IA LinkedIn Profiles Guide

Retail Price: $29

LinkedIn® Profiles Guide
Sept. 9, 2008

Authored by:

Mike O’Neil
President
Integrated Alliances LLC
moneil@integratedalliances.com
www.integratedalliances.com
(303) 683-9600

Disclaimer:
Integrated Alliances is not associated in any way with LinkedIn® Corp. IA is an independent company that
caters to the networking needs of end users of such systems. Any reference to the contrary is purely
accidental.

This document contains information and trade secrets which IA uses in its business and which provide IA
with an advantage over competitors. Accordingly, IA discloses this information in confidence and with an
express restriction of nondisclosure and non-use. IA discloses this information to Reader for the limited
purpose of learning LinkedIn. Any unauthorized use of this information will result in liability for any and all
damages incurred by IA directly or proximately resulting from any unauthorized disclosure. These
documents are for your personal use only. They may not be transferred to others.

Page 1 © Copyright 2005-2008 - Integrated Alliances - All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

1) Before we get started................................................................................................ 3
2) About the Author ....................................................................................................... 3
3) How to use this guide ............................................................................................... 4
4) Crafting your LinkedIn profile .................................................................................. 5
So, what exactly is a profile? ....................................................................................... 6
Crafting Your LinkedIn Profile ...................................................................................... 7
Name and Location Section............................................................................................................. 8
Header Section ............................................................................................................................. 10
“What you doing now?” Field ......................................................................................................... 11
Industry Field ................................................................................................................................ 11
Summary Section .......................................................................................................................... 12
Specialties Sub-Section................................................................................................................. 12
Experience Section ....................................................................................................................... 13
Recommendations Function .......................................................................................................... 15
Education Section ......................................................................................................................... 16
Additional Information Section ....................................................................................................... 17
Web Site Sub-Section ................................................................................................................... 18
Interests Sub-Section .................................................................................................................... 18
Groups and Associations Sub-Section ........................................................................................... 18
Honors and Awards Sub-Section ................................................................................................... 18
Contact Settings Section ............................................................................................................... 19
Opportunity Preferences Sub-Section ............................................................................................ 19
Your Public Profile Tab .............................................................................................. 20
Viewing Your Profile (as Others See It) ..................................................................... 21
Appendix A - The IA LinkedIn Profile Worksheet ..................................................... 22
Step 1 – Keyword Inventory....................................................................................... 22
Step 2 – Employment and Job Title Inventory ........................................................... 22
Step 3 – Work Date Inventory.................................................................................... 22
Step 4 – Goals Inventory ........................................................................................... 23
Step 5 – Experience and Skills Inventory .................................................................. 23
Step 6 – Education Inventory..................................................................................... 23
Step 7– Web sites Inventory ...................................................................................... 24
Step 8 – Associations and Group Involvement Inventory .......................................... 24
Step 9 – Interests Inventory ....................................................................................... 25
Step 10 – Honors and Awards Inventory ................................................................... 25
Appendix B - IA Private LinkedIn Workshops and Webinars .................................. 26


1) Before we get started
Here is guide for creating the most effective LinkedIn Profile possible. The principles here are a set of
best practices that come from years of research and experience with LinkedIn.

This is a play by play guide for being more successful on LinkedIn and it is easy to follow.

The return on investment in terms of money and time spent with LinkedIn is the focus of IA’s LinkedIn
training that includes the LinkedIn Workshops and Webinars.

2) About the Author
The author Mike O’Neil is an Entrepreneur, a professional LinkedIn Trainer and a
former IT Professional and Sales Engineer. In 2003, Mike founded Integrated
Alliances (IA) as a professional business networking organization presenting
business networking events that are known in Colorado as the most effective
business development gatherings for uncovering business opportunities.

Mike expanded the role of Integrated Alliances in early 2006 as on-line networking gained in popularity. IA
began training business professionals on using LinkedIn for business applications and now IA has trained
thousands in a classroom setting and on-line via webinars. Mike became a LinkedIn user in January 2004
and is user ID #125841.

The IA LinkedIn Workshops are taught in public settings for individuals and in PRIVATE settings for
companies, associations and groups. Beyond classes, IA provides consulting on LinkedIn and other
platforms. IA also consults on networking strategies and tactics in general. Here is a view of the LinkedIn
Workshops held at the University of Denver in Denver CO.


3) How to use this guide
This guide is designed to be a reference that you come back to often. We know your time is valuable and
that there is only so much to go around. Here in this guide, we do our best to indicate what is most
important and what is not, so you can focus your energies better and can get the best results in the least
amount of time.

Generally, the best process is as follows:
1. Use the LinkedIn Profile Worksheet (See Appendix A) to gather up the information for
your profile.
2. Combine it into the format that is presented in this book.
3. Have some others (that may be more experienced on LinkedIn) look at it and make
comments on what you may be missing or may be improved.
4. Print it out and read it aloud. You may discover that what looks on paper good
doesn’t sound good.
5. Look at the strategies in each area and begin implementing them.

Throughout the guide you will see TIPS. Take a look at them, as they are a sprinkling of best practices
and strategies that will reduce your time involvement and increase your effectiveness.

