How to Subtly Increase Your LinkedIn Visibility | HBR Ascend
Most people look for jobs while they’re still employed. You do want something in hand when you quit, right? But this can be hazardous if your current employer figures out what you’re up to. Their first thought would be that if you’re not interested in what you’re doing and that you may not be giving your full attention to your current projects. If it’s closer to the time of appraisals, it may affect your ratings. Your manager may even stop considering you for important projects.
With the widespread use of search engines like Google, and social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, etc., looking for a job can be both easy and, if you are not careful, risky.
It’s a widely known fact that employers do reference checks on job candidates’ social media activities. But what is not well-known is that the social media check doesn’t end after the candidate is hired, as revealed by a recent CareerBuilder study. Nearly 48 percent of the employers surveyed confirmed that they keep a track of current employees on social media. 10 percent also confessed to checking those activities on a daily basis.
This is a minefield that must be navigated very carefully, keeping in mind that your boss may be (virtually) looking over your shoulder and reading everything you post.
How can you avoid sending obvious signals that you’re looking for a job?
As an online job search expert, I have seen many people make mistakes on LinkedIn that have cost them their jobs. Here is a list of mistakes you’re probably making and don’t realize it:
- Editing your headline to add you’re “Open to new opportunities”
- Adding comments such as “Interested” when someone puts up a job post
- Sharing your job search plans in a group, not realizing your manager is a member too!
- Making derogatory comments about your coworkers, or your employer’s products and services
- Suddenly becoming very active on LinkedIn and making too many tweaks to your profile too quickly
Social media monitoring for employees will only increase in the future so it’s time that employed job seekers exercise caution in their job search activities.
Go Incognito, Yet Be Visible
If you are appropriately, carefully, and intelligently active on LinkedIn, your next job will find you — you won’t need to chase it.
1. Understand your company’s social media policy: Look for your employer’s social media policy and be sure to comply with it if one exists. If there is no social media policy, consider LinkedIn as a professional marketing avenue, both for yourself and your employer.
2. Manage your profile privacy: You can leverage LinkedIn’s “Settings & Privacy” options to avoid attracting your employer’s attention with your increased LinkedIn activities. Here are some tips:
a. When ramping up your edits, block LinkedIn from announcing your profile changes to your connections using the Privacy options.
b. Change Sharing Profile Edits on your account to “No”.
c. When reviewing profiles on LinkedIn, limit your visibility by changing the Profile Viewing Options to “Anonymous LinkedIn Member”. This will make you invisible when you review your boss’ or coworkers’ profile.
3. Promote your current employer: Gradually build a complete and robust LinkedIn profile which supports and presents your current job in a positive way, so your LinkedIn activity is viewed as an asset rather than a liability. A good way to get noticed is by sharing good information from reputable sources about your employer (positive news about the people, performance, and products or services), your field, and your industry.
4. Use the right keywords: Carefully implement SEO on your profile using industry-standard terminology, or keywords in your profile to describe your employer, job, skills, and accomplishments. For example, if you are a social media marketing analyst, don’t put “social media marketing professional” or — worse — “marketing professional” in your LinkedIn professional headline. Use the term “social media marketing analyst” making the important keywords clearly visible.
5. Be specific about your current location: Recruiters search by city or region, and not country. Use “Brisbane” instead of “Australia”. “Location” is a search term used by more than 30% of recruiters.
6. Upgrade your “Skills and Enhancement”: Select and (make visible) your best “Skills & Endorsements” because members with 5 or more skills are contacted up to 33 times more often by recruiters and other LinkedIn members.
The Bottom Line
Be visible and active on LinkedIn, but be careful. Don’t accidentally “Out” your job search, and don’t share any plans to leave with your boss or co-workers. Instead, when online, support and promote your employer, increase your visibility, and include the right keywords for your career (and job search) in your profile.
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Originally published at hbrascend.org.
