One of my very brilliant colleagues, Louise Fletcher (@louise_fletcher), just tweeted about a great article she penned on seven common mistakes made in creating a Linked In profile. I’ll add two more.
–Not having recommendations
Some recruiters will pass you by, not matter how great you are, simply because you do not have any third party endorsements attached to your Linked In profile. Not only “having” recommendations, but “how many” recommendations.
Another equally brilliant colleague, @CareerPro, tweeted this a few days ago …
A client just told me that for a VP of Finance interview the interviewer wanted xx amount of Linked In endorsements just to get past the screen. [emphasis mine]
A sub-mistake of not having recommendations is to, upon reading this post, send an email out to everyone in your Linked In network asking for a recommendation. Please don’t. If I don’t know about your work, your attitude, your contributions – I sure can’t write a recommendation about it.
–Not being branded
If you aren’t unique and different, you are just … a commodity. I’m sure you know that commodities don’t hold much value these days. They are not only cheaper, but we will often hold out for a coupon or discount before making a commodity purchase, further devaluing it.
Branding touts what’s distinctive about the way you contribute. Rare – now that’s valuable!
To your point about “not being branded” – for the most part, LinkedIn hasn’t provided a lot of ability to make your profile standout. I wasn’t too concerned about it until a friend showed me how to add video to my profile. I jumped at the opportunity to differentiate my profile.
It’s not straightforward, which I think is good because it means not a lot of people are doing it (yet). I’m sure they’ll make it easier in the future, but here’s one way to do it right now: http://blog.cantaloupe.tv/blog/cantaloupe-tv/0/0/think-you-cant-embed-video-in-linkedin-think-again-a-step-by-step-guide
Video is certainly one way to differentiate yourself on Linked In. However, it isn’t right for everyone.
I believe there are ways to make your summary stand out from the competition, and do that for my clients every day.
Thanks for your comment, Brennan.
Hi Cindy! I hope this isn’t too far off topic, but …
I appreciate you and your colleagues and congratulate you all on the fine job you’ve done in very challenging times. Thanks for your blog and very effective communications efforts throughout the year-I check it almost daily.
Thanks Mohammed. If you’re checking daily then I probably need to get busier creating content!
Best, Cindy