When crafting verbiage for use in your LinkedIn profile, we suggest that you make extensive use of your
word processor when crafting text for use in LinkedIn. Why?
1. The LinkedIn system currently has no spell check capability and spelling errors are a very
bad no-no, just like they are in a resume or a cover letter.
2. LinkedIn often provides small windows for you to enter your text. In many cases, you can
only see a portion of the text that you have entered at any one time and it is in a small
box that in no way resembles how it will look to the user.
3. It is good to have an off-line backup in case you mess up and have to start over.
4. There are some additional formatting options you get in a word processor that are not
available using the LinkedIn on-line editor, like bullets.

Using the LinkedIn Profile Guide in Appendix A as a guide, create one single file that has each text
section separated our by a series blank lines or put each section on its own page. Use Windows Cut and
Paste functions to transfer the text from your word processor to the appropriate place on LinkedIn. This
will mean more when you get into it.

Next Steps
This guide is a preface to a complete and impactful education on LinkedIn. Once your profile is built up,
you should consider a LinkedIn Webinar by Integrated Alliances to get the rest of what you need.
IA LinkedIn 101 Webinar – A basic, yet thorough, training on the important areas of LinkedIn
• LinkedIn profiles, building your network, communicating on LinkedIn
• Searching and data mining, do’s and don’ts
IA LinkedIn for Sales and Marketing – How to use LinkedIn to sell more.
• Finding new accounts, sell more to existing accounts
• Develop new territories and vertical markets
Develop channel partners to sell your products for you
IA LinkedIn for Recruiting and HR – How to best use LinkedIn in the staffing industry.
• Build a network that is full of good candidates and mine it effectively
• Recruiting strategies, tactics, tips and tricks using LinkedIn for Staffing
IA LinkedIn for Job Seekers – How to find a job using LinkedIn.
• Find employers, contact them, get employed with LinkedIn
• Includes a valuable Job Seekers Resources Guide

To top it off, IA offers LinkedIn Network Building Training. See more at integratedalliances.com

4) Crafting your LinkedIn profile
Once you are signed up, you are ready to roll up
your sleeves and get started. On your LinkedIn
Home Page is a button called Profile. It is in the
left column near the top. You can Edit Your
Profile or you can View Your Profile here.

This is where to get started with crafting your
LinkedIn profile. Here you are going to build
(edit) your LinkedIn profile, one section at a
time. The Profile is comprised of a number of
sections and sub-sections. Some are more
important than other. We will be showing you
how to get the maximum benefit from each
section, getting into some very fine details along
the way. These details are strategies and they
open the door for you to get the maximum
benefit from LinkedIn.

Like most things in life, what you see first is
generally the most important. LinkedIn Profiles
are no exception.


So, what exactly is a profile?
A LinkedIn Profile is your identity on LinkedIn. Whereas a company has an identity called a Web site, an
individual has a profile on the LinkedIn Web site. People say it is an on-line resume. That is an
oversimplification from someone who doesn’t understand LinkedIn, but it is not entirely out of the ballpark.

A LinkedIn profile should not be thought of as an on-line resume. That market is served (quite effectively)
by Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, HotJobs.com, and many others. People who use those services are
predominantly job seekers and recruiters – they are not currently employed. People on LinkedIn are, for
the most part, gainfully employed and working hard in their jobs. This is a tool they use IN their business.

Think of it this way - your profile is there to help you be “found” on LinkedIn by others. People do not get
involved with LinkedIn to HIDE. They are there, for the most part, to be FOUND – found by people they
WANT to be found by.

Think of a “properly formulated” LinkedIn profile as a combination of the following:

Your Resume
Your LinkedIn profile indeed has information about your past work history, your skills, your education.

Your Personal Web Page
Your LinkedIn profile has information about your business that is often found on a web page. In fact,
LinkedIn even has links directly to your web page (up to three actually).

Your On-Line Advertisement
Your LinkedIn profile tells people what you can do for them, your skills, your capabilities, your “offerings.”

Your History
Your LinkedIn profile tells people a bit about your background. It is useful for making connections with
individuals who have something common in their background.

Your Future
Where a resume looks 90% back and maybe 10% forward, your LinkedIn Profile is more of a “forward
looking” document. It tells people what you are looking to be doing going forward based on what you have
done in your past. This is especially true of the Summary part of your profile.

Your Interests
People like to see more about a person than the 100% business side. They like to know more about you,
the person. LinkedIn makes this easy and it even has some very useful tools for you to find others with
the same interests.

What a LinkedIn Profile is NOT
It is NOT Your picture(s), your favorite songs, your friends, insignificant information about you. It is a
business tool and not a social tool. MySpace and other sites do a very good job in those areas.

Purpose of the Profile
Your LinkedIn profile serves many purposes, but the biggest is to be found. People do not use LinkedIn to
hide. They are there on LinkedIn, for the most part, to be found – found by people they WANT to be found
by.


Crafting Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn profiles are rather bland when compared to their counterparts at Facebook, MySpace and the
like. They are void of bold, underline, italics, fonts variations and even spelll checkkk.

Here is where you learn to really love your word processor. Use it to develop your LinkedIn profile text
and then PASTE THE TEXT into your profile. LinkedIn is not without ANY formatting options but it takes
some knowhow to get the most out of it. We also have a very clever trick with special graphics characters
to show you a little bit later on.

