LinkedIn

An indispensable networking & research tool for RiseSmart candidates

WHAT

 Online social network of more than 395 million professionals, representing 170 industries in +200
countries (Dec 2015).
 122 mio members are based in the US and 65 mio in Europe. The UK has over 19 million users, France
10 mio, the Netherlands have 6 mio. Belgium reached 2,1 mio members in 2015.
 Started in May 2003 in the USA and filed its application to be launched on the stock exchange in the US
on 27-01-2011.
Second Quarter 2015 Financial Details and Operating Summary
- Revenue for the second quarter was $712 mio, an increase of 33% compared to the second quarter
of 2014. Full Year 2015 Guidance: Revenue is expected to be approximately $2.90 billion.
- Talent Solutions: Revenue from Talent Solutions products totaled $396 mio, Talent Solutions
revenue represented 62% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2015 and 2014.
- Marketing Solutions: Revenue from Marketing Solutions products totaled $119 mio, Marketing
Solutions revenue represented 19% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2015.
- Premium Subscriptions: Revenue from Premium Subscriptions products totaled $122 mio,
Premium Subscriptions represented 19% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2015.
 Linkedin employs 9.200 full-time employees in 30 countries around the world.
 Competition: Viadeo (°France, 55mio) and Xing (°Germany, 11mio) are their closest competitors.
Viadeo is popular in Africa and Xing mainly in the DACH area (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).
 Currently available in 24 languages: Arabic, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai and Turkish.

USEFULNESS OF LINKEDIN WHILE LOOKING FOR A JOB

 You can find inspiration while drafting your resume or profile by looking at other people in the same
type of job and/or industry: you see the different keywords they use, how they present their
competences and what career path they have developed
 When putting together your action plan and defining industry sectors you can search for companies
and then look at the career path of the people working or having worked for such a company: you see
what skills they had, what they did before joining that particular company, where they studied…
 You can detect hiring or firing movements in a particular company.
 You see clearly how big your network is: in real life you do not know (all) the people your connections
know, in Linkedin you can see all the connections of your connections: the second degree is visible and
you can therefore expand your network swiftly.
 You are visible to all people who are recruiting or are thinking of hiring someone: HR professionals,
line managers and agencies.

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LINKEDIN VERSUS LIVE NETWORKING

PROS
a) Faster to track people down
b) Less physical/psychological barriers (online is 24/7 and people can overcome their shyness)
c) Allows accurate and targeted approach
CONS
a) Information overload: volume of potential leads can be overwhelming – prioritize
b) What you publish on the net is out there forever – think twice about what you write and review it

LINKEDIN VERSUS OLD-FASHIONED (JOB) RESEARCH

PROS
You tap into the hidden job market – job boards with your online resume are used by recruiting companies
who have (often) already published a vacancy. LinkedIn gets you and potential hiring managers FREE
airtime BEFORE the company decides to put a job ad online and spend money and use their network to see
if they can attract candidates
You can and should prepare for your interview or network meeting by researching his or her profile (the
other party probably did it too).
CONS
Another channel to put your time and efforts into…

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Network attitude
Share information in a reactive and proactive manner without immediately expecting anything in return.
Giving, without immediately expecting something in return, will eventually get you much more than your
original "investment". But you do not know when and how. And that is something many people find
difficult. Remember that networking is a long-term game that always needs two or more players. What
goes around comes around. So start seeding (sharing), so you can harvest more and faster!
The art of networking: Give or Share - Ask - Thank

- Help others helping you. Be specific!

‘According to you: who should I contact to…’ + a specific question
- If you want to get ahead in your professional and personal life and your network would give you the
opportunity to help you, it is important that you ask questions regularly and in a respectful way!
- Don’t ever forget to thank people, even if they couldn’t help you or when a certain time has elapsed
between the introduction and the result.

