I live in a very connected world, I work in social media for a living and spend most of my days online. If I’m not online I’ve probably got an iPhone in my pocket and will check it every hour or so to see what is going on.
So of course I have a LinkedIn profile. I worked at it tirelessly until I got it right. I modelled it off of some of the most succesful people I know to try and portray myself in the most professional manner. Not that I am actively looking for work now, but because LinkedIn has become the place for your professional profile.
I get agencies trying to hook me up with jobs all the time, and it is nice to know that there is work out there should I want to change careers. Everyone is connecting and reaching out and it has become quite a powerful social network for businesses, job agencies and individuals scoping out future employment opportunities. It has over 100 million users globablly as proof to that point and around one million of those are Australians.
A large part of having a succesful LInkedIn profile is about having a complete profile. You need a profile image, a summary, job experience, recommendations and a resume uploaded to hit the 100% profile completed mark.
LinkedIn quote the following as the basic requirements to a complete profile.
- Your industry and location
- An up-to-date current position (with a description)
- Two past positions
- Your education
- Your skills (minimum of 3)
- A profile photo
- At least 50 connections
But should you link up your Twitter account? Most would probably say definitely. But I am here to tell you to pay very careful attention to that idea.
My Twitter account is my personal account, and I have a disclaimer about where I work to follow company guidelines. This means I tweet about all sorts of crap. And now and then I have used bad language, been ridiculous, said something potentially crude or crass as considered by others.
So do I want that building part of my profile for LinkedIn? Clearly not. Yet I had included my Twitter handle and given the app authorisation to publish my tweets in the news feed on that network.
When I take a look at the news feed in LinkedIn, it is actually a professional news channel of global sorts. And then there’s me tweeting ‘hello public transport, you repel me‘. Oh how very interesting.
I know others use lot’s of different Twitter handles, this is something I would only recommend if you have real purpose for that. Do you lots of brands or services that require separate handles or do you just tweet personally as yourself? I have thought about having a Twitter handle for my Ducati blog because it is a niche blog with a niche following. Maybe that would make sense but I think my randomness on Twitter in general means I can promote that without having a separate handle.
Using hashtags is a great way to manage multiple categories in Twitter also, instead of having multiple log-ins just follow the hashtags that interest you and target people or interests that way.
This works particularly well if you are trying to build your following because Paper.li blogs are very popular at the moment and they aggregate content based on hash tags, so you will get more penetration and republished as ‘online news’ by using hashtags.
You don’t even have to use Twitter to use their search service. A great way to look for hashtags or see what is happening right now. Just type search.twitter.com into a browser to gain instant access to the latest breaking news, world trends and look for interesting people that have similar interests to yours.
I don’t actually think displaying your Twitter handle on LinkedIn is as important as some people might say. The other day a client came to see me at work, and they had clearly researched me using LinkedIn. By manner of links to my blogs they easily found my Twitter handle and commented about the amount of followers I have as well as talking about my interest in Ducatis. It was almost scary but a good reminder of what your online footprint says to strangers about you.
Check to see if your twitter account has authorisation to your LinkedIn profile by signing into the Web client, then from the main menu in the top right, select Settings, then click Apps in the right hand menu. Good time to check out what other apps you have forgotten have access at the same time.
So just think carefully about linking up that Batman parody Twitter handle you started to your LinkedIn profile. People are watching all the time.
I like to think that I always mentally check to think now would this tweet get me sacked or not get me a job if read by an/potential employer….
Like a 1/2-1sec check. Think I do pretty well, so the link to twitter is probably better than not.
However this article is all about making this a conscious and deliberate decision, to avoid an Oh S**t moment!
Sheeds.
I agree Sheeds, I do try to tweet responsibly most times, but ya know, even the best of us can get caught out now and then.
Quite right too, I think it is just about the conscious decision and one that you have to give thought too.
Your blog ties in nicely with your twitter handle and is very professional so it makes perfect sense to connect your online footprint completely across all networks.