Tutorial:

How To Use Linkedin

To Get A Great Job:For students: Tutorial III & IV

Produced: Ann-Marie Childs

Social Media Director, Active Space Australia

http://www.linkedin.com/in/annmariechilds

Contact me: asimreports@gmail.com

Tutorial 3: How to Participate in LinkedIn Groups

Members of a group discuss a wide range of issues and share links, news and emerging opportunities with others.

To get the most out of your groups and be among the first to get this information, there are some very useful strategies you can employ:

1) You can participate in discussions started by others by: using the ‘like/dislike’ button; making comments/asking

questions; or deciding to ”follow” someone. You can also share links and even respond privately

You can also help maintain the quality of group discussions by “flagging” spam

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Tutorial 3: How to Participate in LinkedIn Groups

The Benefits of participating in discussions are:

• Helps you to get noticed by other members of the group and by those recruiters who have joined the group to spot talent. If you make comments make sure they offer value: – new and useful insights, links, contacts etc.

• Allows you to keep track of high value members and what they have to say or share – eg thought leaders, leading edge contributors and key company personnel.

• Allows you to keeprecords of information shared - LinkedIn keeps a record for you of people and discussions you follow. You can find them by clicking the “more” tab for a group, and selecting “Your activity”

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2) You can set up your group account so that new “comments” from people you follow, are emailed to you. To do this, again click the “more” tab for your group, and again select “Your Activity”. Then click “discussions you’re following” and the email option will appear”

Tutorial 3: How to Participate in LinkedIn Groups

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3) You can start discussions and, if you prove of value, people will then follow you! Starting discussions is easy to do – and in low-activity groups it will be easy to be the shinning star – but remember to make your contributions of value and interesting or you will get the wrong type of reputation.

a) Go to the group – your photo will appear at the top of the page with “Discussion” option right next to it.

b) Click in the discussion box and the options to add more information, and links will appear for you to use if you need to.

c) Note there is a limit of 200 characters for your discussion opener.

Tutorial 3: How to Participate in LinkedIn Groups

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4) You can use Polls to get attention, participation and information from other group

members. LinkedIn makes this easy by providing group members with an easy-to-use application:

Tutorial 3: How to Participate in LinkedIn Groups

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Tutorial 4: How to Help Recruiters Find You

If you do an ‘advance search’ for ‘people’ in Australia that have “recruitment” in their current job title, LinkedIn will deliver 11,763 results! Lets limit our search to: ‘recruitment’, ‘Sydney’ : – LinkedIn delivers 3,152 results!

LinkedIn is a popular source of talent for recruiting agents

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Tutorial 4: How to Help Recruiters Find You

There are three good ways to get attention from recruiters in your industry:

1. Use ‘relevant’ keywords in your LinkedIn profile. Recruiters and hiring managers search for prospective candidates the same way you search for them - by typing relevant keywords into LinkedIn’s search engine! They will get YOUR profile in their search results if you have those keywords in your profile.

What ARE the ‘relevant’ keywords? Here is where belonging to groups pays off. Because one way to find them, is to research the profiles of people who have the type of job you want. Look for words that show up the most frequently! These are probably some of the keywords recruiters are using. LinkedIn also provides keywords lists for job searchers to use when they do a job search:

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Tutorial 4: How to Help Recruiters Find You

2. Contribute to industry Groups: In addition to performing keyword searches, many recruiters lurk around group discussions on LinkedIn. They often join the most active and influential groups in their industry and pay attention to those people who stand out as knowledgeable, energetic and committed contributors and leaders.

TIP: Check out the groups that a recruiter

belongs to and join! For example, take a

look at this partial list of groups that a

recruitment manager from Fuel VFX

belongs to:

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Tutorial 4: How to Help Recruiters Find You3. One of the best ways to get a great job is through personal

connections in a company. If you don’t have any, then LinkedIn is the perfect place to get them! You can do this by:a) Searching LinkedIn for employees of any company you want to work for. b) Joining one of their groups (relevant to your profession)c) Engaging in discussions in which they are participating. Let a professional friendship develop!

Lets use Adobe as an example:

a) b) Recruitment personell often invite people to connect with them)

c) The whole of adobe is now visible to you (d)

as you have a connection through Melissa

Now find someone you can relate to!10

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Call to Action

If you: Are not confident you can set up your profile so that it

looks professional and will get noticed by and impress recruiters, OR.

You don’t have the time to set up, let alone optimise your profile, then:

GET a professional to do it for you:

contact me at: asimreports@gmail.com for details. (then all you will have to do is send your resume!)

NB: There are 4 Tutorials in this series