It seems like the importance of LinkedIn to job seekers grows daily [check out my recent blog post about why LinkedIn is so important to your job hunt].
I recently read a PR Daily News article that offered some great LinkedIn tips I hadn’t come across before. Check out these useful tips (with how-to guides!) from Shelly Kramer, the CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing.
1. Hide your status updates. Sometimes it’s important to be a bit more private with what you share on LinkedIn. If you are job seeking or trying to connect with new business prospects, there might be things you don’t want to broadcast to your entire network. Here’s how to enter stealth mode:
- Settings (in the drop-down menu under your name) –> Profile –> Turn on/off your activity broadcasts
- Uncheck the box that appears in the pop-up window and click save settings.
Kramer’s tip: “Remember to turn this setting back on as soon as you’re done, otherwise, you’ll be invisible on LinkedIn and that kind of negates the whole point.”
2. Privacy matter to you? Opt out of ads. If you don’t like seeing ads specific to you (it can be creepy!) you can opt out of sharing your private information. Follow these steps to opt out of ads:
- Settings –> Account –> Privacy Countrols –> Manage Advertising Preferences
- If you don’t want to get rid of ads, uncheck the box that appears in the pop-up window and click save settings.
3. Make yourself anonymous. One of my favorite LinkedIn features is the abiliy to see who has looked at your profile. But we all know this means that others can see when you look at their profile. You might want to set your profile to anonymous when it comes time to view the profiles of potential clients or future employers. To make your profile anonymous, do the following:
- Settings –> Privacy Controls –> Select what others can see when you’ve viewed their profile
From there, you have three options: Display your name and headline; Display an anonymous profile with some characteristics identified such as industry and title, or totally anonymous. Be careful with this setting as you would be with hiding your status updates. It’s not helpful to stay invisible on LinkedIn for long!
You can read the rest of Kramer’s tips and the entire article here.
Do you have any unique LinkedIn tips to add to the list?
