Читать книгу LinkedIn For Dummies - Joel Elad - Страница 16

On LinkedIn, you can build your own brand. Your name, your identity, is a brand — just like Ford or Facebook — in terms of what people think of when they think of you. It’s your professional reputation. Companies spend billions to ensure that you have a certain opinion of their products, and that opinion, that perception, is their brand image. You have your own brand image in your professional life, and it’s up to you to own, define, and push your brand.

Most people today have different online representations of their personal brand. Some people have their own websites, some create and write blogs, and some create profile pages on sites such as Facebook. LinkedIn allows you to define a profile and build your own brand based on your professional and educational background. I use my profile as an example in Figure 1-3.

FIGURE 1-3: Create a unified profile page to showcase your professional history.

Your LinkedIn profile can become a jumping-off point, where any visitor can get a rich and detailed idea of all the skills, experiences, and interests you bring to the table. Unlike a resume, where you have to worry about page length and formatting, you can provide substance and detail on your LinkedIn profile, including any part-time, contract, nonprofit, and consulting work in addition to traditional professional experience. You also have other options to consider; for example, you can

 Write your own summary.

 List any groups you belong to.

 Describe any courses you have completed and test scores you have achieved.

 Show any memberships or affiliations you have.

 Cite honors and awards you have received.

 Identify any patents or certifications you have earned.

 Provide links to any publications you’ve written or published.

 Give and receive endorsements of people’s skills. (I discuss endorsements in Chapter 7.)

 Give and receive recommendations from other people. (I discuss recommendations in Chapter 9.)

 Indicate your professional interests or supported causes.

 Upload presentations, graphic design projects, or portfolio examples for others to view.

 Upload videos that demonstrate a particular skill or past project.

 Post website links to other parts of your professional identity, such as a blog, a website, or an e-commerce store you operate.

The best part is that you control and shape your professional identity. You decide what the content should be. You decide what to emphasize and what to omit. You decide how much information is visible to the world and how much is visible to your first-degree connections. (I talk more about the power of your profile in Chapters 2 and 3.)