Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Write, Review, Rewrite, Review, Repeat...

When it comes to your LinkedIn profile, it's important to keep in mind that your profile page should be reviewed periodically -- just as you should do with your resume.

Why?

Your career changes. You gain new responsibilities. Your accomplishments change. You may add new volunteer activities, too. So today's 15-minute LinkedIn exercise involves a thorough review of your profile.

For the sake of this exercise, I'm going to assume that you've been on LinkedIn for several months and that your profile is pretty well filled out. So we'll skip the "write" step and jump right into "review."

Write, Review, Rewrite, Review, Repeat...

1. Set your timer for 15 minutes.


2. REVIEW: Start by logging into your LinkedIn account and select the "View Profile" link under "Profile"

Spend the next 5 minutes reading through your profile. Really read through it. If you've done the previous exercise, you probably already have a few thoughts on what you'd like to change. If you still have your printout handy, you may have some notes written down.

3. REWRITE: Click "Edit My Profile" and go in and make the necessary changes. Take out any outdated information. Change your verb tense from present to past for any past events. Update your summary statement if necessary.

4. Save your work periodically... every 3-5 minutes... so you don't accidentally lose your work. Yes, it has happened to me!

5. REVIEW and REPEAT. Review your revised profile page and continue to make edits until your timer rings.


That's it! You're done for today.

I did this exercise tonight and found several areas of my profile that I've neglected for nearly six months. How about you? What are you finding that is outdated on your profile?

After you've completed today's 15 Minutes on LinkedIn, post your LinkedIn profile here. Here is my profile as an example: http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendameller

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