LinkedIn Profile Updates That Will Transform Your Executive Job Search.

In September I launched a weekly group & workshop, the Carerfolk café dedicated to helping people get a grip on the social media tools that have revolutionized the job search and career management. I’m talking specifically about LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook.

Indeed, I am a bit of an evangelist because the more I learn about the powerful impact these tools can have on one’s executive job search or career advancement, I cannot help but find the closest mountain where I can wax lyrical about it all!. The reality though, is that all of these sites can be a complete waste of time if you are not using them correctly, and opportunities are being lost if you are not using them at all. It’s a chicken vs. egg thing. If you are not doing it or not doing it right, you don’t know what you are missing, and vice versa.

This past week I had a chance to hear directly from a LinkedIn representative on how LinkedIn can impact your search and career. She confirmed many of things I already say about LinkedIn, giving us some very compelling stats that underscore their importance. She also introduced me to the most exciting update of all and I have left the best till last (see #7).

Here are the 7 Updates you can make that will transform your executive job search. Just watch your own stats improve!

1. Photo. Your profile is 9 times more likely to be viewed if you have a Photo (a 100% Complete profile is essential.)
2. Past Experience. Your profile is 7 times more likely to be viewed if you include your past experience (Make sure you have a complete and comprehensive profile.)
3. 50. The magic number of connections (according to LinkedIn algorithms) needed to generate information that you can benefit from. The more connections you have, the more results you will glean when searching for companies, or people in careers you wish to explore.
4. Customize. Customizing your LinkedIn URL with your full name boosts your G-cred (Google-credibility). Simply put, your profile is more likely to come up high in Google search results of your name than if you don’t have it customized.
5. Volunteer Experience. 20% of hiring managers made hiring decisions based on volunteer experience on LinkedIn.
6. Skills. One of the newest and very important sections of LinkedIn is the skills section. You can access it via the MORE button, or activate it via the new ADD SECTIONS box, just below the Profile section. Just click on + Sections, and discover a whole new universe inside LinkedIn, just waiting to be optimized.
7. Updates. Probably the most exciting and powerful of all is a new advanced search tool LinkedIn has created to help you search. UPDATES, like so many things on LinkedIn, is placed so you don’t even know it’s there. But look for it, because you’ll be blown away! This search mechanism opens up access to an inordinate amount of real-time job information if you are looking for it! Not only is it searching regular LinkedIn Updates but it is also drawing from Twitter feeds since many people now link the two. Why is this so big? Try typing in the keywords “Hiring, + “Your Key job target”. The most amazing thing about it is that your search results include updates from all 3 levels of connections, so when I typed “Hiring” (see below) I literally got full access to 16,829 Linked updates/ Tweets by someone Hiring!

Careerfolk, LLC is a full service career management company, that provides highly personalized career counseling and job search coaching to professionals all over the world. For original article, click here.