How to get a job using LinkedIn

I would like to start by thanking all my followers, I am very humbled with all the positive feedback received on my series of article ‘How to Find Jobs in Dubai’. The articles have received over 100,000 views on LinkedIn and my second article ‘Networking and Recruitment Agencies in Dubai’ even appeared on the 1st page of Google! The articles have opened up several fantastic professional opportunities for me and embracing the teachings of renowned social media influencers like; Jason Stone, Tai Lopez and of course Gary Vaynerchuk – I wanted to give back by sharing what worked wonders for me and the people I’ve coached to achieve their goals.

Among many other brilliant things, LinkedIn is designed to get you a job anywhere in the World. The question is how? In this article I focus on how to use LinkedIn more effectively and introduces my own SEO enabled career branding strategy. This systematic approach also incorporates some Digital Marketing & Content Marketing and can be used to get you a job anywhere in the World – it is a game changer! When done precisely with a plan you won’t be sending out a ton of CV’s anymore and you will start getting calls from recruiters.

Be it Dubai, London or New York, with any highly competitive job market you absolutely must have a comprehensive job hunt or career development strategy. So use what I am sharing here in conjunction with my previous publications (links at the bottom) – they were written with Dubai in mind but adapt the principles & strategy to your local geography.

To commence, I understand in the current climate people have been struggling to get profile views let alone an interview. Repeating the same old process and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, so let’s discuss a new way forward.

Let’s start with ourselves, the first question you must ask yourself is, are you being the best potential candidate that you could be? How are you standing out against the sea of talent? Are you showcasing your USP? Is your CV and LinkedIn profile outstanding?

There’s a famous branding quote:

“ If you’re not branding yourself, you can be assured that others are doing it for you”.

The point here is that you must take control of your own professional career brand.

To get hired, you must brand yourself as a compelling solution to a recruiter or business need. The recruiter should see his commission cheque when he sees your profile. Imagine if you were going to send a proposal to client for $100m deal, how much attention to detail would you put into that proposal? That level of time, money and effort is what you need to invest into your brand to truly get noticed! Your LinkedIn profile should attract relevant targeted traffic like an Apple Store or a flagship Louis Vuitton boutique. Once you treat your own career brand in this way, you will take your talent into the spotlight.

The foundations of the plan require the following:

1) Professional Profile Picture

As superficial as this may sound but you must have a professional photo included on your LinkedIn profile. Profiles with photos receive a 40% higher number of profile views and better responses to InMails. Ideally it should show from the top of your shoulders to just above your head in business attire (or whatever is suitable for your chosen industry) – the golden rule being, dress to impress. Your Facebook or Instagram profile picture probably isn’t suitable – invest the time and effort required in a professional picture, you will see the ROI.

2) Create your own profile URL or Web Address on LinkedIn.

Having a good personalized URL is like SEO for your professional career brand. I created my own www.linkedin.com/in/muhammedalisheikh by following the steps on LinkedIn help.

3) Professional Headline

We live in an era of the one-liners & immediacy, after that great profile picture the very next thing anyone is going to see is that headline. A descriptive headline that highlights your value add with details of your expertise e.g. “helping building brand loyalty through social media…” is imperative and there are some great articles on the subject matter to help you to write one.

4) Summary & Experience

Here you must consider what keywords or skills your target employer would be searching for you with. This can be done by reading multiple job descriptions for similar roles, analyze what keywords are being used. Incorporate those keywords and skills to form a compelling story based on your own experience.  Effectively my strategy adopts an SEO like strategy for your professional career brand. Applied correctly your name will start coming up higher in searches, you’ll notice increased profile views which lead to discussions, that lead to interviews – it works wonders (please get in touch if you need help). Take this opportunity to demonstrate your value add, your expertise, awards, or highlights of achievements using the keywords you’ve found to be relevant to your goal.

5) Recommendations

Make an impact with recommendations from colleagues, employers, or clients. Ideally these recommendations should focus on your specific skills. Think of recommendations as reviews, you go to the place that has the greater reviews right?

6) Activity on LinkedIn

There is traditional Arabic saying in the Middle East:

“Harakah, Barakah (in movement there is blessing)”.

