Alex Freund: “If you’re not on LinkedIn, you’re irrelevant.”

By Barbara Perone

Today, LinkedIn is the most effective way to market yourself, particularly if you’re looking for work. It’s a unique, sophisticated way to search for people. It can help you make acquaintances and find job postings tailored to your background, says popular Career Coach Alex Freund.

Just make sure when you create your profile that it’s not just a copy of your résumé. “Many LinkedIn profiles are too long, too detailed, and too boring. Your LinkedIn profile should not include everything you’ve ever done,” says Freund, who held a free LinkedIn presentation recently at The Trinity Church in Princeton.

For those who claim they want to stay off the social media radar, Freund suggests they get with it because “most employers and Human Resource professionals use LinkedIn frequently. If they can’t find you on LinkedIn, you’re irrelevant.” In fact, he says 94 percent of all Recruiters view perspective job candidates on their various social media websites before contacting them personally.

Once you create and populate your LinkedIn profile, don’t think you’re finished there. “You have to be very active on LinkedIn,” says Freund, who recommends signing up with one of the many LinkedIn groups. Freund touts getting 60 new connections each day from TopLinkedIn.com.

To find out which job seeker groups you can join go to www.CareerRocketeer.com and read the article Top 25 LinkedIn Groups ALL Job Seekers MUST Join.

Also, be sure to use the correct keywords in your profile so you can portray yourself in the best light. In case you didn’t know this, LinkedIn is really a database. It allows employers to use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), very sophisticated software, which, among other things, allows companies to use keywords to find certain people for jobs they have to fill, Freund explained.

Remember, don’t treat LinkedIn as if it were just another social media website. Reserve it for business purposes only, use Facebook for socializing, he added.

Besides promoting yourself, you can also use LinkedIn to identify companies that employ people on your level. That way, you can initiate and further establish a relationship with those in your target companies; you can also use LinkedIn to identify people in your industry, again, people with whom you would like to establish a relationship, says Freund.

Check out the career paths of people in jobs that are similar to those you want. If these people belong to a particular group, join that group, Freund suggests.

Finally, Freund had two additional words of advice about LinkedIn. First, you may not know this, but, you can permanently remove an annoying person, or group of people, from the connections in your profile – without them knowing about it. To do this, just follow the six steps below.

1. Go to the LinkedIn sign in page. Log in using the email address and password associated with your account.
2. At the top of the Homepage, pull down the Network menu and select Contacts. All of your network contacts/connections appear with little check boxes to the left of their profiles.
3. Scroll to the Connection you want to remove. Select the little check box to the left of the Connection’s photo.
4. Underneath the Connection’s name, look for the Tag and Message drop down menus.
5. To the right of the Message drop down menu, look for the More drop down menu, click it once.
6. Select Remove Connection. Repeat Steps 1 through 6 for each connection you want to remove.

The second – make sure you have a professional looking photograph of yourself (not your dog or your cat or your kid) on your profile. That way Recruiters and companies won’t think you’re trying to hide something. The photo should be well-lit, clear, not taken from a distance, and most importantly – appropriate for business.

For more of Alex’s advice about LinkedIn or other job hunting advice please visit his website www.landingexpert.com.