’s not really sure and is reaching out to anyone for agreement.)

My answer is, “Wrong, LinkedIn is not just an online resume!”

For emphasis, I’ll repeat, “Wrong, LinkedIn is not just an online resume!”

Now, let’s review this longstanding misconception about LinkedIn.

What is a resume?

Typically, it’s a chronological (some have need of a functional version) summary of your work history.

Critical information is squeezed onto as few pages as possible in the interests of brevity.

Roles & responsibilities, accomplishments, education, and contact information all find a place somewhere.

All this is designed to catch the eye of an executive recruiter or hiring manager who may have all of thirty seconds to review it.

Let’s face it, today’s resume is a camel, a horse designed by committee!

Time and tradition have led us here.

(And, don’t get me started on how modern word processors have allowed for all sorts of fonts and other wingdings!)

Now, let’s talk about what a resume doesn’t do for you.

A resume doesn’t allow you to tell your story.

Like what excites you, what are your goals, how have you gotten to where you are and why, and where do you want to go.

(Sure, you can put that in a hard copy resume, but just get somebody to read all of it!)

Even the most well-written resume struggles with multiple positions over the course of a career that appear to be unrelated, and career changes.

For a resume to work for you, it has to get you across from the recruiter or hiring manager either in person or electronically.

Oh, yeah, that other little problem how do you get your resume in front of them in the first place?

LinkedIn helps significantly here.

Especially, if you’re self-employed, something a resume can’t really help you with.

(I know that comment is going to invite a lot of feedback. To make things easy on me, please only respond if you’re self-employed and your resume gets you business.)

The LinkedIn Profile allows you to tell your story.

The biggest mistake I see many people make is to simply copy and paste their resume into LinkedIn.

To me that’s no better than just sending out thousands of copies via snail mail.

(Well, OK, you do save on postage.)

Used properly, the LinkedIn Profile allows a candidate to stand out.

Furthermore, the best part is, most executive recruiters and hiring managers start looking for qualified candidates on LinkedIn first today and that goes for prospective clients too!

Engagement with your connections on LinkedIn as well as a proactive connections building campaign also help here.

Think about your LinkedIn Profile and look it over.

Does it tell your story?

Do you even have a story?

Ask your friends and colleagues for their feedback.

Or, ask me!

Think about it!

That’s it for now!

Please check-out my 8 step approach for developing a social media program to get some more ideas on how to use social media.

Also, never forget to reach out to either ask questions or to ask for help from someone like myself!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

And, remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me. Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.