Five Rules for LinkedIn
Make LinkedIn work harder for you, with minimum cringe.
It was tough to decide to write a piece about LinkedIn. I’ve never felt quite at home on the site. It is, as someone recently said, a little bit cringe.
From extensive experience I can tell you that it’s also the single most important tool at your disposal for people looking to level up. People who use it will will find more and better opportunities faster than those who do not.
It’s true whether you’re seeking a new job, trying to find more clients, or just looking after your own professional network — as everybody should.
Here’s a little data about LinkedIn that you might find surprising:
Around 1 billion members in 200+ countries
16% of all adults on this planet have LinkedIn accounts
The site adds new members at the rate of roughly 3 per second
90%+ of the Fortune 500 use LinkedIn for recruiting
It is not currently believed to be an asset of foreign governments seeking to destabilize our democracy
For me, LinkedIn has played a role in every job I’ve gotten in the last 20 years. Most of my coaching clients come through what we used to call “word of mouth” — that’s now extensively enabled if not made possible by the site.
Many of my clients have experienced some trauma, toxicity, harassment, or feelings of unsafety with social networking. LinkedIn is not free from those problems, but it does seem to be a safer space for most people.
Like most of us, social comparison causes me some discomfort, and LinkedIn can certainly contribute to that. It’s also a great place to observe people who are enjoying success in their careers, and decide whether you want to emulate them or find your own way.
In my last few manager jobs, I’ve used LinkedIn extensively if not exclusively for finding candidates to recruit to my team. I’ve seen first-hand how both large and small company use the site to discover candidates, and I’ve coaching dozens of people through finding jobs this way.
Based on those experiences, I’d like to share five simple rules for how to make LinkedIn work harder for you. I hope these are new ideas that help you cut through the BS, and give you some ways to make LinkedIn work harder for you.
1. Put your desired job title in your headline.
There is a lot of inspiring creativity on display in LinkedIn headlines — mine hardly compares, and I don’t want you to think I’m looking down on any of those great ideas.
My philosophy is that I want the headline to do one thing really well. Hear me out on that, then do what works for you.
Your headline is a little like the title of of a web page. It tells the user what you’re all about. It’s given as a summary in search results, and the content is probably weighted a bit more heavily by search engines when the terms a user enters appears in it.
That’s crucially important in a technical sense, and it’s also good marketing. If you’re looking to be a VP of Design, or a Creative Director for advertising, your headline is going to be a lot more effective in attracting the attention of recruiters and hiring managers if it contains those very words.
Here’s are some simple formulae you can use for your own headline::
I am a [job title] who is inspired by [thing] and [other thing].
[Job title]. I’m passionate about [x, y and z].
Ambitious and driven [job title] always looking for ways to have a greater impact.
These are all a bit corny, and that might feel strange — like the freshly-pressed outfit you only wear to a job interviews. It doesn’t feel completely comfortable at first, but it’s what the occasion calls for. Besides, you look great!
A good rule of thumb is “don’t make them think.” When considering every aspect of your LinkedIn profile, remember the theme from last week’s newsletter: People want to hire somebody who is as close to an exact Goldilocks-caliber for their job as possible. Be that person!
Imagine you’re recruiting for a job opening for “Social Media Marketer for Healthcare.” Consider how each of these two headlines might capture your attention:
“Social marketing guru with a passion for healthcare, beauty, and wellness”
“Marketing manager who matches great people to great products”
That second headline is pretty snazzy, but I don’t think it does the job half as well as the first. You can absolutely be more creative and engaging than I have in my examples. Start by making sure the headline contains the job title you’re looking for, and you’ll have a much better chance at getting noticed.
By the way, this holds true also for freelancers or businesses looking to attract clients on LinkedIn. Include in your headline the specific thing you do, using the words that people will use when searching for it.
Here are two examples for type designers:
Before: “A creative character who draws characters creatively.”
After: “Type Designer with 15 years’ experience designing typefaces with character.”
That’s why “Put the job title in your headline” is rule #1 for my coaching clients.
2. Use specific adjectives in your headline.
Rule #2 continues on the theme of being specialized, specific, and particular. LinkedIn has this fatal flaw in common with search engine marketing — it’s easier to find great Oaxacan cuisine than it is to find tacos. That’s not fair and it’s probably not good for the internet, but that’s more or less the way it works.
As an example, let’s say you’re a full-stack web developer. If you put only those words in your headline, you are asking the recruiter to do a bit more work in order to learn what makes you special.
