LinkedIn Tips

I love LinkedIn. Forget “influencing” to get followers, I’m out here trying to influence to get you a job. No other social media is built specifically for your to progress your career. If you put any energy into your profile and appearance on Facebook, Instagram, or Tik Tok and have any attachment to your professional goals, you should be investing time on LinkedIn.

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About Section

You should have your profile filled out in a way that’s approachable, honest, and confident. This is YOUR space, you’re not shoving it in front of people. This real estate of internet is for you to put forward the vibe you want to bring to a professional setting. Are you smart? Are you fun? What have you done? What is it like to work with you? What are you trying to get out of your career? Why should I contact you? What’s the best way to contact you?

I should basically be able to look at your profile and have a general idea of what it’s like to work with you.

If you need inspiration, feel free to use mine as a template:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bostarr/⁠

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Connections

I used to be very lenient with who I would connect with on LinkedIn until a friend asked me for an introduction to someone I was connected with but had never met in person. Whoops. Don’t get me wrong, I made the intro and said exactly that: Hey! I see we are connected, but I don’t think we’ve ever met in person. Either way, a friend is looking for X Job and asked me for an intro....”

It was fine, and they ended up connecting. It wasn’t weird at all. So, why do I share that story? It’s good to be connected with lots of people on LinkedIn, because it can be a slightly warmer connection that completely out of the blue.

... but ALSO... you should filter your connections to ensure some level of quality control. You don’t want a network of Russian bots and you don’t want a network of assholes.

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Endorsements

The best way to get endorsements and recommendations on LinkedIn is to give endorsements and recommendations on LinkedIn.

You heard that right. Reciprocity theory, baby. Almost any time I get a notification that someone endorses me for something, I go to their page and endorse them for something. It just feels like the right thing to do, you know?

If you want to start getting endorsed more, start by going to your connections’ pages and endorsing them for different skills.

The next easiest way is to ask. I have yet to have someone decline to spend the 30 seconds it takes to provide an endorsement on LinkedIn.

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Jobs

The main thing to think about when looking at jobs on LinkedIn is that if the job is posted on LinkedIn then the company clearly uses LinkedIn... the recruiter posts on LinkedIn, they are going to look at your profile, etc.

So, when you see a job you like, check for things like the following:

Who posted the job?

Who does the position report to?

Do I know anyone that works at the company?

Did anyone at the company go to my alma mater?

If you can find any of these people on LinkedIn, you should reach out, tell them you’re interested in the role, and ask if they have 10-15 minutes to share more about their experience working for the company.

If you’re wondering how to find a job/role that you’d enjoy, try answering all the questions to find your

Ikigai⁠

. Also, I recommend you think about what companies you support... what subscriptions do you use? Where do you spend money? Who did you hear about raising capital recently?

If you can identify some companies that would be fun to work for because they align with your values, then you can poke through the jobs page for that company to see if anything is a fit.

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Posting

In 2020 LinkedIn probably has the best organic reach of any social media platform (maybe bar TikTok). If your post gets trending status your content can be seen by thousands and thousands of people, even if you only have a few hundred connections. Posting and engaging on LinkedIn is one of the best ways to organically get your thoughts, ideas, and personal brand out into the world.

People often tell me that they aren’t comfortable posting on LinkedIn because they “don’t know what to say.” The good news is, no one really does. I’ve been posting consistently for a couple years now, and I don’t have any sort of formulaic insight about what works and what doesn’t. All I know is that the more I post, the more likely I am to have a post that takes off.

It’s also imperative to be sincere. In the case that your post does get seen by a lot of people, you want it to accurately reflect your thoughts. Take this one, for instance:

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Of the 8,800 people who saw it, one one was my current boss. He read it, liked what he saw, reached out, and 3 weeks later I had a job offer.

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