Advantages and Mistakes of Using LinkedIn for Your Profile

This article discusses the advantages of using LinkedIn for your career, including getting connected with professional groups, receiving endorsements and testimonials, and updating your online resume. It also covers common mistakes people make on their LinkedIn profiles, such as hiding behind their company and looking desperate. Finally, it provides tips on how to leverage your LinkedIn account for maximum efficiency.

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Advantages of using LinkedIn
There are a number of advantage of using LinkedIn for a career stage. The advantages
include; getting connected with professional groups, receiving endorsements and
testimonials, building trust for a brand, reaching out to people who view my profile
updating online resume that is view by many potential employers and many more
advantages.
Getting connected is one of the major advantages of using LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social
site that is more formal compared to other social sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
LinkedIn is mainly focused on the professionals and businesses (Garcia & Al nima, 2016).
Depending on your area of specialization one is like to meet people of the same
profession or a company that deals with your professional area. LinkedIn search feature
helps you find people within industry you serve. To advantage in enable on reach more
clients but also the competition tends to be stiff. It is not advisable to link with many
unhelpful people just to increase the number of connections. It is wise to connect with
people within your profession and companies that can employ you or ones you can
benefit from.
LinkedIn is also a job listing site. Most professional recruiters are on LinkedIn. If one is
looking for a john opportunity, one can search for various jobs on the search engine.
Most top brands tend to use LinkedIn as a job advertising platform. There are quite a
numbers of listings in LinkedIn. People who tend to higher tend to look at your profile in
LinkedIn.
Another advantage of using LinkedIn is that one receives endorsements and testimonials.
One can also endorse others. In this case LinkedIn enables your peers to write up
recommendations. Usually people who search for networking connections take the
recommendations into consideration ("7 Ways College Students Can Benefit from LinkedIn",
2018).
LinkedIn enable one to update the resume online and continuously. Normally, with
LinkedIn one does not have to worry about hiring a professional writing but an expert in

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the field one is in. LinkedIn does the resume formatting for you. One just needs to add
the areas of expertise ("Creating A LinkedIn Profile: The Advantages And Benefits", 2018).
With the help of LinkedIn, can help people build there are of expertise. This is possible as
LinkedIn invites users to create content such as articles. One can also introduce people to
his/her books, website and blogs. This can drive more traffic to your profile and your
interests. LinkedIn offers a platform to read news from the connections on has. LinkedIn
is a platform that every professional should join.
Common mistakes in the LinkedIn profiles
There are some mistakes that people make on their profiles. LinkedIn profile is critical. It
has to be eye catchy. A LinkedIn profile can work against you if you have the mistakes
mentioned below.
First, hiding behind your company. Some people do not to talk about themselves in a
profile. Instead, they write about their company. They tend to substitute the company
logo for their images ("6 Common Mistakes People Make When Using LinkedIn", 2018). This
indicates the person is talking about the company. Generally, people need to connect with
a face and a name but not a logo and a name. It is wise take a professional and a high-
quality headshot. People should not use the company logo for individual accounts. Others
tend to use first-person plural (we, us). This looks like they are talking of a team or a
company (2018). Using the first-person plural feels like one is talking of the company’s
offering. People are not interested in what the company you are in does, but what one
does individual.
Another mistake most people make is leaving the summary blank. Others may not leave
the summary blank, but instead will write about the summary of the company they are
working in. This is wrong. LinkedIn should be used to express what you have achieved
and disclose to the world who you actually are. Linked in gives people a chance to use
2,000 characters on the summary. People should make it a habit to write lengthy
descriptions to excite the readers.

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The final major mistake people make in the LinkedIn profile is looking desperate.
Recruiters will never go for desperate professionals. The most attractive candidates and
desirable are the ones in demand. The profile with this headline such as “Seeking
Employment”, “Ready for my next job” or “Unemployed” may make one look desperate.
The headline should always be eye catchy. The headlines should make the potential
recruiters want to read more about you. When people write a summary for multiple
potentials in could make one look unfocused.
How to leverage a LinkedIn account
There are quite a number of actions to take to leverage LinkedIn for maximum efficiency.
First, one has to keep the profile up to date. Ones gets to get view the number of views on
your profile. Those people who update their skills are likely to have more views (Fish,
2018). One should be comprehensive about current skills and objectives. One should
write everything about the skills and objectives. One should use the headline to share the
main objective. All the skills one has should be added on the page. Updating your profile
frequently is very important as the recruiters and companies may recognize your profile
faster (Jensen, 2017).
Update the headline is another important aspect. This includes the photo, name, and the
headline. The headshot should be of high-quality and professional. The headline should
standout depending on the type of position you are looking for. One should let potential
recruiters that you’re are available. Such as “Accountant ready to fix your company
financial problems”.
One should also research the companies one is interested in and follow them ("5 Tips To
Leverage Your LinkedIn For Success", 2018). This will make it easy for one to get latest news
about the companies and the new job positions available about the companies you have
followed. Finally get connected to more help people on the your LinkedIn account

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References
Garcia, D., & Al nima, A. (2016). The Personality Profile of LinkedIn Users. Personality And
Individual Differences, 101, 479. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.142
7 Ways College Students Can Benefit from LinkedIn. (2018). Retrieved from
https://theundercoverrecruiter.com/7-ways-college-students-can-benefit-linkedin/
Creating A LinkedIn Profile: The Advantages And Benefits. (2018). Retrieved from https://pro-
papers.com/blog/the-advantages-and-benefits-of-creating-a-linkedin-profile
(2018). Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141120165550-55156219-5-
common-mistakes-people-make-with-their-linkedin-profile
6 Common Mistakes People Make When Using LinkedIn. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.inc.com/hillel-fuld/6-common-mistakes-people-make-when-using-
linkedin.html
Jensen, D. (2017). The keys to a powerful LinkedIn profile. Science. doi:
10.1126/science.caredit.aar8110
Fish, G. (2018). Easy Ways to Leverage Your LinkedIn Account. Retrieved from
https://www.mydomaine.com/leverage-your-linkedin
5 Tips To Leverage Your LinkedIn For Success. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/leverage-linkedin-success

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