3 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Ensure Career Success Now and in the Future

 LinkedIn is one of the most powerful places to build your personal brand. The visibility you get on it today opens doors to opportunities now and in the future! So, how do you ensure you're visible on LinkedIn? Let me explain the three most important ways.

Access the Hidden Job Market

One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn is that it can connect you to the hidden job market. Just 25% of jobs are advertised publicly, the rest are hidden – available by word of mouth or through targeted recruitment. These "hidden" jobs are known as the hidden job market. 

You can access them actively or passively. Let's start with the easiest thing first, passively.

LinkedIn Keywords

Keywords are key for a reason. Put yourself in a recruiter's shoes for a moment. When they're looking for candidates for a job what do they do? They use the search box in LinkedIn. They'll use search terms like city, industry, and skills. A paid account will allow them to search based on years of experience, seniority and more.

So, while you're writing each area of your profile include the keywords you know a recruiter or hiring manager, looking to fill the role you want to be in,  will use in their LinkedIn search. 

If this feels daunting to you, keep reading because I have just the thing to help you! 

Staying top of mind

As you build your network throughout your career, it's difficult to keep in regular contact with everyone in it. While nothing beats an annual lunch or a quarterly phone call/email, you're not going to do that with every single person in your network.

One way to reach as many people as possible efficiently is by creating regular content on LinkedIn. Posts, carousels, newsletters, articles – the options grow all the time! Pick one and commit to a schedule (e.g. posts 2x per week) and you're set. 

Then pick three topics you want to write about. Hint: At least one of them should be something you want to be known for (biomedical engineering, managerial accounting, data science, etc.). The others can be related to business books you're reading, career stories, industry news and more. Write down these three topics and stick to them.

Thought Leadership Opportunities

As your profile views climb and your content reaches your network and beyond, you'll be seen as a thought leader in your industry. Thought leadership opens you to a lot more job opportunities because you're seen by more people who are active on LinkedIn.

Job opportunities are just the beginning. Your thought leadership journey will afford you speaking opportunities, being quoted in the media, awards and more. These opportunities give you greater leverage and negotiating power at your current company and at any future business. They can also help you make the leap into entrepreneurship. 

LinkedIn is the world's most trusted social networking site and the place people go to do business. For these reasons – as well as what I said above – LinkedIn is the best place to build your personal brand. 

If any of this feels overwhelming, I invite you to join Opportunity Magnet. This course is created for the qualified quiet. You're a "qualified quiet" if you do great work but too few people know who you are and what you're capable of. 

Opportunity Magnet will help you build your personal brand on LinkedIn and attract opportunities like the ones described above. Check it out here.