There are some formatting options you should be aware of. You can use ALL CAPS and any character
you can see on your keyboard – for example! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) - _ = + { } [ ] | ” ’ : ; ? / > . < , ~ ` . You can
still do a lot with upper case and lowercase letters and 10 digits and these other standard keyboard
characters. Here is a very clever idea from one of our readers:

....oooO................
.....(....)...Oooo......
......)../.....(....)......
.....(_/.......)../.......
...............(_/.........

Let’s do a quick 10,000 foot flyover of the areas of the LinkedIn profile and what type of information goes
where. Here are the sections and you will find some great ideas on where you should be putting your
specific profile information as we go along.

• Name
• Headline
• Geographic Area (where you live)
• Industry (that you work in)
• Summary
• Specialties
• Experience (company, job title, period, description)
• Education (schooling)
• Additional Information (Web Sites, Interests, Groups and Associations)

TIP - We have included a nifty little tool we call the LinkedIn Profile Worksheet. You can choose to work
through things here, or you may like to fill out the Worksheet and then return here. The Worksheet guides
you through the process of actually brainstorming what information you should be including here using a
10 step process.


Name and Location Section

When you created your LinkedIn Profile, you were prompted to enter your name and your location. It
might be time to review this in the light of your “Profile Makeover”. From the Accounts & Settings Screen
(access it from the top of any LinkedIn screen in the Upper Right Corner), select “Personal Information”
and then Name & Location”

Name Field
How simple is this? Actually there are some strategies here and they are covered in the Advanced Users
area of the guide. You can do FirstName LastName, or FirstName LastInitial. We suggest highly that you
use FirstName LastName. See the screen shot picture on the next page.

You will find people that use the name field in some different strategies. People do this to gain attention,
to encourage people to invite them and to appear at the top of search listings. They are more trouble than
they are worth and they will get you into trouble. In fact, these practices can make you invisible to Name
Searches as LinkedIn is looking for an exact match on the name in most cases. People are putting extra
characters in as part of their first name or their last name above.

Don’t do this with your name like you might see others doing:

Tom Smith tsmith@mycompany.com
! John Roberts LION TopLinked !


Location Field
LinkedIn prompts you for a Zip Code so they can assign you to a geographic area. Why is this important?
When you search on LinkedIn, it determines the DEFAULT center or home base for the search. You can
always type over this default when doing searches that are geographic. The radius around the Zip Code
defaults to 50 miles for all users. Paid subscribers get to vary their search radius from 10 to 100 miles.

If you have a LinkedIn Paid account, you can choose to display the Account Holder icon on your profile.
Yes, you want to be doing this. It also adds credibility to you and your LinkedIn Profile.


Header Section
The Headline is the first area encountered by a viewer, even before they see your Summary. It is a brief
and ever so important “blurb” that states what you do and where you do it. This is a VERY important area
to nail down and take advantage of

Why is the headline so important? Beyond your name, current company and current job title, it is the text
that others see on their screens when they do searches that may match up to you. If they like your
headline, they may click through to look at more. If they don’t, it is off to the next person listed. You have
110 characters to work with here and I suggest you use most of them.

TIP - Look at other peoples’ headlines to see what you like and what looks good for you. Look at people
with similar occupations to yourself and see what they are doing. You want to AT LEAST be as good as
these people, hopefully much better. Check around with friends (those on LinkedIn) whom know you
professionally and see what they think.

Here are some good examples of effective “short” headlines:
- President, Strategic Systems LLC
- Business coach helping Entrepreneurs
- Sr. Sales Manager, MCI
- Branch Manager, Phoenix, Cbeyond
- Executive Recruiter specializing in IT

Here are some more advanced ones:
- Public Speaker, Entrepreneur and Author of “The Total Idiot’s Guide to Yahoo”
- CEO, CommonCraft Ventures LLC, investing in green energy concerns
- Sr. Development Manager, INFO for The Go, developers of mobile applications for the Oil and
Gas Industry
- V.P. Sales, Sprint, covering West Coast Operations
- Chief Operating Officer (COO), Managed Hosting PLC, managed data center solutions for
streaming media


“What you doing now?” Field
LinkedIn has an interesting update feature that actually comes from another program called Twitter. You
can tell people what you are currently up to and it is part of the upper header area as shown in the red
box. Here Michael Patrick says he is “teaching LinkedIn workshops and webinars this week”. This
information stays on your profile for 5 days and then it is deleted. Change it every couple of days so it is
fresh and so it doesn’t become blank. Keep it businesslike and of interest to others.

Industry Field
Another part of the Header area is called Industry. Look at your top 5 or so competitors and see what they
are using. There will usually be a consensus about which to select. You can also look for companies in
your industry that are not competitors, like maybe in other cities. Use the People Button and the LinkedIn
search capabilities to find them. The Keyword search will be the main field you will want to be using.

If you would like to continue on for now, you might put something that “fits,” and come back later to modify
it. A job title, the company name and a few things about your role will do for now.

Using your word processor, create several different headlines and see how they look. After spell
checking, pick the best one and cut and paste it into the data entry field for Headlines. You might want to
rotate the Headline and see how other versions work.


