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As I cruise through LinkedIn, it's clear that many people don't recognize what LinkedIn has essentially become - your de facto electronic resume.  Whether you're looking for a job or not, at 36 million members and growing LinkedIn is now one of the first places other professionals go to find out more about you.  Yet of the profiles I've viewed in the past 24 hours, a large percentage of them clearly don't put the profiler's best foot forward, while others are downright embarrassing - complete with typos and poor sentence structure. 
 
In addition, I've had the opportunity to talk to a number of recruiters in the past few months, and most have told me that they are using LinkedIn to find candidates for the few open positions they may have available.  They tell me it's a lot cheaper than Monster.com and the like, and they can find people who aren't looking for jobs rather than simply those that are.  Right now, in a "buyer's market" for talent, they're also going by referrals more than ever.  The first thing they do when they get a referral?  Look you up in LinkedIn.  Here are some tips to keep in mind:

 
1)  Use a descriptive "headline".  This is what appears right under your name, and follows you everywhere on LinkedIn.  Take a few minutes to ensure that this headline grabs attention.
 
2)  Recruiters often search LinkedIn like they do Google - using key words - so make your profile search-friendly.  For example, if your title was somewhat unique to your company, use a more generic one in your profile.  If you have specialties, make sure they're listed. Also, in the specialties section, include any industries you’ve worked in.  If you’ve worked in Fortune 500 or startups, put that in too – anything that someone is likely to search for.
 
3)  Focus on accomplishments, not your job description.  Many times when I review a resume or LinkedIn profile, it's so generic that it could apply to anyone in the role - I see a list of job duties and responsibilities.  Everyone knows what a VP of Sales, Account Manager, Director of Marketing is supposed to do - what's unique about what you brought to the job to help your company be successful?
 
4)  LinkedIn differs from resumes in that you have a limited space to write about each position.  Make sure you use the space wisely.
 
5)  It's the most basic thing to ensure no typos - but LinkedIn doesn't have a spell-check so after you complete your profile, copy it into a word processor so you can get a first look at whether any of the words are misspelled.   Of course you still need to proof-read for other issues like using the wrong "their" or a typo that turns "is" into "if" - but I'm still seeing basic typos you can get out of the way, and Word's grammar checker helps with some of the others too.
 
6)  Make sure you've updated your contact information. People you don't know can indeed try to contact you via your profile.  I get emails via LinkedIn all the time.
 
7)  Join groups in your area of specialty and take advantage of discussions to build your personal brand.  If someone is looking for information on a topic for which you're an expert, take a moment and answer.   But please do not use discussions for sales pitches.   Keep your comments on-topic. 
 
8)  Having "connections" in LinkedIn is not a substitute for networking.  Having "500+ connections" on LinkedIn means little if those connections wouldn't be there for you when you need them.  Use LinkedIn as a place to organize your network because it can put you in contact with people you haven't talked to in years.  Just don't let the only thing they hear from you be that "LinkedIn request". 
 
9)  There are varying opinions on the issue of whether to allow tenuous connections - people you've never heard of, spoken to, or had any contact with what-so-ever.  LinkedIn is full of what I call "Link-whores" who seem to derive part of their personal identity from feeling popular and linking with anyone and everyone.  I am usually pretty wary of LinkedIn requests that come out of the blue.  I used to be on a TV show and got a lot of these, and basically determined for myself it was better to be discriminating in who I linked with, so I take a look at their profiles and their personal message and see if we have any mutual connections or groups first. 
 
10)  I recommend those interested in building a robust network (which should be everyone!) take this free network evaluator checkup.  It walks you through a number of questions related to your current network and your networking style, and then provides tips on where you need to improve.
 
Not on LinkedIn and have no idea what I'm talking about?  Sign up at www.linkedin.com and get your profile going!
 
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