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The real power lies in the second degree

The misconception of many people is they think the power of their network lies in the first degree, this is
however the biggest barrier that deters people to achieve their goals. The real power of a network is not
who ‘you’ know but who ‘they’ know. The real power of the network lies in the second degree.
Quality and diversity of the network
It is not the quantity that is important, but the diversity. The consequence is that the more diverse the
network, the more people will sit in it and so the greater the quantity is.
Someone is 'high quality' if he or she (or his or her network) can help your achieve your goals in a better
and faster way.
Know, Like and Trust factor
Know: To increase your know-factor, it is important to fill in your Profile on LinkedIn as completely as
possible.
Like: People love people who are kind, helpful and not pushy.
Trust: You can increase your Trust factor by answering questions in the area of your expertise in
‘Answers and Discussions’. By giving good and solid answers you will be seen as an expert. Your trust factor
will also be increased by receiving Recommendations of other people who recommend your professional
expertise. Your behavior on LinkedIn and your attitude in ‘Recommendations’ are also important.

WHAT IS A CONNECTION AND WHAT IS YOUR NETWORK?

Definition of a Connection
Connections are two LinkedIn members in which one has accepted the other's invitation to connect.
Members who have accepted your invitation to connect are considered to be in your 1st degree
connection network.
A first-degree connection is identified throughout the site with a '1st' icon. The default setting is that 1st
degree connections can view and browse the profiles and networks of their direct connections. Some
LinkedIn users choose through their privacy settings not to make their connections visible to the other
people they are connected to.
Communication among your first-degree connections can be done through messages sent through
LinkedIn. When the invitation is accepted you are connected through the system, you get their contact
information and those people are added to your 'My Contacts' tab.

The LinkedIn Network is composed of all LinkedIn users. However, your own network of trusted
professionals is composed of:
1st degree connections - These are your trusted friends and colleagues who have sent/received and
accepted an Invitation to connect. You can reach these people by sending a direct message through

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LinkedIn. Generally, these are people you know from current or past employment, school or past
collaboration. They are known as "My Connections" in your "Settings" and are sometimes referred to as
direct connections.
2nd degree connections - People 2 degrees away. These are the trusted friends and colleagues of your 1st
degree connections. You can reach them through an Introduction or InMail. They are considered part of
"My Network" in your "Settings".
3rd degree connections - People 3 degrees away. These are the trusted friends and colleagues of those
who are 2 degrees away. You can reach them through an Introduction or InMail. They are considered part
of "My Network" in your "Settings".
Fellow members of your LinkedIn Groups - These are people you can reach by sending a message through
LinkedIn. They are considered part of "My Network" in your "Settings". Note that members may opt out of
receiving messages from fellow group members.
LinkedIn members who fall outside of the categories listed in the four categories above may be identified
in search results as "Out of Network".

REGISTERING FOR THE FIRST TIME

Go to www.linkedin.com and register yourself with an email address and password. Choose a private email
address if you can – possible to change it later.

The Start bar with dropdown box helps you to look for persons, jobs, companies,… But you can also check
your mailbox (“Inbox”). Use “Advanced” by clicking the magnifying glass.

Click on Settings (by pointing your mouse over your picture at the top on your right) to choose the type of
account and to adapt all default settings
Here you also find the Help Center.

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ACCOUNT TYPE
Basic account is free and is usually sufficient for the average user. You can always upgrade your account
for ± 27 euro/month to Premium.
InMails: Messages to anyone accepting InMails. They don’t have to belong to your first, second or third
degree network. InMails are only available for Premium accounts.

ACCOUNT & SETTINGS >> Privacy & Settings

 Name, location & industry

Name: use first and last name as most people know you, LinkedIn does search for “Robert” too if you
call yourself Bob.

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Location: indicate Country and ZIP code: the postal code determines what LinkedIn fills in automatically
for you as area (e.g. Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges). Your zip code will not be shown to others. For privacy
reasons, LinkedIn works with geographical areas, rather than exact addresses.
Industry: use the dropdown menu to pick one. You can only choose one industry.