Summary Section
After the Headline, the Summary is the single most important part of your profile. This is where you
should spend most of the time attention you invest in your profile. DO NOT simply paste in your resume.
A resume typically looks 90% backward and 10% forward. Your LinkedIn Profile is just the opposite. It is
almost all forward looking.

You have about 2/3 of a printed page to work within the Summary area (2,000 characters) and you should
eventually use most of it when you are done with your profile. LinkedIn will tell you how many characters
you have entered when you cut and paste your text in here, which is a really nifty feature.

Within the Summary section itself, the first few paragraphs are the most important just like with a
newspaper article and many other types of published text. There are a lot of ways to start out a profile.
Some are basic and simple. Let’s start out there - nice and simple. This is the first ¼ or 1/3 of your
summary.

Work for a mid-to-large company? Try some information on your company first perhaps.
• What they do?
• Who they do it for?
• Where they do it?
• What makes them special?

Work for a small company (not self employed)? Make it a little less about them.
• What they do?
• Who they do it for?
• What makes them special?

Self employed or work for yourself? It becomes more about you.
•

• Your role as the “chief” and what makes you special?
• What does your product or service do?
• How did you get to this point?

You want them to BE INTERESTED IN YOU if they fit the audience you want. That is who you are writing
this for and not the general public so you can be more specific.

Next, give people a wrap up of your background as it pertains to today and to the future. What have you
done that matters NOW? Use short, sweet sentences, with 2-3 sentences per paragraph.

If you have things that you have done that are relevant going forward – experiences, projects, contacts,
etc. this is a good next section (the middle third or so of the Summary). Key here – it is important to what
you are doing NOW and is relevant.

You might wrap up with what inspires you, what you like to do when you are not in the center of your
business universe, something personal. It is nice to finish with something about you personally. Keep it
simple and sweet.

Specialties Sub-Section

Below the Summary section is the Specialties section. You probably have a lot of things in your
background that are best shown in a listing or with commas between words. Use the Specialties section
for this. It is best for words and not sentences. You can use commas, bullets, semi-colons – it is pretty
open to variability and that is fine. You have a couple of paragraphs of space to work with (500
characters).


Do NOT repeat the information in the Summary in the Specialties subsection. It is often used for listings
of areas of expertise, particular products you have worked with, additional certifications, etc., and it
usually appears as a listing with words separated by commas.

TIP - Use action words and not typical descriptive text. Remember,
there are over 20 million people on LinkedIn and you want to look
special in this important crowd.

I suggest you consider buying the book “Words that Sell” by Richard
Bayan. Are you “experienced” or are you a “veteran” or an “expert” or
maybe even an “ace”? You get the idea. This book is a super
thesaurus for just this purpose.

Another good source for ideas on words is www.Thesaurus.com.

Some Profile Advice from the Expert:
I will start this with an analogy…
When you were in High School, maybe you were near the top of your class. Then you
went to college and were maybe average. The same analogy works for sports, from high
school or college to the pros. The reason is that the competition is greater.

So now you are on LinkedIn and that definitely sets you apart. You have an edge over all
those people that are NOT on LinkedIn. On the flip side, you are now part of millions and
millions of LinkedIn users and the analogy above has some meaning here.

Why do I bring this up? Well it is a pep talk aimed at inspiring you to make your LinkedIn Profile special, a
little better, perhaps a bit “sexy.” There is still competition out there on LinkedIn. Some people stand out
and some do not. It is easy to get lost in the shuffle. All we have to work with on LinkedIn is words, so
how do we “stand out” using only words?

Experience Section
The Experience area of the LinkedIn Profile is where there are some parallels to a traditional resume. It is
tempting to paste in what you have on your resume. Well, it all depends on what that looks like as to
whether it should be changed much. In most cases, it needs major surgery vs. a cut and paste.

If you want to fast start, just use the resume text for now. You want to get the basic information in here
and then go back and refine it, unless you are using the included LinkedIn Profile Worksheet of course.

Below is the screen for adding a position. When you type in the name of the company, it will try and
match it up with a company already in the system. You can highlight the company and press enter and it
will fill in a number of fields for you – Website, Industry, Size (# of employees)


If the company name is not in the list, you can add it. Below is the information that LinkedIn will be asking
you for:

Specifically, you will be asked for the following information on each position you will be listing.
1. Job Title
2. Company/Organization Name
3. Start Date and End Date (month and year)
4. Description of the Position

Drilling down a bit deeper, we have some strategies, advice and best practices for you.

Put in all of your employers/jobs. If you had multiple titles at the same company and they were in different
areas, put the job in twice (yes, as two jobs at the same company, but in series). Only list the highest
position you held in a particular area (Sales Manager vs. Sales Rep. and THEN Sales Manager). Feel
free to put yourself in the best possible light – Sr. Account Executive sounds a lot better than Sales Rep.,
doesn’t it?

The more recent positions should the most of the following information included with jobs further in your
past having just some of this information as it applies.

For each job, add the following information in the “Description of Position” section:

• What the company did (what they made, sold, etc.)
• Who they did it for if it isn’t obvious (industry, type of account, level at a company)
• Where THEY or YOU “did it” if it isn’t obvious (region)
• What your role there was
• Anything important relating to what you do today.
• Anything amazing that you did or that happened when you were there.

