10 Tweaks You Didn’t Know about LinkedIn

Are you too shy to reach out to that lead or simply think it’s not professional without any foreword? You can make use of LinkedIn’s “Get Introduced” option. It works very simple – if the lead is your second connection (that means he or she is connected with your follower) you can ask your direct follower to introduce you to that person.

Click on the person’s profile (if you’re too shy to being “disclosed” you turn this option off – take a look at point 3) and click on the drop down menu right next to “Send inMail” and then “Get Introduced”. It will take you to your messages window and LinkedIn will ask you via which direct connection would you like to get introduced to:

Would you like to personalize your invite? Just hitting “Connect” and choosing via which network you know that person allows LinkedIn to send that cold message:

Why not being more human and adding a few words of your own?

2

Personalize your LinkedIn URL

Does this sound new to you? Do I have a LinkedIn URL? Uhm, yeah… how do you think people can discover you? No worries, I constantly come across LinkedIn profiles of CEOs and founders of big corporations that post their cat as their profile page with a URL looking similar to this one:

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=AAkAAADdc6YBRH-93RrhfhBLGOnOfgmonO5ZbN8&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=VKH5&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A14513062%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-2-2%2CtarId%3A1442255181991%2Ctas%3A

You can make it way shorter and adding your name in it, so people know where they click to. It’s as easy as adding your profile picture. As a matter of fact, it’s just under it:

Why https://www.linkedin.com/in/martastrykowska is better than the first link? It’s cleaner, more professional, shows you care about your online presence and most of all – you can put it on your resume!

3

Personalize your LinkedIn URL

It’s time to make this one clear – yes, LinkedIn does allow you to search through people’s profiles without them knowing! And yes, it’s a free option!

Just go to your profile settings and under the first tab (Profile), click on this option:

LinkedIn will show your three options – disclose your full profile, partially (“Someone at xxx”), or go fully anonymous. Just remember – selecting the third option will erase the funky stats that LinkedIn provides – more about it in the following point:

4

Profile stats – see how popular you are

LinkedIn released this feature not so long ago – and I love it! It’s a great way to see how you’re performing on LinkedIn – are people following you, taking action, where they’re from, which job titles, cities etc.

See how you rank in your company – surprised to rank better than your boss? How does that feel? 😀

If you don’t want to see this feature, you can easily switch if off in your settings:

5

Turn off your job activity

This is a good one – LinkedIn sets your job activity visible on default. Hence, if you’re sneakily looking for jobs, following competitors’ profiles or connecting with recruiters, AND having your management as your connections, you might use this option. It’s visible on your profile page on the right-hand sidebar. You can switch it off and on with one click:

There’s also another type of activity that you can turn off – it’s the “People also viewed” option showing up on the right-hand sidebar. This allows viewers of your profile see connections that were also searched for when your name was scanned. This piece of information might be irrelevant for you and your potential leads, hence switch it off in settings:

Don’t let people leave your profile to view your competitors!

6

Ask for recommendations

Your profile looks more complete and genuine if it actually has recommendations from your colleagues. If you get them voluntarily – that’s fantastic!

Sometimes, you need to encourage people to get the good word out there right? LinkedIn comes with this function too – click on your profile drop down menu to “Ask to be recommended” option. It will open up the Recommendations window – get an overview of requests for your recommendations, received, given, or a question form.

It’s that easy!

7

Get introduced to people on LinkedIn

Would you like your resume to look like your LinkedIn profile or perhaps you’re a bit tired to battle Word and get those bullet points perfectly aligned? Many of you probably haven’t heard of Resume Builder – and I think it’s one of the most unappreciated functions on this platform.

It’s absolutely free, and just by signing up with your LinkedIn account, LinkedIn syncs all data into one beautiful resume. Choose between many templates and fill in the missing info: