Get the Most from LinkedIn and SlideShare

Get the Most from LinkedIn and SlideShare LinkedIn and SlideShare are two of the most important tools in your job search toolbox! You have probably heard how important it is  to establish an online presence to improve  your search. (I write about claiming your digital terrain  a lot!) Why is an online presence important? Recruiters are searching the Internet  and social networks to source candidates at an increasing rate! Over 90% of recruiters use or plan to use social networks to recruit- Jobvite. Or a more conservative number, 60% of employers are using social networks to research candidates- CareerBuilder. Either way, the studies show an increase in this trend. Leverage LinkedIn as Your Online Portfolio LinkedIn is the go-to source for hiring professionals (recruiters and hiring managers). You want to make sure youve got an awesome profile so check out this post for help with that. Now, lets take your profile to the next level. Consider it  an online portfolio. Your LinkedIn profile shows your writing skills plus it can show samples of your work or projects you worked on. What Samples or Documents Should You Embed? Uploading your traditional text resume into LinkedIn is a no-brainer. But don’t stop there. What other documents can you embed in your LinkedIn profile? Think about including samples of your work. A flow chart or process diagram Written summary report or technical instructions Design a form, logo or website Any of these would provide evidence that you know how to do your job and offer proof of your abilities. You could also take a screenshot, a video, or a link to your portfolio or personal website. Before you upload anything into your LinkedIn profile, be sure you think about the confidentiality of the information you are about to share. You may be able to remove identifying information or data. Or you could re-create a generic version of the document. Where To Put Your Samples of Work You can embed your document within the summary or work experience section of your LinkedIn profile. Go to edit your profile and choose the job or summary section. LinkedIn prompts you to add media or a link. You can find more help adding media to your LinkedIn profile in this post. Become A LinkedIn Publisher To Highlight Achievements Not only does writing an article on LinkedIn give you a chance to talk about your successes, it shows your writing skills. Your published article will appear immediately under the contact section of your profile, which is very visible to anyone looking at your profile. And be sure you use a visual in your article to call attention to your content. I wrote about how to use LinkedIns blogging tool to tell your story in greater detail here. Slip Your Documents into SlideShare Another way to show off your work (and make it shareable and embeddable) is to slip it into SlideShare. SlideShare is free and lets you upload and share files (PowerPoint, Excel, Word) via the web. It is also a social network, which allows you to follow other users, comment on uploaded content and share across other social networks. (And LinkedIn owns it.) You can check out SlideShare here. You can even embed/link to your SlideShare document within your LinkedIn article! The main benefit for you is that it makes your files public, shareable and searchable on the Internet. The other benefit of sharing presentations, testimonials or research is that you begin to build credibility and awareness. What To Kind Of SlideShare Can You Create? Think about the emails youve received from customers, colleagues or managers that offer praise or recognition? Currently, you are the only one who has seen these words of praise. It is up to you to make the positive feedback public. Remember, this is your reputation. You could compile the testimonials in a PowerPoint presentation or if you prefer, Prezi or Keynote. If you don’t have permission to use the testimonial, you can leave off the last name or identifying information. Add visual elements to your testimonials  like logos or pictures. Once you’re satisfied with the results, create a free Slideshare account and upload your presentation. Be sure to  title your uploaded document with your name, completely fill out the description section and tag the file with appropriate terms someone searching for your qualifications would use. (This helps you show up in search results.) Testimonials are just one idea. You can upload an infographic resume, flow chart, text resume, report or any other document you feel is worthy of public recognition. Check out these visual resumes on SlideShare. And an  added bonus: as a free user of SlideShare, you can see analytics from what you post. (The number of people who have viewed your uploaded documents and more.) Use this information to evaluate if you have used the correct keywords. You can always update your file’s description or tags to help improve the results. Most importantly, don’t forget to share your SlideShare documents as status updates on LinkedIn or other social networks so your network can check them out. You Arent Done Yet Dont stop after youve uploaded your  presentation. Draw attention to the new work youve added to your profile by sharing it on social media. Follow these tips to get more profile views! The Trend IsVisual Visual marketing is a hot trend so why not  update your career portfolio to include visuals? Adding visuals does two things: 1) increases online content about you on the web (making you more find-able) and 2) gives you a chance to show off your stuff! Did you know, research has found that 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text? If you are seeking a job in a creative field such as design, marketing, or advertising, using visuals is an obvious way to prove your talent and creativity. But even smaller companies and start-ups tend to look for stand out candidates who can demonstrate multi-faceted skills and entrepreneurial spirit. If you arent thinking like a marketer, maybe now is the time to incorporate their ideas into your job search. With so many tools available today to show what you can do, isnt it worth at least trying to incorporate unconventional techniques and visuals into your job search? This post adapted from original post on US News World Report On Careers