LinkedIn Profiles
I create first class LinkedIn sites. I use clear and concise writing and online marketing techniques to get them head-hunted by recruiters. LinkedIn sites are great places to display experience and achievements in long form.
Below is a story I had published in The Australian in 2016 in the Careers section on the strengths and weaknesses of resumes versus LinkedIn sites.
Resumes top dog but a place for LinkedIn
With the rise of social media, it’s important to remember the traditional strengths of a well-written, tightly structured and accurate resume.
I’m a professional resume writer with a background in recruitment. LinkedIn and a resume are two very different tools with different marketing purposes. Here are some of their strengths and weaknesses.
Resumes are the first strike weapon in landing a job. They must grab the recruiter or employer’s attention quickly. This requires persuasive and factual writing aimed at a specific position, rather than an incomplete and discursive narrative often found on LinkedIn sites. Resumes are targeted and structured career biographies that drive home not only the candidate’s suitability for an interview, but satisfy a raft of other criteria.
A resume must show how innovations and initiatives were implemented, as well as qualitative career experience such as teamwork, management or leadership style. Very few LinkedIn sites do this. A good resume also demonstrates research. A candidate should understand the contemporary issues facing a business and show how their results-based skills and capabilities, will help solve problems or boost performance.
A resume is formal in tone and language and includes detailed information about accomplishments and key responsibilities. It is also an outbound marketing tool aimed at specific audiences. Unlike LinkedIn, a resume can be edited into multiple versions serving different audiences or focuses.
LinkedIn has more than three million users in Australia. It currently caters mostly to mid and later career professionals. It has become a virtual ‘Rolodex’ for business people. I write LinkedIn sites for clients as a master biography and use considerably more of their experience than I would include in a resume. A LinkedIn site is less formal and more flexible, able to accommodate a casual first-person voice. It is an inbound marketing tool aimed at getting employers and recruiters to find you – as long as the site is turned on.
LinkedIn’s best feature offers job opportunities, networking potential and niche group conversations. A results orientated LinkedIn profile is a joy to behold. It flags to headhunters who you are and what you do.