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Job search success. Everyone wants it. To find the perfect role at a good salary. Let’s keep a focus on that brass ring and review some of the newest tactics which lead to job search success. There is an old saying, “The devil is in the details” and that is certainly true here, for we’ll be reviewing some little known tactics of using Linkedin for a successful job search. Today’s very brief lesson has to do with “tags”. Few people realize that you can go into your Linkedin connections and create “tags” or “categories” for each of your connections. Why is this important? Because it hearkens back to the 80/20 rule: 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. In this case, your contacts are your customers – and it’s not who you know – it’s who they know.
You’ll want to categorize your contacts by tags. You probably have never noticed this option because Linkedin seems to like size 4 fonts in some cases! Here’s the steps to take.
a.) Open Linkedin and go into Connections.
b.) Click on the name of your first connection. A condensed version of that contact’s profile appears on the right. You’ll see their name, title, typically a photo, number of connections and the words “Send Message”. But notice the words just below Send Message: Edit Details.
c.) Click on Edit Details. And you’ll see that Linked has a well-hidden CRM element here. You can put the date you e-mailed your contact here and any notes.
d.) Note that below Edit Details there is a section called “Edit Tags”. Click on this. You’ll see options: classmates, colleagues, friends, etc.
e.) Create 3 more categories: A, B and D.
f.) Categorize your contacts as A, B or D.
Your criteria for each category is up to you. A’s are typically those contacts that you want to spend 80% of your time with, B’s 20% of your time, and D’s – you guessed it, they go to the dungeon. You’ll want to develop an “A” and “B” Category strategy of relationship development, which we’ll cover in detail in future articles. For now, I highly recommend the book “The 7 Levels of Communication” by Michael Maher, which shows you how to lift the B’s to A’s and how to create that most cherished of contacts: the “trust agent” who is working for the employer you are targeting – and wants to help you get into interviews. Referrals are far more effective than any other job search tool, including job boards and recruiters.
Which leads to an interesting question: what percentage of employers have hired people via Linkedin? The answer may surprise you. This is from recent poll by Jobvite (Social Recruiting Survey, 2011) of several hundred employers: 95%. In short, if you’re not on Linkedin, you don’t exist.