Make it exciting and important, but do NOT use statistics like you might on a resume. Few people care if
you were 221% of quota in 1998. They do want to know if you did international work or led a division or
region or if you had a staff of X number of people reporting to you. If you have a side business, put it in as
a job, as a “parallel job” perhaps.


TIP - Your company name seems simple, and for most people it is. In business today it is commonplace
to use abbreviations, variations and shortenings of the company name. Consider all of the options and do
some searching on your own to see how others from the same company are spelling it.

The Work Period is just as it sounds and it is important one particular reason – the LinkedIn Colleagues
feature, which you will learn about later. Just use years when LinkedIn asks you only for the period.

Recommendations Function
LinkedIn lets you get recommendations from others and they can receive recommendations from you. A
recommendation is a vote of credibility for you and everyone should strive to get a minimum of 5-15
recommendations.

One does not recommend a “person” so much as they recommend one’s work performance at a specific
job. In fact, the recommendations are associated with a specific position. Try and get recommendations
from a variety of people. Those with good job titles (President, VP, etc.), even at a small company, are
the best to get recommendations from. Next best are those individuals who worked for well known
companies (household names) but at lower level positions.

Here are the screens that you will be going through to get recommendations for your profile.


TIP – Recommend others. They will be prompted to return the favor for you once they accept. This also
puts your information on THEIR profile with a link back from them to you. You can recommend someone
by going to their profile and clicking on the text link to the right of their picture and/or their name at the
top.

Education Section
The Education area is another area where the profile looks a bit like a resume. We suggest you list all of
your schools, including High School. If you went for 2 semesters or more, list it. If you took classes that
are relevant to what you do today, list them too. If you did anything special at these institutions, list it, but
be brief. If you were in a fraternity, sorority, sport, interest group, etc., put it in.

Tip - We highly suggest that you do this for every job. If you had significantly different positions within the
company, create a second instance and treat it like an entirely new job. LinkedIn will sort them for you
chronologically so you don’t have to worry about which jobs you put in first and you can go back and add
more jobs later with no negative effects.


There are a few strategies that you can use to get the most out of experience.

Degree – While you can only see 11 characters at a time, you actually have 100 characters to work with.
That is enough to put in a full degree name like “BS Industrial Engineering and Management Systems” or
even something much larger. Just don’t use any more characters than you need or it can be difficult for
viewers to read.

Field(s) of Study – If you had other significant areas that you studied, put them in here. Some examples
might be “International Trade” or “Discreet Electronics.”

Dates Attended – Like the job dates, this is relatively significant. LinkedIn has a feature called
Classmates that matches you up with other people you went to school with.

Activities and Societies Subsection – If you were part of any group (fraternity, sorority, clubs, sports,
etc.) put this information here, separated by commas. It helps a lot in searching, which we cover later.

Additional Notes – Was there anything especially noteworthy? Put it here. This is a good place to tell a
story about why you picked the major or industry that you did.

Additional Information Section
This is a sort of catch all area for things that are not specific to other areas. Other than the Web site, all of
this information appears near the bottom of your profile when others view your profile.
• Web Site
• Interests
• Groups and Associations
• Honors and Awards


Web Site Sub-Section
If you work for a company that has a web site, by all means use it. If you have your own web site, use it.
Some people will put in a personal web site. Consider this only if it is relevant to your purpose for being
on LinkedIn. If there are sub-pages on a web site you want to direct people to (a jobs board, a sign up
page, etc.), this is a good place to use it .

LinkedIn gives you room to put in up to 3 Web site addresses. Go ahead and use all 3. LinkedIn offers the
following titles for your Web site addresses.
- My Website
- My Company
- My Blog
- My RSS Feed
- My Portfolio
- Other

TIP – When entering web site information, always select “Other” and put in your own text. Suggestions
would be “Company Name” or “Learn more about me” or “See examples of my Work”.

Interests Sub-Section
These are personal interests for the most part (golf, skiing, classic cars, traveling, etc). List them in the
order of what is most important to you. Put them in here separated by commas.

Why care about interests, this is a business tool, right? Look at it this way – when you share an interest
with someone else it can be a very good thing. People are obviously interested in that thing and so are
you (or you wouldn’t have listed it).

Groups and Associations Sub-Section
If you are a member of any professional associations or groups, this is where to put that information. Put
the name in, separated by commas. You do NOT need to be a member of a group or association to list it.
There should be some level off affiliation in most cases but it can be just an “I follow this group” to actually
qualify. This is different from being a “member” of a true LINKEDIN GROUP, which is coming right up.

Give some thought to anything that might be controversial with respect to your target audience on
LinkedIn. The National Rifle Association, NRA, is one example where you may have to give it some
thought. If it makes sense, use it, as it creates on-line, searchable bonds with other NRA members.

TIP – If the group has an abbreviation, mention the group twice, using both the full spelling as well as the
abbreviation, separated by commas. For Example – Denver Telecom Professionals, DTP.

Honors and Awards Sub-Section
If you have any notable honors or awards, by all means mention them if you think the people you are
most about will look favorably upon it. Others may be searching on that particular search term and you
will come up. Be proud of your honors. It is not uncommon for this field to be blank.

