[MUSIC] Let's begin with LinkedIn. What makes a strong LinkedIn Profile? Since this is the best social media outlet to feature your professional successes, this is the most important account to spend time in perfecting. So here are a few reminders. Remember to complete your profile. Fill-in each section with something. Don't leave any blanks. This is a place where you can include things constrained from your resume, just keep it relevant and appropriate. Keywords, we learned earlier the strength in keywords when influencing search returns. Just a reminder, add the most important keywords to your LinkedIn profile title and your summary. Add those same top keywords to skills and expertise and other sections like interest across channels, but particularly in LinkedIn. Your Profile Name. So here's a little different than what we've talked about in terms of name. Use your actual name here, the name that appears on your resume like we stated before. But one unique part of the name portion of LinkedIn is that people have a tendency to add additional information like titles or credentials. It's important not to do that in LinkedIn because it confuses the search function plus there are places in your profile to put that information that the search is trained to identify. So keep the name area clean with just your actual name. Photos. Again choose a professional image and use the same picture cross all accounts that you appear. LinkedIn offers the opportunity to use what they call a background image, similar to the other images in other social media profiles. This isn't necessary and often times it's best to keep it clear of clutter, so if you do choose to use a background image in your profile, choose a simple subtle pattern that doesn't distract from your information. Now, let's get into some of the specific tips surrounding LinkedIn. Your professional headline is the line under your name in your profile. LinkedIn defaults your professional headline to your current title and organization, but did you know that you can change that? Consider writing a strong but simple professional headline no more than 10 words and think about those key search term we keep talking about. What you write here can draw in a recruiter, influence the search within LinkedIn, and show that you are a savvy user who understands how to customize your content. Another area you can customize in LinkedIn is your URL. The default for LinkedIn URL is LinkedIn.com/in your name followed by a series of numbers and letters that are random. So it's important to simplify your public URL and it's easy. Go to the edit profile and right below your picture is that long and messy URL. It's real small. Click on that gear icon next to it. On the top right you’ll then see a section titled Your public profile URL. Click on the pencil next to that messy URL and delete the unnecessary characters. Click Save. If your name is a common name and it doesn't allow that URL, consider adding your middle initial to personalize it further. I had to do that, my personal self. So, I know how frustrating that can be. The nice part about this URL is it's yours and you can use it. You can use it on your resume and your email signatures as part of an interview presentation. Wherever you feel it's necessary to direct a prospective employers. Complete your summary. This is an area that should draw a potential employer in to want to learn more about you. Consider using your professional pitch in this section that you will develop in step three of this course. Another option is to use that Twitter friendly biography we discussed earlier. The important thing is to be concise and a bit creative in showcasing your achievements and your personality. I will include my LinkedIn bio for you to read in the shared folder for this course that you can get an idea of the ways to catch the attention of a recruiter. The experience section of LinkedIn allows you to enter as much detailed information as you can write. But I want to caution you here. Recruiters aren't going to read it in great detail, so you need this section to be scannable by a potential employer. So for this reason, include only the most relevant work experience in history. You don't have to include every job you've ever had. In fact, as your career goals change so too should your listed experience. It's okay to leave items off if they're old and irrelevant as long as you aren't creating a large gap in time that can't be explained between relevant positions. So simplify the experience under each job as well. Bullet the information and make it scannable. Get recommendations. Connections and endorsements in LinkedIn are great but strive to have recommendations from past colleagues or bosses. This is more personal and interesting and likely more believable than a simple endorsement. They can often speak to your professional character not simply the tasks you are capable or skills that you have. This can be a powerful information for the recruiter. Share content by posting interesting articles that pertain to the industry you're trying to get a job in, something we've mentioned before under general rules. Also consider following companies you want to work for. They will often take a look at their followers if they're an avid LinkedIn user to see if there are any potential candidates among them. So why is all of this customization important? Well, LinkedIn advises recruiters to conduct advanced people searches. They tell them to include titles, keywords and company competitors and I'll explain why. So a title, they're encouraged to try different words for the same type of job. So again, the keyword work that you had done previously while selecting things that return better in a search will really pay off here. Again, the keywords recruiters are getting creative using things like specialty software. So if there's something specific they need a candidate to be able to do, skills, specific industries, etc. Using these terms that apply to the job they are seeking to fill will return interview ready candidates, so, it's quite a good strategy. The company field, LinkedIn tells potential employers to put their competitors names or companies here. They can choose current, past, or both based on your desire to hire somebody who is still there, has left their position, or either. As you can imagine this can be a very helpful technique when looking for potential candidate poaching from their competitors. When you are selecting companies to follow you might also want to include their competitors for this reason and follow them as well. LinkedIn also advises recruiters to save successful searches for future use. Saved searches happen when recruiters have conducted a successful search that brought good potential candidates. They can save that search criteria with one simple click. Then on an ongoing basis, LinkedIn will look for more potential candidates by regularly searching their network, including new connections and people in their network are making. All the time and effort you put into your profile in inserting keywords and relevant content will pay off in dividends here. Let's move on to Facebook. So what makes a good Facebook Profile? First, you need to decide early on if Facebook is strictly a personal channel for you, or if it's a safe social environment for employers to view. If you decide to keep it personal, be sure to manipulate your settings and test it to ensure only the information you want to appear does appear. Facebook allows you to view as the public. I can't stress enough how important it is to