LinkedIn Has A New Tool To Use

LinkedIn Has A New Tool To Use LinkedIns popular Whos Viewed Your Profile just added a new feature: How You Rank. It provides a lot more insight on the way you stack up in this essential network, and thats good because it also provides suggestions for improving your ranking. I sure hope you have a profile on LinkedIn because, if you dont, you are missing out on the best way to network with potential employers, clients, colleaguesand all the rest of the professionals who have joined. Networking is important because the reason why strangers dont get good jobs  is measurable: 92% of recruiters and hiring managers said either they knew the person or the person was referred by a co-worker or other trusted source. What’s even more interesting â€" and far more important â€" is that the primary decision to hire these people was on their actual ability to do the work and excel at it, not on some arbitrary list of skills and experiences. (Lou Adler did this survey and explains it in the linked article.) So the research shows that people who are even vaguely familiar with you are more apt to see your value, and the How You Rank tool gives you a customized list of ways to improve your ranking. Improving your ranking means that more people are looking at your profile, which means that more people will be familiar with you. The more people, particularly professionals in your career field, that are familiar with you the more apt you are to get a job when you apply. The customized ways to improve your ranking are pretty important because this is LinkedIn telling you how to get higher rankings on LinkedIn. That means you should pay attention to their suggestions since they know the algorithms for the site. And I like how you can use the tool to track your networking progress and analyze the results. You can even look at the higher ranking people in your network and see how your profile and activity compares to theirs and get a few more ideas on improving yours. If you want an even more individualized strategy for your LinkedIn enhancement, consider our LinkedIn Profile Development service. The How You Rank tool is good, but a professional evaluation that works with you to improve your online brand is better.