Sadly, we all can’t be bitchin’ like Mike Stelzner. I’ve had several thousand Twitter followers for a year now, and you know what it’s gotten me? Jack shit.
My order at McDonald’s is still fucked up. No random strangers stop me on the corner asking for autographs. Klout perks are overrated crap from China.
But LinkedIn is a different beast. When you’re influential on LinkedIn, you get better jobs. Better jobs mean more money.
It pays to be influential on LinkedIn. Literally.
So, here are 7 ways to be an influential badass on LinkedIn:
- Have a good picture of yourself - Don’t bitch that there aren’t any good photos of you. Basically everyone has a phone with a camera and crap load of photos of themselves on Facebook. Get off your lazy ass and find a nice professional photo of yourself so I can see you’re a human and not a cleverly disguised kitten.
- Get your nice resume on there - I know you probably made your LinkedIn profile and then immediately forgot it. If you have a job, you’ve probably written a nice resume somewhere. Copy and paste that shit into your LinkedIn profile.
- Add some skills, yo - You’ve got mad skills. Get them on LinkedIn, so everyone can know you’ve got mad game at “Social Networking” and “Personal Branding.”
- Connect with people - Do I really need to remind you that you need to be social on a social network?
- Get some recommendations - Someone, somewhere, has enjoyed working with you. Find that person. Ask them to write something nice. Bribe them if necessary.
- Don’t worry about posting shit - How many times do you hear about people who read something on LinkedIn? Exactly. If you see something worth sharing and you want to go for it, do it. But don’t worry about making it a priority if you’ve got better shit to worry about, like real life, or a zombie apocalypse.
- Don’t link your Twitter account - Most people blend their personal and professional Twitter accounts. No one wants to read your boring or embarrassing tweets on LinkedIn. We’re all to busy stalking people. Keep it separate.
Those are just the basics. But now you’ve got the tools to be totally awesome. Get off Facebook and do some social networking that might actually make a difference in your life.
How are you going to be a LinkedIn badass?
How about cat pictures, Jay? Will they help me be a Linked In badass? Kthxbye.
No. Lolz!
But maybe texts from Hillary will.
Pro tip: Add on the Box.net app to LinkedIn and upload your resume into a public folder in pdf format. A nice, neat, clean version of your resume is then available for public download by anyone that visits your LinkedIn page.
BTW, I have my current VP job thanks to LinkedIn and just chatted with a friend who was also recruited into his current position via LinkedIn.
Sean McGinnis
http://linkedin.com/in/seanmcginnis
I remember in 2009 when I met one person who was recruited through LinkedIn. These days, it seems like everyone is hired that way.
Thank you for again asking people NOT to hook up their Twitter to their LI. As someone who actually does read through shares on LinkedIn, I’ve trained my eye to ignore anything from Twitter. Shares *from* LI to TW are fine, but vice versa is just lazy oversharing approaching sm spam.
My one goal in life is to disconnect LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.
YES. JUST YES. Thanks so much for this.
-LinkedIn BAMF in training
You are welcome.
*Gulp* Zombie…apocalypse!? I can’t help the goosebumps every time someone jokes about that. Go easy on the living dead, please.
About LinkedIn, though, my summary section still sucks (working on it), but based on my modest experiments so far, putting the recommendations section on top of the page seems to add hooking power to my profile (i.e., few visitors, but most of them are inquiry e-mails which them turn into business).
Anyone else have other setups that also work well?
Sean McGinnis, thank you about Box.net, I will give that a try.
I’ve never even thought about optimizing my profile. Craziness!
I’ll take that as a compliment. 🙂
This is great! LinkedIn is something I’ve had since my very first internship but only now have begun to see the value in..so all I have is a few 100 friends that I don’t know from other countries that send me spam invites to their groups. Any insight on how to avoid, and secure worthwhile connections?? Also, in regards to not linking Twitter accounts…can people start using this for not linking TWT to Facebook and Tumblr to TWT? That would be much less annoying.
also, my avatar here is obviously not LinkedIn compatible. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
Not only is this a great list, but it’s perhaps the first list of it’s kind with what’s that…humor! And there it is…wit! Definitely enjoyed reading.