LinkedIn Job Title: "Blacksmith" or "Equine Accessories Professional"?

On your LinkedIn profile, let your Job Function be your Job Title. Or at least your Function should be a part of the overall Title you should use on your LinkedIn profile.

Why is it important?  Today, companies seem to create titles on a whim.  A Sales Representative becomes a Client Executive, or Area Business Manager, or Manager of New Business Development, or Regional Account Manager, or Account Manager, etc.

Titles used to be more straight-forward: Blacksmiths were “Blacksmiths”, not “Equine Accessories Professionals”.

Why the titles are getting so complex and confusing isn’t important.  What is important to Job-Seekers on LinkedIn is that recruiters are searching for people who do what they do - their Function – not their company-issued Title.

Ask yourself, if you were searching for a “Sales Representative”, would your search criteria be “Area Business Manager”?  That’s not too likely.  Therefore you may not find the perfect person whose Function is “Sales Representative”, if their Title is “Area Business Manager”. 

If you are the perfect person for a position do you want your title to help you “be found”, or “be ignored”?

Let your Function be your Title, or at least a part of the overall Title. 

In LinkedIn the field length for Title is 100 characters for each position you have listed.  I don’t recommend using all 100 characters, but use what you need to increase your chances of “being found”.

Here are two examples of Title revision that would help an Area Business Manager “be found”:

Function                    Title                               Revised Title for LinkedIn Profile

Sales Representative  Area Business Manager   Area Business Manager–Sales Representative

Sales Representative  Area Business Manager  Sales Representative/Area Business Manager

A profile using either of the revised Titles will appear in “Title” searches using either “Area Business Manager”, or “Sales Representative”.

After you add your new revised Title to your LinkedIn profile, be sure to test it to make sure you are appearing in search results for both components of your new “Title”.

Evaluate all the titles you have for all of the positions you have listed on your profile, and make the necessary revisions. 

If you “let your Function be your Title” you will dramatically improve your chances of “being found”.

There is one more reason why it is important to “let your Function be your Title” - it will be covered in a later post.

I do have one request of my readers.  My blog is new, and my web site will be up next week.  If you feel like you receive value from my blog, tweets, LinkedIn tips, etc., please "Like" it, follow it, tweet it, and help spread the word.

Thank you, Dan Stiffler

MaxOut LI™, LLC is not affiliated with LinkedIn®.  We are committed to providing services, tools, training and insight for LinkedIn members to advance their careers - obtaining Maximum Results with Minimum Effort – while removing the enigma of LinkedIn.  Be sure to visit our web site: www.MaxOutLI.com, follow us on twitter: @MaxOutLI.

 

LinkedIn Job-Seekers: Which location should you display – local or major market?

Today, I spoke with a candidate who had a small town in Michigan - Oxford - displayed on his profile as his "location".  Since Michigan is a market I heavily recruit in, I know where Oxford, MI is located.  Unfortunately, most people would have no idea where Oxford, MI is in relationship to Detroit, and that could hurt this person's chances of "being found" on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn gives many members the option of choosing to display their profile location as a local market (i.e. “Oxford, Michigan”), or a major market (i.e. “Greater Detroit Area”).

VERY IMPORTANT: From my testing, the location displayed has nothing to do with appearing in search results.  In searches, geographic selections are determined by a member’s ZIP/Postal code – not the location they have chosen to display.

As this blog is intended to benefit job-seekers, the location displayed on a member’s profile is used primarily by the recruiter or hiring authority who is viewing the profile to evaluate whether or not the person lives in a suitable location for a specific career opportunity.  This is done AFTER the profile has appeared in search results.

The location displayed is an important part of the selection process.

With that in mind, members should select their location based on their target audience.  If they are trying to attract interest from local employers it may be best to use the local market location. If they believe an opportunity could come from someone distant to them, most likely they should display the major market on their profile. 

Most people couldn’t point out Oxford, MI on a map, but could easily locate Detroit.

However, if the local market location is a well-recognized market with a positive reputation for your target audience, displaying the local market may be advisable, even if your target audience is not local.

For example, if your ZIP code is 90210, you have the option of displaying “Beverly Hills, California”, or “Greater Los Angeles Area”.  Since most people know that Beverly Hills is near Los Angeles, displaying “Beverly Hills, California” may be a sound choice.

To view/edit your “location” options follow these steps: Log into LinkedIn -> Hover over your miniature picture in the top right corner -> Privacy & Settings -> Edit your name, location, and industry (In the "Profile" section);

You will be taken to a page where you can select your ZIP/Postal code and the location name:

Make your selections and “Save Changes”.

The most important points to get out of this blog are:

1. Your profile needs to be designed with your target audience in mind;
2. The location displayed on your profile is an important part of the selection process – use it to your advantage;

This is the first of what we hope will be many blog posts intended to benefit people who utilize LinkedIn to advance their careers.  The goal of MaxOut LI, and this blog, is to help them gain Maximum Results with Minimum Effort!