5 Easy Steps to Improve Your Visibility to Recruiters on Linkedin

Yes Linkedin has a new layout and we all still look the same, but prettier. However, since recruiters are paying $8000 USD annually to find us, let's do what we can to help them. In fact let's make it easy on them.

Here are 5 simple and quick things to implement that will put you in a recruiter's headlights. It will wildly improve your visibility to recruiters on Linkedin. But before you go crazy, on Linkedin go up under your name and click on Settings in the drop down menu to close down all you visibility. You really do not want Linkedin to announce to the whole world every time you join a group or add a contact. Yes, you have to set your privacy as the default is total public nakedness on Linkedin...not good.

1. Join 50 groups and, if you can find them, 50 subgroups and follow 50 companies that you would like to work for. This will get your profile out there more. Recruiters do key word searches in the search box on group member pages.
   
2. Fill in all the basic profile blanks: Summary, experience, schooling, interests, awards, contact information and personal, languages. Leave no category not filled in with some kind of information about you.
   
3. Add the Projects section and use accomplishments from your resume work experience as projects. This will increase a recruiter's key word search potential on your strengths. Don't write all those bullets in the Experience section, rather break them out and elaborate on them as Projects. That way you can make dated experience look fresh and put a more detailed description on your accomplishments without endless bullets.
   
4. Add the Skill section and list LOTS of skills: functional skills, technical skills, languages, methodologies, tools, people skills, data skills. List everything that would be of value in your next position and next employer. The Skill section is setup to provide key word searches forrecruiters. You see 88% of the people on Linkedin are really terrible at filing in and writing a compelling, complete profile on Linkedin. Even if the  recruiters wanted to hire them they can't be found because of lack of key words, or even any words sometimes. Linkedin nudges every one into creating skill lists a.k.a key words by urging everybody to endorse everybody else. Endorsing people's skills is officially now the next cool thing to do on Linkedin and it is easier that getting recommendations written.
   
5. Connect to all the recruiters you come across...100's of them if you can pull that off. Find them in those 50 groups you joined. Use the search term "recruitment" on the group's member page. Just go down the list and invite them to connect. They will NEVER turn you down. I had a client go from 50 connections to over the magic 500 in one month. He instantly looked well-networked. Since nobody saw his connections, they didn't know it was 500+ recruiter connections. 
   

These 5 tasks will not take long and the rewards you will reap will be astonishing. Linkedin is really a numbers game to be seen and found. My client who connected to over 500 recruiters on 3 continents in less than a month ended up with 2 interviews. He is at the top executive level so those searches are not plentiful. He got a good return on his investment. Further, every time he posts a blog that highlights his expertise, it goes to his Linkedin updates. His LInkedin updates remind all his recruiter-connections continually of his talents and availability. This is a virtuous circle of creating a reputation and having it be seen on

If you want help in building out the content to make your Linkedin Profile really shine, contact me at [email protected]

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