Instead, imagine this headline: “Full stack developer with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and building for scale.”
Another example: “Creative Director with 10 years of experience making brands go 📈” I think it’s great to use emoji in your LinkedIn headline — it grabs the eye, and I assure you it’s not going to confuse the search enginers.
Let’s try this instead:
“Digital Creative Director focused on building consumer web experiences that are innovative 💥, memorable 🧐, and exciting 🤩.
See what I did there? I’ve added the keywords “digital” “web” and “consumer” along with some adjectives that say that I don’t want to do boring work. Maybe the emoji are a bit much, but you can adjust that to suit your taste.
Rule #2 says don’t just say what you do: say how and why you do it. Describe yourself as the perfect fit for the role you really want to get.
3. Use your desired job title as your current and most recent job title.
This is going to make some of you uncomfortable, and that’s ok. It shows you’re a good person.
As long as you don’t intend to mislead anyone, it is perfectly legit to take some creative license with your LinkedIn profile/résumé. Have you been to a meeting to discuss an AI thing? If so, you can put a bullet point about that on your résumé.
Rule #3 says that if you are looking for a job as a Senior Program Manager, if it’s at all possible, you should use those exact words for your last job title. It doesn’t matter what the employee directory said your title was. Everybody knows that different companies use different titles to describe the same job. If you’re asked, you can always say “This wasn’t my title technically, but it’s essentially the job I was doing.”
That also goes for the roles and responsibilities. Look at the job postings for the jobs you’re trying to get, and use exactly the same words in describing your own work history. Make your current and prior roles seem like they’re an exact match with the job offered by your future employer. Choose every word you put on the page so that they answer the question “Why is this person perfect for this role?”
That’s rule #3: Use the job title and exact words from the job description you want to get in describing your recent roles.
4. Supply a Profile Pic and a Background Image
Every profile should have a profile photo and background image.
The Photo: It’s a good idea to choose a professional looking photo. Some people, women especially, have shared with me their concerns about using a photo online. I get it, and I support you 100%.
Your future employer does not really need to know what you look like, and they very likely do not care. The purpose of the photo is to avoid going around with that default avatar that says “I joined LinkedIn in the last few days.”
I’ve noticed that when I see this placeholder image in search results, I’m a little disinclined to the candidate even before I read the headline. I shouldn’t react this way, but I do, and others do as well. That’s a cognitive bias we should try to overcome. Until we do, let’s work around it.
An alternative is to use an avatar creator to make a little cartoon version of yourself. I haven’t tried them personally, but by searching for “non-binary avatar creator” I learned that they do exist. That’s awesome, and I think it’s a fine idea to use an avatar that doesn’t connote your gender. LinkedIn also has a space for pronouns, should you wish a prospective employer to know them.
In my own experience, I’ve generally perceived candidates with avatars instead of profile pics positively, even when the avatar is quite creative. I like that the space is not empty, as that signifies “brand new to LinkedIn”, and I like that it seems the candidate has done some work to express themselves.
The Background Image: All of the above also applies to the background image. Make it professional, keep it classy, and you really can’t go wrong. It shows that you’re taking an interest in how you’re seen online, and people will notice the intentional choices you make.
It’s probably fine to pick one of the defaults, in a pinch. You could also spend a few minutes using Adobe Express or some other design tool to make something snazzy. All you need to do here is signal that you’re clever and engaged enough to flesh your profile out completely.
Rule #5: Have Recommendations on your Profile
I get asked about these often, and always by people who are worrying too much about the wrong thing.
It does ’t matter who your references are from, how recently you worked with them, or what their role was in relation to yours. Nobody is going to scrutinize any of that.
The purpose of recommendations is to:
Have a profile that seems “complete” without any sections left blank.
A candidate with even just a few recommendations seems a bit less likely to be a complete asshole.
When I see someone who has a few recommendations on their profile, I perceive them a bit more favorably than someone without. Personally, I look for folks who have given recommendations, since terrible people rarely write recommendations.
You shouldn’t worry too much about asking a former boss or a colleague for a recommendation. It’s not something you need to explain or apologize for. If they’re too busy or too annoyed by the request, they’ll ignore it.
A great way to get some recommendations is to pre-emptively write some for your favorite people. Very often, they’ll reciprocate without even being asked.
If you have a hard time finding it, you can access the Recommendations section of your profile, where you can request them or give them, using this URL:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/[profile name]/
I hope these ideas are helpful. Good luck networking with LinkedIn, and let’s be careful out there!