TIP – Include a year if it is relevant. For Example – Presidents Club award recipient 2002 and 2003.


Contact Settings Section
LinkedIn gives you some control over a number of aspects of how OTHERS may contact you. In fact, you
might say that they are mighty generous and thorough with all the options they provide you in the area of
contacting. Since most people are on LinkedIn to actually USE the system and to BE FOUND, the
answers to almost all of these options is ALL.

There are two places to set this information – Contact Settings at the bottom of the profile or via the
Accounts and Settings screen, which can always be seen at the top of the page on the right.

This configuration area will let you decide in which ways it is OK for others to contact you. You have two
choices with a free account and three with a paid account.

Opportunity Preferences Sub-Section
What kinds of opportunities would you like to receive?

Career opportunities Expertise requests
Consulting offers Business deals
New ventures Personal reference requests
Job inquiries Requests to connect

I suggest that you always check them all. Unchecked boxes put doubts in people’s minds. They may think
that you are a “taker” and not a “giver” without all the boxes checked.


The Contact Settings lets you put in a sizeable amount of text. If there are certain things that someone
should know about contacting you, this is the place to put them. Some people put in their phone numbers
here. Others put in days of the week or times of the day to be contacted. Some put in an E-Mail address
so anybody can contact them directly via E-Mail vs. having to go through the formal introduction process.

While it is generally not a problem providing this information on LinkedIn, and it does provide a real value
for others that may have opportunities for you, there is always a risk in doing so. Only a fraction of the
users on LinkedIn put phone numbers and E-Mail address in this section of their profiles. Power users
usually do.

You needn’t worry much about privacy here although it is possible that your information could be
“harvested” for bad reasons. This just doesn’t seem to happen in the LinkedIn world.

Your Public Profile Tab
LinkedIn lets you determine exactly what others can see in your profile when they view it. You can choose
to be totally invisible, to show others only a little bit of information about yourself or you can choose a
“custom” list of specific profile areas that can be viewed by others.

None
This will hide your profile from view from everyone on LinkedIn. It is like you are not even there as far as
others finding you and seeing your profile.

Basic Profile
The basic profile shows only your Name, Industry, Location and the Number of Direct (Tier 1)
Connections you have.

Full Profile Options
The Full Profile lets you choose which areas you wish to have on display. They include:

All the items in the Basic Profile (Name, Industry, Location and the Number of Connections) are
automatically included, as well as optionally any of the following:
- Headline
- Summary
- Specialties
- Current Positions – with or without the details
- Past Positions - with or without the details
- Education History - with or without the details
- Websites
- Interests
- Groups
- Honors and Awards
- Interested in categories

We suggest that you include all of the items listed in the Full Profile, unless there is a good reason not to.
The viewpoint should be “Why Not?” vs. "Why?”.

The next page shows you what the Public Profile screen looks like and how the check boxes work.


Viewing Your Profile (as Others See It)
It is a very good idea to put yourself in the place of your viewer. After all, you create a profile for OTHERS
to view you, don’t you? Things look a little different from a viewer’s perspective. It is kind of like looking at
a Print Preview in a Windows application. This view is particularly useful to see how your use of ALL
CAPS, punctuation and bullets looks to others. Look at it and adjust your profile accordingly to improve it.

LinkedIn has a Tab just to the right of Edit My Profile for this exact purpose. You can see how others out
there see you with all the word wrapping and formatting properly in place.


Appendix A - The IA LinkedIn Profile Worksheet

Here is a blueprint for getting the most out of LinkedIn. It has 10 steps that guide you through the “data
collection” part of creating your profile.

To get started you will need your resume and a pen and paper. That’s all.

Step 1 – Keyword Inventory
In its most fundamental element, there are two basic reasons people use LinkedIn – to find things and to
be found. In the profile area, we go over being found.

When people are looking for someone like you, they are using the LinkedIn Search screen typically. They
are searching on one of more of the following criteria in most cases, in decreasing importance:
- Keywords
- Job titles
- Companies

Knowing this, you might think that a little extra attention to keywords is probably a good thing and you
would be right. Let’s go over some strategies then.

Take a look at things from the other side, from the person who might be trying to find you. What words
might they use to find you from among the 8 million LinkedIn users? Think in terms of their finding you for
the purposes that you might wish to be found.

Step one is to strategize and write down all the words and phrases you wish to be found under. Does this
sound like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a web site? You bet!

TIP – Put these words in Microsoft Word one per line. Then use the thesaurus function to see what other
words might fit. Add them to the Word document. These are the words that you want to get weaved into
your profile.

TIP – Once you have your list, show it to some others who know you and whom you trust. Ask them if you
are missing anything.

Step 2 – Employment and Job Title Inventory
Step two is to take an inventory of all the positions that you have held, ALL of them. There is no qualifying
here; it is all about quantity, like a brainstorming session. If you held multiple positions at the same
company make note of all of them. Pay particular note to the job titles. You can probably get most of this
from your resume. If you have/had a side business, note it as well.

At this point it is NOT relevant to note what you did at particular jobs. Is this starting to sound a little
different than a resume? Yes it is. A resume is particularly big on what you did at each of these jobs. It
might even have statistics.