do this as a matter of practice regularly during your job search. If you decide to allow access, the same rules apply as LinkedIn. Complete your profile, fill in each section with something, don't leave any blanks. Keywords, use the same keywords you did in your LinkedIn. Consistency creates a strength. Your Profile Name, again, use your actual name if you want to be found. Facebook does allow you to change it in your account settings. Update it to be consistent if it isn't the same as LinkedIn. Photos. Use the same image as LinkedIn. Facebook has a cover photo also that like the background image in LinkedIn you want to choose something benign or neutral like a pattern or place or perhaps something seasonal. Stay away from quotes or personal images that can be read into without context. And of course again, be honest and consistent in your content and proofread. Because Facebook isn't traditionally meant for employment purposes, I do have a few tips of how to be sure your presence in this channel works for you while getting hired. because mostly, recruiters are going to go there to see what kind of information they might be able to dig up on a negative end. So first, you want to clean up your posts and your photo and video collections in your Facebook account. Be conscious of what you like, share and what content of yours is shared and liked. It all returns in a right search of your name and to be fair, it is really just judged out of context. So you think about some of the things you put up there that might be politically, religious driven, gripes about your current job. You gotta be really careful about your content in Facebook. Facebook now offers an Intro option. This is located under your photo in your profile, so consider again your tweetable bio or your professional pitch here. In the About You portion of your profile, consider using the same information from LinkedIn or even your Twitter friendly line or two that briefly describes you as a person and a professional. But remember, be consistent. List the same skills and keywords across social media accounts like LinkedIn that you've included in your resume. As things change, make sure you keep your profile up to date. Share interesting articles that pertain to the industry you're trying to get a job in. Follow the company pages and their competitors or their groups that you're interested in just like LinkedIn. Employers want to know that you're engaged. And of course, interlink your accounts. Include your personal LinkedIn URL that you just customized in your Facebook profile to ensure that they're looking for all that rich information on you in the professional channel. Now, let's speak briefly about Twitter. What makes a good Twitter Profile, or what makes Twitter effective for you while job seeking? So, all the same rules apply. I don't want to dive too deep again into the same content. So, again manipulate your privacy settings if you think Twitter is a channel that you want to use to seek professional employment. Complete your profile, use the same keywords that you have in Facebook and LinkedIn. Your profile name should be appropriate and consistent with your resume and all other channels. Same rules apply for photos. Twitter also allows you that header type image, so stick to the simple benign type photographs that maybe show a little bit of your personality. Proofread and be honest in your content. So, here's a few tips about Twitter. Strong, brief bio, that 160 characters that I had mentioned before, use them wisely. Think about those key search terms you have been using in LinkedIn and Facebook. It should introduce you and give people viewing it an idea of why they want to follow you and what you have to say. Make a connection here by following, liking, retweeting, doing mentions through hashtags used by relevant industries. Every connection you make in every channel is a networking opportunity and networking is key to getting a job. Be active. Twitter is the most timely, almost real-time social media account out there. Your content will be missed if you aren't regularly engaged. Play to your audience. In this case you are speaking to someone who is looking to hire you. Treat your profile like a condensed interesting resume. Twitter and all other social accounts provide you an opportunity to share your professional history as well as your interests, passions and personalities. They're more robust than a resume and can really help you stand out if completed correctly. So, be creative and be proud of who you are. Keep content positive though. And of course, interlink your URL again, the LinkedIn URL that you used in Facebook. The more you use that, the more likely they're to be driven back to your professionally driven social media channel. Finally, what makes a good Goggle+ Profile? There should be no surprise here. All of the same recommendations I have given before and tips apply here to Google+. Manipulate your privacy settings, complete your profile, use the keywords, use appropriate profile names, be sure to use the same professional photos you've used, proofread, be honest, all of these things are important with Google+. Strong, brief bios and, of course, interlinking and including your LinkedIn URL, because ultimately you do want to drive everyone back to that professional profile in LinkedIn. We've covered a lot of content in this first section of the course. So, I hope at this point you feel pretty confident in your ability to evaluate your current social media image and you're able to edit and upgrade your social media profiles with content that really helps you shine when people are searching information on you online. Here's a little bonus tip. I know we aren't touching on cover letters and their importance in this class because there's bit of a formula behind crafting those letters and it would just be too much to include. But customizing them to specific jobs or promotion that you are seeking by incorporating specific skills that are being sought in that job description as the general rule or formula. However, I want you to think about including outcomes. Now, what do I mean by outcomes? Your cover letter and resume, even your social profiles, all list to your skills, abilities and experiences. These are all things that you are capable of doing. Outcomes are the things that you have actually done. This advice was the most effective advice I received in my recent job search process. Including measurable outcomes on your cover letter, in your resume, on your social profiles and even in preparation for an interview will truly make you shine. Behavioral based interviewing focuses specifically on outcomes. So be ready to showcase them. If you are in customer service, talk about the call volume you manage daily. if you are an accountant include the number of audits by category you complete in a given period or perhaps the number of tax returns, personal and business you process annually. If you work in marketing talk about the specific metrics you influenced through marketing like in increasing web traffic and engagement by 50% following a targeted campaign. Get specific about your successes and showcase your strengths with pride and do it every step of the way in your job search journey in every channel. This includes in your pitch or your networking opportunities that we'll talk a little bit more about in step 3 of our three steps. So stay tuned for that. Congratulations, you've completed step one, you're well on your way. Up next is creating your infographic resume with Dr Christine Kroll. [music]
