It's not enough to just have a LinkedIn profile, you also need to avoid doing certain things that can harm our image. LinkedIn is a great social network for finding jobs and we have talked about it several times to give you advice on how to have a good profile that facilitates networking and contacting companies that may hire us. That is, we have talked about what to do, but not about what not to do, so here we go.
Inappropriate images
It seems obvious, but it's not. All LinkedIn users know that it's not okay to put that funny photo from that bachelor party where they were dressed as a chicken, but not everyone knows that the photo in which they look good and are not doing anything strange doesn't necessarily have to be the right one. The absence of an image is also not advisable for this network. Many people argue that if a resume should not include a photo so as not to be judged by our appearance, neither should it be included here since this network is like a more extensive version of the CV. However, even though they have a point, a social network is a social network and we all like to talk to a human face on the other side, so the possibility of making contacts would be greatly diminished if we don't include an image. A good photo for our LinkedIn profile is one in which our face is visible (close-up and occupying more than half of the photo) and not a full-body photo. It should have a good background, proper lighting, and we should be dressed as we would for a job interview.
Treat it like a cactus
If cacti are the only plants that survive in our homes and we have developed an infallible technique for them to survive by completely ignoring them, then we know how not to take care of our LinkedIn profile if we want it to grow and bear fruit. At the very least, we should log in once a day and post something, interact with someone in our industry, and discover a new company to follow. Is it too much? No. In fact, doing all that shouldn't take us more than 10 minutes a day. How much time do we spend on other social networks like Instagram or Twitter?
"I'm looking for a cool job on LinkedIn that allows me to live"
Under no circumstances can we allow ourselves to make spelling mistakes in our profile or express ourselves colloquially. A network for finding work and making professional connections is not a place to post nonsense, memes, or write poorly. In reality, we shouldn't make spelling mistakes anywhere, but especially not here, where we are trying to make a good impression and project a professional image.
The short legs of lies
Something we should never do on LinkedIn or anywhere else is lie about our titles or exaggerate our skills. Our profile should speak well of us, but by stating our good qualities, not by inventing that we saved the world by diverting a meteorite that was going to collide with Earth. Selling ourselves is something that is accepted ("I am punctual, committed, responsible"...), but what is not accepted is having fake academic titles or invented master's degrees. We must tell the truth; a beautiful truth, but not embellished. And speaking of titles, if we have them in electronic format, we must not keep them a secret under any circumstances, because
eTítulo will help us a lot in finding work on an international network like LinkedIn.
Names matter
And that's why we need to change the generic URL of our profile and make it easier for people to find us. These are details that may not seem important to us, but they are because they speak about us and our interests. Moreover, it's not difficult at all, and we just have to follow the
instructions provided by the network itself.
Opinions and preferences are better left unshared
Our future boss doesn't care if we like Beyoncé's latest album, but they would probably prefer our posts to be more about the latest technological advancement that improves our industry or about the training courses we take to expand our knowledge. What they definitely don't want is for us to express our political opinions on LinkedIn, because even if they agree with our views, they don't want their company to take a stand and potentially lose certain potential clients. This is what we need to understand: to enter the job market through LinkedIn, we need to become desirable to companies. Someone who can represent their brand, and that's why the more professional we are and appear to be, the better.
