Coming up with a marketing plan at the beginning a job search can sound a little intimidating, even for professionals and executives. It sounds like it would involve an extensive process that would take a lot of time away from the search itself.
However, any top rated resume writing services will tell you not to underestimate the value of a job search marketing plan. It’s much better to learn and understand today’s job search techniques before you get started, rather than just trying different things until something works. Here are the important concepts of a job search marketing plan.
Know How to Distinguish Yourself
If you’re going to advertise yourself, you need to know what different companies and recruiters are looking for. Any executive knows the importance of c-level personal branding, so you need to know how to brand yourself to fit the current market. How you portrayed yourself a decade ago is likely much different in today’s job market. Figuring out what characteristics leads to a successful job search is the first part of developing a good marketing plan.
Figure Out What Your Job Search Will Entail
When writing a professional resume, it’s better to be specific and target certain companies or industries rather than being too general. This just means you need to do a little homework upfront before you even start crafting your resume. You may need to do some online research, attend networking events or even visit some companies to get more information. Come up with a plan of what you’re willing to do and what you need to do based on your resources.
Develop a Plan and Stick With it
When you come up with a plan, you need to stick with it. Your plan is obviously to succeed, so adjustments may need to be made along the way in order to achieve your goals. To improve your c-level personal branding, this could mean attending one networking event each week. It could also mean you need to send out one resume to a different company every day after you’ve done your research on them. Set aside time every day to work on the plan you set in place and stick with it religiously.
Professional Resume Services is one of the top rated resume writing services to help you develop a job search marketing plan. If you need any assistance with creating your perfect plan, feel free to contact us at any step along the way.
If you aren’t familiar with LinkedIn endorsements, they are much more important and different than getting a “like” on Facebook or Twitter. With endorsements, your LinkedIn connections can confirm your skills with just a couple of clicks, rather than writing a detailed review about you. Any LinkedIn profile writing service will tell you not to put too much stock in endorsements when it comes to advancing in your executive career. Still, there are a few things you should know about the importance of LinkedIn endorsements.
Choose Endorsements Wisely
Endorsements from former bosses or colleagues are better than those from family members. While it may look great to have a ton of endorsements when trying to optimize a LinkedIn profile, a recruiter will see right through them. Most recruiters will search through your endorsements to find the most credible ones, so it won’t do you any good to clutter your page with them.
Endorsements From The Right People Are Valuable
LinkedIn profile writing services usually suggest asking higher-ranking people from your company or former workplace to endorse you. While an endorsement from former colleagues is valuable, an endorsement from the CEO of your company will rank higher.
One tip to help your chances of getting a LinkedIn endorsement from high-ranking people is to endorse them yourself. It’s human nature to return the favor when one is given, and this principle is no different with LinkedIn.
Quantity Isn’t Too Important
As mentioned earlier, you should focus more on the quality of your LinkedIn endorsements rather than the quantity. Check with a LinkedIn profile writing service to see if you have too few or too many endorsements on your profile. You can easily hide certain endorsements if you don’t think they are credible.
Endorsements Should Tell a Story About You
When a recruiter views your LinkedIn endorsements, they should be able to know exactly who you are and what you have to offer from a professional standpoint. Your endorsements could display your ability to communicate effectively both in writing and speech, work well with others, your proficiency with technology and many other characteristics. If you have a lot of random endorsements, it will be tougher for a recruiter to see what type of executive you really are.
At Professional Resume Services, we have a team of professionals who know how to optimize a LinkedIn profile with endorsements. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about how to manage your endorsements to help create a stronger profile.
LinkedIn has recently made some changes to their platform, and executives need to know about them. Some of these changes are minor and won’t affect how you use the website, but it’s always good to minimize surprises. We understand some executives don’t spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so it’s important to get assistance from LinkedIn profile development services at the very least. This will help ensure your online presence is as up to date and professional as possible. Here are some of the changes you should be aware of, whether you develop your LinkedIn profile personally or not.
Gauging Profile Effectiveness
If you frequently viewed your profile ranking based on your connections, you may notice the feature is removed. This was a great tool to allow users to gauge their profile effectiveness. The most current way to determine profile effectiveness is to look at the amount of activity generated. Any LinkedIn profile service can quickly determine how effective your profile is and what you can do to give it a boost.
Messaging Changes
The InMail feature is no longer free. So if you used that feature often, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid membership. You can still message people who aren’t your connections for free, but you’ll have to do some research to figure out how to email them directly. The messaging feature for your connections has gone to a similar platform as Twitter and Facebook. The key to messaging people you aren’t connected to, without InMail, is to be in the same groups as them so you can then message them directly.
