Every year my town has a hazardous materials (hazmat) collection to dispose of the toxic stuff we all buy and never completely use.

It was this past weekend. We filled our car, drove to the central processing location, they pull the boxes, bottles, and cans out and allocate them with other like materials to huge, thick cardboard boxes, each to be disposed responsibly.

Just in time, I am in a “dump it if I haven’t used it in the past year (or more)” mood.

Yes, it’s also time to remove the hazmat in your Linkedin profile too. Update any needy sections to reflect who and why you are doing what you do to today.

Let’s eliminate the dangerous, confused, archaic ways of the past, for example, “pipes’ ( | ) between phrases in your headline (you look like a dinosaur with them!), seeding keywords at the end of your About section in a string of gibberish no one reads (you look like a player, not a good reflection), certainly to perusers of your profile and the algorithm as well!

Old is toxic, as in the reader’s perception you are not cultivating your profile. As in “I am definitely not interested in this person, I will go on to someone else more interesting.” And in a dust cloud, they are gone, never to return. Opportunity lost.

Updates are noticed, because you call them to our attention in a post, telling us you just renovated and have a new attitude, new business vertical, improved idea, etc. You want to tell us why renovating was needed to reflect your current, newfound state of business.

Update us, frequently enough to appear on the cusp, that means get you off your hazmat can.

And to update you, the blog resumes next Tuesday after our Labor Day holiday.