Is Your Linked In Profile a Cold, Stiff Place? Chris Brogan on How to HEAT IT UP

Posted on November 16th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

Sitting in the Delta Sky Room of Los Angeles Airport, I had the great pleasure of interviewing social media relationship expert Chris Brogan—who  was for once not in the airport himself but in his office in  Northern Massachusetts – for, among other things, an RMA Masterclass that we called “Never Eat Alone Meets Social Media Mastermind.”

Chris gave ME great advice – “more @replies Keith!” – and gave listeners a ton of act-now info on how to rev up your LinkedIn profile, create door-opening currency online, and bring customers to you instead of having to go find them.

Click through to read part of Chris’ awesome LinkedIn advice:

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“Make sure you’re really in to LinkedIn, not just using it as just as a cold, stiff place to stick your profile. It’s not just a resume online. It’s a place where you’re actually angling towards your future. If you’re seeking out some different kind of opportunity and your previous experiences don’t even include a line-up to it, we then write the experiences such that they highlight the parts that do a line-up to it.

So for example, you are, I don’t know, a professional baker and you’re trying to get into the baking world and out of your old corporate job, then what you talk about is, you know, that you used to be a senior project manager of this organization and that during very difficult project meetings, you’d bring in your fresh baked whatevers – tell that story. My point is that your LinkedIn profile can speak of language that drives people to what they think they can do for work with you and how they should be viewing you, how they can couch you. The language of your LinkedIn profile is a very active, fluid thing that allows you not to gloss over bad parts of your past or anything like that but just to keep focusing people towards where you want things to go.

A lot of times, we write our resume as if it’s some kind of biography. We write it as if it’s some historical document [where you have to give] every little fact in detail. What people want to see on profile is, “Is this someone I need to work with and is this the project that would be of use and what do I see in the profile that leads me to think that way?”

I always push people towards making sure their profile is going to lead people towards the business they want to be in.”

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6 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. Excellent point, as we transition from one team to the next team, we need to communicate not only our past, but also our future. LinkedIn is an attempt to define who we are, not just our past, but also what we want to be when we grow up.

    Communicating this transition is KEY to the transition going well or not.

    "I am a excellent baker who got lost in business believing I was an okay senior project manager. I am escaping from the 'fire' into the oven."

    Thank you for highlighting that salient point.

  2. I've only recently discovered how powerful LinkedIn is. It is not a social site as far as having to stay with it all day, but it is good to check in every day a couple of times. Groups are very effective to network and meet new people.

  3. I haven't really fully utilized LinkedIn to its fullest and I feel guilty about having my own profile a bit more like a boring biography or for the lack of a better word, biodata. Now I need to revamp it and the tip about getting a different job from you currently have, and how LinkedIn can help you do that, is pretty good.

    I also am glad to hear that people get to network with people that eventually can shape your future. :)

  4. I about 1 hr/day on LinkedIn in ways that raise my visibility and found what Chris had to say quite relevant to how I make the most of my LinkedIn presence.

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