Learn to Adapt to Change
Change always happens in business, so it’s no surprise LinkedIn has had to make some necessary changes to their platform. Most of these changes are self-explanatory, but if you need a LinkedIn profile writer to help you navigate them all, don’t hesitate to hire one.
The best LinkedIn profile development services will help you understand what changes are most important and how you should adapt to them. Decide what you use LinkedIn for to determine whether a paid membership is worth it with these new changes in place.
Professional Resume Services keeps people up-to-date on latest developments of LinkedIn, so professionals and executives won’t be taken by surprise. If you feel the need to utilize a LinkedIn profile service to help you adapt to the recent LinkedIn changes, feel free to contact us at any time.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool for professionals and executives—when used correctly. One of many ways you can properly utilize LinkedIn is by participating in different groups. Joining a few groups can boost your LinkedIn profile development, since you’ll naturally gain more connections as a result. However, you have to be careful with how you approach these groups. Here are some great tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and expand your network by joining groups.
Choose Your Groups Wisely
You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn, but you don’t have to actually join that many. Consider joining groups related to your industry, your social life, interests, hobbies, school affiliation and other similar groups. The more groups you join with relevance to your interests, the better chance you’ll have of expanding your network properly with people you can relate with.
Observe Group Conversations
Once you join a group, you might not want to jump right into conversations. People in groups are generally familiar with one another, so they may not like it if you barge in on their discussions. Instead, sit back and observe conversations for a few days or a couple of weeks. See how the group members interact with one another, so you’re able to fit in more naturally once you become more active in the group.
Introduce Yourself
After you’ve made your observations and determined the group is a good fit, make a nice introduction to the group. Tell them to visit your LinkedIn profile to learn your background, but also tell them things about yourself that aren’t on your profile. The more you tell about yourself, the wider range of people you’ll be able to relate to. When you’re trying to boost your LinkedIn profile with more connections, relating to people is the best way to go.
Be Active
When you’ve introduced yourself, be sure to reply to any comments welcoming you to the group. From that point on, people are at least familiar with your name and would enjoy having you in discussions. One mistake people often make is not being active in a group, so other members will forget about you. Activity in LinkedIn groups is the best way to expand your network.
Professional Resume Services is dedicated to helping professionals and executives boost their LinkedIn profiles by giving the best tips on LinkedIn profile development. Feel free to reach out to us any time for tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and expand your network at the same time.
LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for professionals, but it doesn’t mean everyone utilizes it the right way. If you have questions about how to improve your LinkedIn profile development, you’ve come to the right place. Many people have legitimate questions about LinkedIn, so we’ve done our best to gather the most common questions and answer them for you here.
1. How is LinkedIn Different From Other Social Media Platforms?
LinkedIn is viewed more as a professional social media platform rather than one designed for entertainment. People use Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to connect with friends or catch up on the latest celebrity gossip in real-time. That’s not what LinkedIn is about. Any LinkedIn profile service will also tell you to clean up your other profiles so it doesn’t tarnish your LinkedIn profile.
2. What Information Should You Include on LinkedIn?
Many people make the mistake of making their LinkedIn profile look exactly like their executive resume. A good LinkedIn profile writing service will tell you to use your resume as a base for information, but go into more detail about accomplishments and achievements on your LinkedIn profile. This is your chance to show your personality a little more than you can in a resume. Use the opportunity to brag on yourself as well!
3. How Important Are LinkedIn Groups?
Be selective about the groups you join and participate in them frequently. This is a great opportunity to meet new people in your industry. If you’re searching for a job, you may find your next employer in these groups. There are thousands of different groups, so definitely use them to your advantage.
4. Can You Find A Job Through LinkedIn?
Sometimes you’ll see job postings via LinkedIn, but you probably shouldn’t rely on them. The key to good LinkedIn profile development is to get your profile noticed by recruiters or hiring managers. Even if you don’t see actual job postings, it doesn’t mean you can’t get your foot in the door to land an interview with a well-developed profile.
5. How Can You Best Utilize Your LinkedIn Profile?
Highlighting your achievements and building on your resume are the best ways to utilize your LinkedIn profile. Be sure to remove any unprofessional pictures or anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see. Be active on LinkedIn and you never know who you may cross paths with along the way.
Although these are the most common LinkedIn questions, we know you may have many more. Feel free to contact us at any time with any of your burning LinkedIn questions.
There are many reasons why you need to keep a clean executive image online, and most of them are obvious. The good thing is, in most cases, you have complete control over your online presence. The importance of c-level personal branding can’t be understated, whether you are searching for a job or have a steady career going. How exactly can you maintain a clean executive image online? Here are a few tips to consider.
Search For Your Name Online
The first thing you need to do is see what the Internet has to say about you. Do a Google search or use a search engine of your choice to look up your name. Read every result you possibly can, because if you can see it, anyone can see it. Hopefully you won’t be shocked at the information you see, but the only way you can clean up your image is to know how you’re portrayed in the first place.
