Stop the job-hunting rumours: use LinkedIn all year round

With LinkedIn user numbers close to reaching 500 million worldwide, it always surprises me that people think if they are active on the platform their boss will think they are looking for a new job.

If that’s your assumption, here are my top five tips for using LinkedIn regularly without your boss being suspicious (whether you’re looking for a new job or not!).

 1.  Make sure your personal LinkedIn profile is up to date

Make sure your profile is fully complete and up-to-date to showcase your skills, knowledge and expertise in your current role in order to maximise both your, and your current employer’s, presence and brand.  Develop your professional network by connecting with people you know, and people you meet internally and externally through your work and make sure you don’t just have a network full of recruiters.

2. Share activity linked to your current role

Take the opportunity to share good things about your current employer. Make sure you like and interact with the company page (if there is one) and tag colleagues when talking about achievements. Maybe you’ve been to a conference, a workshop or some training, or perhaps your organisation has just made a big announcement or won an award that you can help amplify. Your boss would find it hard to think you are looking for a new job if you’re busy promoting your current company.

3. Follow companies and thought leaders/influencers relevant to your career and industry

Look to follow people of interest to your role and industry as a way of continued professional development, to keep up to date with current trends, news or information that people are talking about and sharing.   LinkedIn articles can be a useful source of data, ideas to contribute to your current project or inspire your current work activities.

4. Regularly comment on other people’s updates

LinkedIn is all about being active in your network so celebrate the successes of others with an encouraging comment, like people’s work anniversaries and comment on articles or updates you find interesting. This doesn’t mean spending all day on LinkedIn (too much activity can look as bad as too little). You could take just five minutes a day on your commute or at the start of end of the day to stay connected to your professional network. This would add up to engaging with lots of people regularly so it doesn’t seem different if you decide to step up your activity when you’re ready to look for a new role.

5. Post useful content

LinkedIn is not Facebook. Generally, people don’t want to hear about your weekend or see a picture of you on a night out (even if it is a work event). Post useful content that your contacts and people in your industry will want to read and share.

Think about the places you look online for interesting articles and share them, or set up a Google alert using key terms to help you find relevant things to share. Make sure you read all the way through the articles that you’re sharing and post them with an insightful comment rather than just sharing the link.

LinkedIn is a great free professional networking tool but you have to use it regularly to get any real benefits and avoid falling into the trap of only using it when you are job hunting.

If you want advice about using LinkedIn s part of your search for your next role, need help to brush up your CV or aren’t sure what you want to do next, take advantage of my free chemistry session to see if career coaching is for you. Give me a call on 07765 894040 for a confidential chat.