Step 3 – Work Date Inventory
Step three is to make note of ABOUT when you were at these positions. You can probably get this from
your resume as well. Don’t worry about gaps in the dates. Don’t worry if you had overlapping dates, like
if/when you had a side business.


Step 4 – Goals Inventory
Decide for yourself, in brainstorm mode, what you may wish to accomplish in your career, in your life, on
LinkedIn. This will help you when crafting your summary.

Examples:
I would like to change careers, perhaps to……….
I would like a more senior role
I would like to relocate to Texas
I want to do more public speaking
I want to find more security projects

People like to see what you are about going forward. Don’t make them read between the lines. Spell it
out, but be brief.

Step 5 – Experience and Skills Inventory
This is an area that maps to a resume a bit, but you can take it to a new level with LinkedIn. Remember,
LinkedIn is a “Looking Forward” tool for the most part. What you have experience and skills in doing is
especially important if it pertains to where you are headed. This information is a key part of your
Summary and Specialties sections.

Examples of what may go in your Summary Section (typically sentences and phrases):
Developed and implemented merger strategy
Implemented Microsoft to Linux conversion
Converted in-house database to a web database
Oversaw expansion into new territories
Managed team of 12 sales professionals in 3 states
Worked in Europe

Examples of what may go in your Specialties section (typically words separated by commas):
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
MSCE (common acronym/abbreviation of above)
Novell
HP
CRM
Siebel
Oracle

What NOT to include:
If it doesn’t pertain to your future or if it isn’t an important credential, it can tend to cloud the picture and
reduce the impact of the words that DO matter most. Consider leaving it out. If it is a statistic, leave it out
unless it is especially relevant.

Step 6 – Education Inventory
What schooling have you had from high school on? Do a thorough inventory of all the places where you
went to school, took classes, attended workshops, did on-line learning. This is a brainstorming
methodology here as well. This will drive a feature of LinkedIn called Colleagues, where LinkedIn
matches you up with others who were there when you were there. It can only match you up if it knows
you were there and it will only know you were there if you include it.


Things to be sure to gather up include:
- College – This is a no-brainer. List all of the colleges you attended if it was for MORE
THAN one semester. Undergrad, post grad., etc.
- Trade Schools
- Specialty education including certification training, special classes to learn a specific skill
- High School, at least where you graduated from

Do you have additional credentials or certifications? Note the full name and any abbreviations. For
example a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer is also a MSCE. A mechanical Engineer is also an ME.

Think long and hard to come up with as comprehensive of a list as possible. People may be searching on
these exact things and you probably want them to find you in most cases. You may choose not to use all
of these, but this step is still important.

Step 7– Web sites Inventory
LinkedIn will let you list web sites on your profile. This is nice since LinkedIn does not deal with pictures,
multimedia, or anything else visual. It also lets you tie your profile to your business. Remember, we are in
brainstorm mode here so don’t be critical.
Do you have a company web site?
Do you have a personal web site, professional or entirely personal?
Are you active in any associations or groups that have a web site?

Step 8 – Associations and Group Involvement Inventory
LinkedIn does a really good job of tracking associations and groups and has some really great tools for
finding others that share this with you. Still in brainstorm mode, think of the associations and groups you
can say you are part of in some way or another. You do not have to be a current member; you do not
have to be tightly associated either. This might help you:

Are you currently part of any professional association? Note the full names and the abbreviations.
Do you attend any association functions regularly?
Look in the past and ask the same questions?

Some examples might include:
- Member of the Colorado Athletic Club (CAC)
- Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity (ATO)
- Member of Denver Telecom Professionals (DTP)
- Regularly attend Network Denver events
- Little League Baseball coach (or even a parent of a Little League baseball player)
- Former Chess Club member
- Member American Automobile Association (AAA)
- Places where you volunteer


Step 9 – Interests Inventory
Having common interests with someone can make a relationship much stronger. It is also a great starting
point for a conversation that may lead to something. LinkedIn does a good job of making it easy to find
people with similar interests.

Make a list of the things you are genuinely and currently interested in. This does not mean that you have
to be active in them, just interested in them. Use broad terms and then drill down as well (e.g. racing and
then maybe drag racing).

Here are some ideas:
- Sports – golf, tennis, working out, exercise, weight lifting, car racing, drag racing, swimming,
mountain biking
- Hobbies – woodworking, traveling, model airplanes, remodeling, baseball cards
- Others – parenting, coaching, genealogy, reading

Step 10 – Honors and Awards Inventory
Did you ever get recognized for anything that is noteworthy? How about any of these:
- Presidents Club
- Honor Student
- Dean’s List
- Salesman of the month
- Voted most likely to succeed

There now, that gives us some good stuff to work with doesn’t it? Next, let’s look at what maps to where
on the LinkedIn Profile. There are many ways to do this, and we are suggesting some best practices that
come from our years of experience helping people on LinkedIn and in career development.


Appendix B - IA Private LinkedIn Workshops and Webinars

Variety of Formats to Meet Your Needs
IA has a wide variety of formats to meet the unique needs of companies, organizations and groups. They
can be modified, molded and transformed as you need and we will help you through the process of
deciding how to best customize the material. IA’s training can also be combined with other related topics.
This extends to helping you achieve other goals that involve business relationships.

