LinkedIn is a social media network aimed at professionals. This where you put on your finest suit and wear your success smile and say how awesome you are in your job.
One could say it’s a CV on steroids, but it is way more than that. Its main function is to showcase your professional skills, but there is a social aspect as well and you can connect and interact with other professionals, with the intention to land a job or a business deal.
I have a profile in LinkedIn but I was never really active on it. So, when I saw this workshop organized by my good friend Markos , I thought I would jump on it and see what I could get out of it. My goal was to apply the 20/80 rule, but I think I got way more value.
The organizer Markos Korvesis is an NLP Career Coach and LinkedIn expert. If anyone is interested in optimizing his/hers LinkedIn profile or CV he is your man. I put my name on the line.
The setup of the workshop was quite unique. It took place to a restaurant-bar in the center of Athens with one of the best views in town. We had dinner and on the same time Markos was analyzing LinkedIn and dropping value bombs all over the place. Fortunately, nobody got hurt except our brains that blew up. Of course, there was socializing and networking involved.
My, yet, unoptimized profile. Got some work to do...
We discussed a lot of topics here’s what I took from it. First of all, LinkedIn is very helpful in terms of SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ). You can optimize your profile and get very high in organic search results when someone googles your keywords. I suppose that more or less one knows his keywords. If he doesn’t he should do keyword research. There many ways to do keyword research, which I will not cover.
One clever and fast way is to go to google trends and put in some keywords, see the data and get ideas on other related keywords. Once you have your keywords, you should put wherever you can. On the name of your profile and cover photo , in the summary , in the descriptions and generally in places where can be picked up by google algorithm. Just don’t overdo it. Keyword stuffing is penalized.
This is how an optimized profile should look like.
It is helpful to post articles on the platform. To my surprise posts without photos have bigger reach. You should post original content and the lengthier the better. For bigger reach it is advisable and acceptable to tag other people, especially if they have big audiences, just be careful to tag people that are related to your category and provide high quality content.
Original videos are promoted and by original, I mean videos that are uploaded only to LinkedIn and not links to YouTube videos. There are a couple of ways to post link and not get penalized.
Recommendations are important, and one should try to get as many as he can. LinkedIn makes it easy to give and receive recommendations and you should also try to have as many of your keywords in there. I usually write the recommendation on my own and send it to the other person just to upload it. This is easier for both.
That was from me. It was a great night. Food was great, view was great and content was great. It was a fun was to spend Friday night and I am looking forward the next workshop.
And until the next Dinner View Workshop …
Be Healthy, Smile and Steem.
PS : It seems that I got white listed for MinnowBooster community. Although I wanted to apply, I didn't pursue it. And since I don't believe that the universe reads our minds, I wonder if 