Profile
Profile Privacy
These settings are adjusted on a regular basis by LinkedIn. We will give you an explanation of those
frequently used.

 Edit your pubic profile: What viewers see who do not have a LinkedIn account. Here you can also
change your LinkedIn URL
 Who can see your connections: choose ‘ Your connections’
 Sharing profile edits: By selecting this option, your activity updates will be shared in your activity feed:
Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies (Note:
You may want to turn this option off if you're looking for a job and don't want your present employer
to see that you're updating your profile).
 Profile viewing options: if you decide to use ‘anonymous’ you will not be able to see who visited your
profile (Who’s viewed your profile?)

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 Manage your recommendations: choose between Received recommendations, Sent recommendations

and Request recommendations. Recommendations help to illustrate your achievements, support the
credibility of your project and show why people would want to work with you.. You can easily manage
these recommendations: they can be hidden or allowed to be visible on your profile.
Recommendations can be revised, replaced or withdrawn
You can ask for a recommendation as follows:
1) select a period in your career,
2) decide who you will ask a recommendation,
3) write a ‘personal’ message to the endorser instead of the proposed sentence of LinkedIn. Make
sure to remain credible...
You might also consider recommending ex-colleagues, bosses, customers or suppliers yourself. This
confirms your positive networking attitude and gives you visibility.

COMMUNICATIONS

 E-mails and Notifications:

 Select the types of messages you're willing to receive: Indicate who can contact you. You can also write
down a personal message
 Set the frequency of emails: LinkedIn will notify you when you receive messages from other users. You
can choose to receive an email immediately, a bundled email per day or per week, or no emails
 Select who can send you invitations
 Set the frequency of group digest emails

Groups, Companies & Applications

Here you can decide on the sequence of your groups, determine how often you want to receive these
emails, which companies you follow and manage your applications.

Account
Settings:

 Change your profile photo & visibility: Choose a professional and clear picture. You can decide to have
your photo visible to your connections only, to your network or to everybody on LinkedIn. Since there
is not enough space, a picture of your face will be sufficient. Although it is not required to upload a
photo we strongly recommend to do so.
 Show/hide profile photos of other members
 Customize the updates you see on your home page: LinkedIn will inform you of activities and changes
within your network and display it on your homepage. You can identify the changes and how much you
want to see on your homepage

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 Select your language

 Manage security settings: If necessary you can choose a secured connection (https)
Email & Password

 Add & change email addresses: hier kan u uw primary email address aanpassen door er één aan toe te
voegen en/of te verwijderen. Als u het primary email address aangepast heeft, zal Linkedin u vragen
een bevestiging te mailen.
 Change password
Helpful Links

 Upgrade your account

 Close your account: if you happen to have two accounts, this is the place where you can close down
one of them. Note: notify first the connections that you are closing the account so you can re-invite
them
 Get LinkedIn content in an RSS feed

Make a Profile – you click on Edit my Profile to add or delete text and View my profile to see the changes
reflected immediately
You can drag and drop parts of your Profile. For example by default Contact Settings is displayed at the
very bottom and you can drag and drop them below Summary if you like…
Status: edit it regularly e.g. ‘is looking for a job, is trying to find information about, is giving a presentation
on, is attending a conference etc.’ Your 'What are you working on?' status update remains as posted and
stays there indefinitely until a new item is posted or the old one is cleared by you. You can use 200
characters at most and also share a link. Each time a new status is added it is sent out as part of your
network updates to all your connections or anyone.
Professional Headline: not a specific job title, use a keyword for a job category and add a level or
indication – e.g. ICT consultant, Finance professional, HR Specialist, Marketing Expert, Communications
Advisor, etc
Frequently, users (not connected to you) will see only a shortened version of your profile. Your headline
gives you a way to sum up your professional “identity” in a short phrase.
Public Profile: edit the URL and choose your own name rather than the suggestion made by Linkedin. This
boosts your online presence on the web: when someone searches for your name in Google the Linkedin
profile will come out on top. URL’s are unique.
Summary: use your professional objective and profile here. You can also use the text you have developed
for the Profiles@RiseSmart entry on our website. Or you can also add your personal brand message (cfr
Personal Branding seminar).
Specialties: keywords.
Experience: Current: leave empty if you do not have a job right now.
Past: list the various jobs you have held and indicate start and end dates.