Tidy Up Your Social Media Profiles
Even if you don’t see anything negative about yourself in an online search, you still need to clean up your social media profiles. When it comes to personal branding for senior level managers, social media can be a big problem. Social media is a powerful networking tool when utilized properly, but one simple mistake can lead to much larger issues.
LinkedIn is the most powerful professional social media platform to use. Consider hiring a professional LinkedIn profile writer to make sure you are creating the best possible executive image. You never know who is looking at your profile, so you always want to look as professional and credible as possible.
Enhance Your Online Presence in a Positive Way
Engaging in active c-level personal branding doesn’t have to be difficult. There are plenty of ways to make a positive impact online, such as joining and participating in LinkedIn groups, posting in professional forums or message boards, writing professional blogs and more. All of these will help enhance your online presence in a positive way and boost your professional brand.
Creating a positive executive image of yourself online can take a lot of work. It can also be ruined with a simple post on social media. For more information on personal branding for senior level managers, feel free to contact us to help protect your executive image online.
Unfortunately, many executives never look at the privacy settings on their LinkedIn profile. While it won’t harm anything most of the time if your profile is completely public, there are some instances where it’s best to keep your profile a little more private. Even a LinkedIn profile service will tell you it’s not always advisable to share your profile with anyone and everyone. Here are a few things you should know about how and why you shouldn’t always have your LinkedIn profile viewable to the entire online world.
Restrict Your Profile if Currently Employed
If you don’t want your current employer or coworkers to know you’re looking for a new job, it’s best to restrict your LinkedIn profile as much as possible. There are many different ways to put restrictions on your profile, so a LinkedIn profile service can help ensure people inside and outside your network see the things you want them to see.
Make Your Profile Public if Unemployed
On the other side, if you’re unemployed or don’t care if your current employer sees you’re on the job hunt, you can make your profile public to everyone. Just be sure to study the art of LinkedIn profile writing, so you don’t damage your chances of landing a job with your public profile with something you’ve written.
There’s no need to keep any components of your profile private if you want to be discovered on LinkedIn by a recruiter or hiring manager. Some recruiters will bypass your profile altogether if it is heavily restricted, since it indicates you may have something to hide.
Update Notification Settings
Another important but little-known factor of LinkedIn profile development is what your connections can see regarding your activity. Some people get annoyed if they have to read about every single action you take, like joining a group, making a comment, connecting with someone new and more. To prevent annoying your connections, update your notification settings to only notify people of important things like job changes or important memos.
The privacy of your LinkedIn profile is something many people aren’t sure how to handle. You want people to discover you, but you also don’t want just anyone to have access to your information. For more tips on the challenges of LinkedIn profile development, feel free to contact us.
If you’re new to LinkedIn, or just noticed the endorsements feature, there are some things you need to know. Recruiters and hiring managers take all endorsements with a grain of salt, but they still usually won’t hurt your chances of landing an interview. These endorsements can come from former or current co-workers, friends or even family members.
The point is to highlight your skills and post them on your LinkedIn profile for everyone to see. Many LinkedIn profile development services will help you manage your endorsements so you can highlight the important ones and make your profile stand out more. Here are some things to keep in mind about LinkedIn endorsements.
Manage and Edit Your Endorsements
Sometimes your family members or friends will endorse you for a skill without even knowing if you’re good at it. Recruiters may view that negatively since it’s possible you’re using them to boost your endorsements. The key to good LinkedIn profile writing is to highlight the professional endorsements from people you’ve actually worked with in the past.
Return the Favor with Endorsements
If a colleague endorsed you for a skill, be sure and return the favor and endorse them with one of their skills as well. LinkedIn profile development services suggest staying as active as you can on LinkedIn to show you are well connected. Endorsing others will help give you a better professional reputation.
Endorsements Show What Professionals Think of You
LinkedIn endorsements should be thought of as completely separate honors than recommendations. A recommendation is generally a few sentences stating what a person is good at and how they can bring value to a company. An endorsement is just a quick acknowledgement of a skill without any explanation. Still, other professionals will take notice if you have several endorsements and may contact you if you are endorsed in a skill they require.
Don’t Take Endorsements Too Seriously
The main thing the best professional resume writers will tell you is to not take LinkedIn endorsements too seriously. With the social media world today, everything seems like a popularity contest with how many “likes” you can get on a post or a picture. LinkedIn doesn’t work that way. They are nice to have, but don’t get too down on yourself if you don’t have multiple endorsements coming in every day.
LinkedIn profile writing can be tricky. We understand the struggle some executives have, so feel free to contact us if you are ever uncomfortable with how your LinkedIn profile looks.