Your own activity is more vital than anything I can teach you. LinkedIn allows you to do several things including sharing a professional update with a picture or links to industry news/articles, you can also create your own publications/blogs. The beauty of publishing on LinkedIn is that it’s the place where the who’s who of hiring hangs out – so be, brand conscious (your own).

Comments can be a very powerful if used correctly, since with comments you can you increase or decrease your brand equity. I recommend applying a little bit of content marketing when posting, here you’re the product and you’re marketing your expertise. Content marketing requires a lot more elaboration so perhaps I will write about that in the future.

Lastly on activity, to build your brand effectively create a weekly plan of activity and stick to it – try and you’ll see the results yourself.

7) Add Media to your LinkedIn profile

They say a picture says a 1000 words, this is one of the reasons why I see tremendous value in a LinkedIn profile over a traditional CV. From winning awards, certifications, or video content of you representing your organization in Europe at trade show it can all be part of your online career brand via LinkedIn. SlideShare Presentations is something I haven’t gotten around to using yet but it is another powerful online branding tool to bring your talent into the spotlight. LinkedIn is rolling out direct video sharing but if it’s not available to you at the moment, you have to upload your video content to YouTube and share the link. Media can be added to your Summary, Education, and Experience sections of your profile.

8) Endorsements for Skills

Now if truth be told I never held the endorsements in high regard but as my understanding of LinkedIn developed I realized the value of them. If you’ve invested in LinkedIn Premium you’ll note one of things that its shows you is when you apply for a role, you are given a % score on how relevant you are. So as well as analyzing the keywords look at the skills endorsement you require for the role to be more relevant. To give further clarity, take a look at the screen shot below, if you had “Project Management & Microsoft Office” experience – update your endorsements on LinkedIn to increase relevance score for the position.

9) LinkedIn Groups

I mentioned LinkedIn Groups in one of my last articles since they are fantastic opportunities to connect and engage in discussions with industry professionals on a global scale. A reminder here on comments, keep your comments positive and if you have difference of opinion share constructive feedback in a professional manner.  As well as professional interest, here you can also reconnect with your alumni community (shout out to Aston University Alumni). How the groups can benefit you is; industry insight, exchange of ideas and relevant traffic to your profile. The groups can also be a tremendous source for my other passions, sales leads – a topic for another day!

10) “Interested”

Now LinkedIn hasn’t released any stats on this but “interested” could well be the most overly used comment on LinkedIn posts. It’s very sad when you see HR professional’s write about a vacancy with email address and there are pages of people who have written “interested”. If all you did was write interested, potentially it was an opportunity lost. Send a well-crafted email outlining how much value your expertise could bring to the organization and attach a CV/Resume encompassing what we’ve learned in previous articles.

Bonus Tip!

Grammarly, is an outstanding tool – it helps you with grammar while you’re writing posts not only in Microsoft office but on Social Media too including LinkedIn, I would urge you to download it immediately. Even as a native English speaker I find it beneficial, and if English isn’t your first language then downloading it most certainly will help you write with greater confidence. In my opinion the English you use on online creates an impression and is a component of your brand. To me polished written English is like turning up to an interview in a sharp Tom Ford suit instead of a cheap suit.

Conclusions

To conclude, what I am putting forward is innovative new approach that absolutely works and is far more effective than submitting hundreds of online applications. It does however require strategy, planning, Digital Marketing know-how and hard work. What’s next? Implement what I have shared here and from my previous articles or get in touch for a private specific discussion.

Don’t forget to like, comment & share and remember to adapt the strategy to your local geography.

To close, in the words of Jason Stone;

“To your success”.

About the Author

Muhammed Ali Sheikh is a Digital Marketing professional from the United Kingdom and has been based in Dubai for the last 7 years. He has worked extensively in Dubai’s Recruitment, Staffing & Hiring sector with Bayt.com and Monster.com. He launched his series of articles “How to Find Jobs in Dubai” to guide professionals using his vast industry insight and Digital Marketing flair.

He has also authored the following articles:

How to Find Jobs in Dubai

How to find Jobs in Dubai – Networking and Recruitment Agencies

How to get a Job using LinkedIn

To follow him, connect with him on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/2AliSheikh