A question from a colleague, with whom LinkedIn has provided us re-connection after a long period of time and enabled us to share thoughts, and help each other as part of the overall personal learning network we all have with each other:
I was wondering if you could shed light on something that happened to a friend of mine who is in sales. In a staff meeting, the speaker announced that my friend’s LinkedIn page looked like she was actively looking for a job.
They also are recommending changes to everyone page to add words that benefit the organization. Is this unusual or are companies taking ownership or voicing their preferences over individual profiles?I was a bit horrified.
Dear A Bit Horrified:
Don’t be. This is always a tough question and very much depends on the organization’s culture.
I believe that each person needs to express him or herself in terms of “why I do what I do” on LinkedIn, especially in the Experience section that pertains to the organization they are working for at the time, but use the right wording so the reader believes the person is not only an individual but strengthening their organization at the same time. Links in the chain concept…
This can be done with a few pre-selected SEO keywords, phrases or sentence(s) that reflects in the individual’s own voice why they do what they do for the organization at the time.
Some companies and nonprofits I have worked with provide material and key words for their employees in a library, on a shared drive, on on their intranet, to choose from. That helps keep the message tighter.
It’s not unusual, is part of the company’s social media management and only makes the individual look better to the reader, even if he/she is {secretly} seeking a job. Hope that helps.
Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks.
This approaches that dicey area. Think of your LinkedIn profile in several ways. As an engaging and dynamic resume or CV but viewable to folks you might not anticipate reading it, your job description needs to jive with your employer’s description, especially when you work there (still). Secondly, any time you work for an employer (of any kind), you exist as some kind of representative, a face if you will, of such; and how you show or promote yourself affects view of the employer in all ways possible. Thirdly, your connections become may be of interest and of use to an employer. I suspect labor and employment lawyers already seek to wrap their tentacles around the issues poses by this post.