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Copy from your resume (you can omit or be brief about first jobs)
PS You can create your profile in Dutch or French – when you are in edit mode you see an option to create
it in another language in the top right hand corner. People that use the French interface will then first see
your French profile instead of the English one.
Education: degree and school – useful if you want to join alumni groups and find schoolmates.
Skills & expertise: start typing keywords and see what is popular – you can search profiles like that more
easily than through specialties
Languages
Additional information:
Websites: put a keyword there rather than ‘my company’
Interests
Groups and Associations: mention all clubs and associations you belong to
Honors and Awards: if you have received honors and awards that are relevant to your Profile, you can
mention them here.
Applications
You can choose to add some Applications to your Profile, like your blog or a SlideShare presentation. If you
want to upload your CV you can use the Box.net application.
A general tip for all fields: if you want to be found on LinkedIn, please use the words people will use when
looking for your expertise or things you might have in common.

Contacts: Invite people to connect and keep adding new ones regularly
You have the person’s email address:
1. Click on ADD CONNECTIONS or to ENTER EMAIL ADDRESSES. Fill in the person’s email address and click
on send. The standard text (I would like to add you to my network) is added to your invitation
automatically (unfortunately you cannot write one yourself here).
2. SEE WHO YOU KNOW ALREADY ON LINKEDIN: Linkedin can import web email contacts from the
following domains: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc or upload a contacts file from an email application like
Outlook, Apple Mail and others. Start by clicking on Import and it then adds all the new contacts. You
then get to the choice to invite the new ones and you can select case by case. The fact that they are
added as a contact does not mean they automatically get an invite to connect with you. Tick the box of
ADD A PERSONAL NOTE TO YOUR INVITATION and write a brief note, perhaps in the language you
usually converse.

You do not have the person’s email address:

3. Find that particular person through People Search, view the profile and click then on ADD TO YOUR
NETWORK and indicate to Linkedin how you know this person (done business together, a friend, a

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group member etc). You can “abuse” the situation here and fill in incorrect information: if the receiver
indicates that your request to connect was under false pretense, Linkedin will block this person from
doing this again after 5 attempts.
4. Get Introduced through a connection after viewing the personal profile of someone: write a personal
text for your connection and the receiver of your introduction; you can check the status of your request
after sending it.
You can remove a contact and that particular connection will not be notified.
Export: back up your LinkedIn connections to Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo! Address Book, or
Mac OS Address Book. (csv file)

Inbox

Same functionalities as an inbox in any email program.

Compose Message: you can send an email to a single or up to 50 connections at once.
Received: overview of all received messages.
Sent: overview of all sent messages.
Archived: once you have read a message in your inbox you can archive it so it does not appear on your
home page any longer.

Groups
 There are three RiseSmart groups on LinkedIn: the regular RiseSmart Belgium and RiseSmart
Luxemburg groups (open to current and past candidates and RiseSmart consultants) and then
Entrepreneurship at RiseSmart: for all candidates, past and present, who have set up or are thinking of
setting up as an independent, freelancer or entrepreneur.
 Click on GROUPS and then GROUPS DIRECTORY. Search for RiseSmart and then click on JOIN THIS
GROUP. These groups grow all the time (over 330 members and counting…)
 You can either display or not show the logo on your profile. (Settings: Display the Group logo on my
profile: tick or do not tick that box)
 You can contact group members directly without being connected to them by emailing them as a group
member.
 To ask or share something with the group: start or reply/comment in a discussion.
 There is now a Jobs page: each member can share leads with the group (not used frequently)
 Certain groups have been created to do just that…use keywords in the groups directory that reflect
your industry, job category, specific research need e.g. Procurement Professionals-opportunities,
network and career & jobs, Belgian SAP Professionals, Food Industry jobs, Logjobs – Logistics & Supply
Chain Career Connections, Belgian IT network, Belgian Media Professionals, Belgians in Luxemburg etc.
The recent added feature of GROUPS YOU MAY LIKE helps you to find these as well provided you have
a detailed profile.
 Groups Order and Display: you can change the order of the groups in which they appear.