IA has a great base to start from and build upon. IA’s Workshops and Webinars educational events can
stay on the “beaten path” or they can use the “off the shelf” formats and encourage audience take the
program in the directions where their particular interests lie through Q&A (recommended). These are
highly interactive sessions, especially in their classroom and speaking formats.

Specialized Workshops – IA has specific versions of the LinkedIn Workshops for Sales and Marketing,
for Recruiting and HR, for Job Seekers and for Outplacement.

In-Person Formats

Private LinkedIn Training Format
IA delivers LinkedIn Workshops to all types and sizes of audiences, from 5 to well over 100 total
attendees.
• 3 hour workshops or a series of workshops are typical.
• Full day workshops are available.
• Business hours, evenings, weekends and other time periods are available.
• While headquartered in Colorado, IA can deliver its educational services around the country and
even around the globe as requested.
•

Lunch and Learn Formats
IA can come to your office to deliver lunchtime LinkedIn education (hands-on or not) on how to best utilize
LinkedIn for specific business needs, like sales research or staffing.
• More of a lecture usually.
• 1 ½ hours typically, sometimes a series of 2 or 3 sessions.
• Companies usually provide lunch for its staff attending the classes.
• Handouts and copies of this guide are provided for attendees.


Speaking Engagements and Other Formats
IA President Mike O’Neil is available to speak to groups on a variety of important networking and
technology topics. He has experience as a keynote speaker, panelist, emcee, radio guest and/or co-host,
debater and as a master of ceremonies.

Webinar/On-Line Formats
Many organizations and groups are dispersed and cannot be together in one place at one time for in-
person delivery of the education. Fortunately, IA has on-line versions of its curriculum and has a vast
wealth of experience delivering it. IA’s Web-based customers include users in many countries.

IA can deliver the LinkedIn Workshops via Webinar. This can accommodate a wide audience in different
locations and can accommodate as many as 100 simultaneous users.
• 2 hours in length.
• 3 part (or other segment) Webinars, 1-1 ½ hours each in length.
• Timing options include business hours, evenings, weekends, and lunch hours.

It should be noted that the interactivity on the web is lower (people tend to ask less questions) so the
delivery is typically shorter (2 hours vs. 3 hours) and less knowledge is received.

Presentation Screen Shots
Below is a small sample of some of the actual screen shots that are part of the classroom and on-line
LinkedIn Workshop/Webinars. IA uses a combination of Microsoft PowerPoint, on-line LinkedIn
demonstrations and Microsoft Word (templates) to deliver the most effective experience possible for
attendees. This is a highly refined classroom approach that has over 75 deliveries behind it (as of 5/08).

LinkedIn Classroom Requirements - Typical
When IA delivers the private classroom education, it is generally the client’s responsibility to provide the
venue and equipment for the workshop. IA has arrangements with a number of educational institutions in
Colorado where the workshops can he held if requested to do so. There are room rental fees in most
cases. This is generally what is required:
• Seating capacity (space, not actual chairs) is recommended for twice the size of the expected
crowd. If it will be truly hands-on with laptops, it is best to have every other seat occupied or only
2 people per banquet-size table.
• Some of the larger venues may require a microphone and PA system.
• Unobstructed views for attendees to see (tiered seating is best).
• Wi-Fi Internet services OR hardwired Ethernet. If this will be a hands-on version, a jack will be
needed at every seat location (for Internet access).
• For the true a hands-on version of the workshop, power at every seat location as most laptop
batteries last only about 2 hours and many participants do not come with their laptop batteries
fully charged. Power strips and extension cords will suffice in most cases.


• The workshops can also be held in rooms that have the computers and Internet access already in
place as well (lab format).
• Large screen and projector for the attendees to follow along with the presentation (with cable
provided for the instructor to connect his/her own laptop).

Pricing
Most pricing for the IA LinkedIn and networking education is individually determined as the curriculum and
delivery itself is usually customized to their special needs. Still, we realize the needs of our clients to have
some starting points and guidelines from which to evaluate the programs and their costs.

The optimum class size is 20-40 people, although larger audiences (of up to 100) can be accommodated
and there is minimal difference in the pricing.

The educational curriculum and its materials are available for license by IA’s clients for internal delivery by
internal staff. IA has a “train the trainer” program available.

Private LinkedIn Workshops
Most of the private workshops are individually priced based on the specific services requested and the
size of the audience. The minimum fee for IA to conduct a private LinkedIn Workshop in Colorado is
$2,495 or $3,495 outside of Colorado (plus expenses, when applicable). This figure includes mild
customization of the standard curriculum and the materials. This pricing is for up to ½ day of training.

The minimum cost for a full day of IA’s LinkedIn training is $3,995 (plus expenses, when applicable)
including mild customization of the standard curriculum and the materials.

Private Webinars
The live Webinar pricing starts at $2,495 (includes mild customization). The Web conferencing service
and the audio services are included in the pricing. Long distance rates may apply.

Speaking Engagements
Delivered and priced on a customized, case by case basis.

Contact:
Mike O’Neil
CEO and Founder
Union Station
1701 Wynkoop St., #239
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 683-9600
www.integratedalliances.com
moneil@integratedalliances.com
www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoneil


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