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LOOKING UP INFORMATION ?

Jobs

Go to advanced search and choose Belgium; on average there are 1,000 jobs posted.
You can create a daily or weekly alert to receive the JOBS you might be interested in (also shown on this
page and on your homepage).
When you are at the end of the results you will see SEE MORE JOBS FROM SIMPLY HIRED THAT FIT THESE
CRITERIA or go directly to www.simplyhired.be - a job search engine that makes an inventory of all jobs
posted on corporate career pages, agencies’ websites and job boards in Belgium.
You can refine the number of search results by selecting industry, level and job.

Search for People

Click on ADVANCED to combine different parameters to find Past and Present Colleagues, Classmates,
Friends, etc.
Click on Industry and tick STAFFING AND RECRUITING and discover Corporate and Agency Recruiters and
HR managers.

Companies
Search for particular company in a specific location and get an overview of current and former employees,
of recent promotions or new hires, popular profiles etc.
Key statistics gives you the most common job titles, career track of employees, top schools, median age
and gender figures.
When you have an email address from a particular company you are able to edit the entry in the Linkedin
company database.

NEED ONLINE HELP ?

http://help.linkedin.com/

Click on HELP in the right hand corner or on CUSTOMER SERVICE in the bottom left corner and you will find
a searchable database of Frequently Asked Questions.
You can access these pages without having a presence on Linkedin or being logged on to Linkedin (if e.g.
you have lost access to your primary email address…)

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MORE
 Answers: You can pose your own question or search through the database of Questions and Answers….
Using this feature raises your visibility.
 http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/ : Learning center online with video, tips, user guides for
new users, job seekers, entrepreneurs, business development, etc
 http://learn.linkedin.com/whats-new/
 http://blog.linkedin.com/category/new-linkedin-features/
 Books: “How to REALLY use Linkedin” by Jan Vermeiren, March 2009 (cfr excerpt Advanced Strategies
to find a new job or internship –5 pages) www.networking-coach.com
 The latest version (2011) can be downloaded for free on his site
 Blog by Jan Vermeiren: http://www.janvermeiren.com/ and the sites http://www.networking-
coach.com/ and www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com

CONCLUSION: HOW TO WRITE AND WORK YOUR PROFILE AS A JOB SEEKER?

Professional Headline
Describe clearly your functional expertise area (and industry if relevant) rather than your former job title.
Could also add you are “open to new opportunities.”
Status Bar
Use this to attract visibility to your profile – reading an interesting article, visiting a trade show, attending a
conference, seeking for particular information….etc do not abuse it by writing an update every day, people
can choose to “hide” your updates from their homepage as they find it too much.
Current job
Put clear professional expertise combined with “open for new mission” in title zone, in the company zone
define your preferred type of company f.ex.: “International innovative company”.
Summary
Give a short overview of your expertise and then put your professional objective as a goal. (cfr resume or
cv). Write clearly what you are looking for in your next job.
Contact Settings
Make sure you tick the boxes of career opportunities and write perhaps clearly again what it is you are
looking for. (cfr objective) Could add “available at short notice” and possibly also an email address (created
e.g. for your job search).
Applications
Download Google Presentations to add a slideshow on a project, speaker notes or if you want to be come
independent add your brochure or a PPT on your activities.
Do not add your resume (or if you really want to, remember to take off personal address and home
numbers). Remember, connections can always download these files and forward to anyone without you
knowing it.

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Create visibility by

 Adding connections
 Joining Groups
 Commenting on discussions and status updates
 Editing your status bar every now and then

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