Hello, everyone. Welcome to my session, linkedin for career success. I'm gonna get started because we have a lot to cover and I want to get to the juicy bits. So just to start off, I hope you can see my slides.Um I'm gay and I do a lot of different things. I have a lot of different hats. I'm a career coach for women and fem, I am a linkedin job. So I know a lot about how linkedin can be used as a tool for career success. I'm a podcast host which explains the microphone, a communication consultant and a trainer doing things similar to what I'm doing right now. So, thank you so much for joining my uh my session and we are going to move on to this. The first exercise just so you can get into it is I want you to um start by searching for my name, Gail Rel on Google Search. And I want you to see if it comes up in the top three links. So I'll just give you a couple of minutes for this. Just have a quick search and then right in the chat, if my name pops up in the top three links. Ok. Wonderful. Now, I want you to do the same exercise for yourself, type in your name and see if your linkedin account comes up, or at least some information about you comes up in the search for the first page. All right.

Just giving you a few more seconds to do that. Just so, you know, in case you haven't done this exercise before. All right. So hopefully, that taught you something right? And if you are seeing yourself on the first page, amazing, it means you're doing something really well. And if you don't, then that just means that you have a few more things you can do to improve your linkedin profile. So the first thing I want to talk about are some common linkedin misconceptions. A lot of people think that linkedin is just basically an online CV, rather than sending something uh across either physically or by email, you just point them to your uh to linkedin and it has the same information, but that's really not a great use of linkedin. The other misconception is that you only use linkedin when you need a job, a new job and otherwise you just leave it dormant, you don't really need to worry about it. That's not the best use of linkedin again. So why is linkedin important? Linkedin is really important because there are a lot of jobs that are not advertised outside of linkedin. I've seen this many times. And in fact, I found out about a lot of job opportunities when I was uh looking for work on linkedin specifically. So it's a great, a really great tool and network to find opportunities that are all kind of in one space. Um And also to find jobs that you wouldn't find elsewhere. Linkedin is also the most efficient online tool for networking.

And of course, here, I mean, networking specifically for uh your professional career, right? It's very easy to find people, it's very easy to add people and linkedin was really created for this. Um I know that there are some people who feel a bit of reluctance towards adding people or following people, but you really shouldn't because in today's day and age, um people are very used to, especially people who are posting content quite often. This is great for them that you know, there are people who are interested in their content and want to engage with them and even if someone doesn't accept you as a contact, that's OK. You can today, you can follow most people and that will still show you kind of the content that they're sharing. And then the third thing uh about why linkedin is so useful is because in terms of uh the trend of online networking and recruiting, the trend of using linkedin and online platforms such as linkedin will only increase in the next year by that, I mean, in terms of the future of work and where we're headed in the next 30 years, there may be a lot of jobs that we're doing today that won't exist and a lot of networking opportunities that uh will become almost impossible unless you have a good profile on linkedin.

So um what can you use linkedin for? Right. So I was talking about how it's not just an online CV, et cetera. So these are a bunch of different ways that you can use linkedin. The first is to build your brand. So we know there's a lot of noise on linkedin or social media um channels in general. And if you want to distinguish yourself from the rest of the researchers or the rest of the teachers or the rest of whatever, insert the career you do, then it's really important to start to build your brand on a platform. And linkedin is great for that because like I mentioned, it's the perfect place to develop your professional identity. The next reason I've already gone into it is in terms of networking, it's a great easy way if you're wondering, hm I really want to get into uh technology, but I don't really know where to start. Well, linkedin is a great place. You start looking up events, you start looking up uh groups and you start looking up influencers and you can start to really learn a lot more about the topics and sectors you're interested in as well as connect with the people who are influencers.

The other thing is of course, as I mentioned, um you can use linkedin to look for jobs, but not only I've often used linkedin and very well. So I have to say once I kind of know what job I want to apply to, I look, it's very easy to find out who works there, right? You can do that by the via the company website as well. But then in terms of connecting with them, linkedin is a great team. You look them up on linkedin, you connect with them, you ask them a few questions, you ask them if they would like to, you know, if they're available for a for a short chat, it's a great way to uh become a memorable candidate when applying for jobs. For example, uh the other thing is direct applications. You probably have seen this already. If you use linkedin, linkedin now allows you to directly apply for jobs via the platform. You don't need to uh go to the company website and this is the case for more and more jobs. The other thing is learning opportunities.

So in case you didn't know if you have a paid uh linkedin uh account, there are tons and tons of trainings that you can uh get on all kinds of topics, whether that's public speaking or how to use linkedin better or how to do social media marketing. The the learning opportunities are really endless and that's not all like I was mentioning, there are also loads of groups that you can check out. Um and uh loads of other free opportunities that are provided by influencers. For example, who say, you know, I'm going to be running this training or doing this workshop and you're invited. The only way you would find out about this, of course is if you're kind of following um these people again, very important to network. Uh Finally, the last two are, it's a great inspiration for if you're thinking about uh what do I want to do next? I feel really stuck. And I know a lot of people have been feeling that way, especially since COVID myself included. And I only quit my job for the second time. I have to say a few months ago. So I'm very familiar with this questioning of what makes sense to me. What do I want to do with my life and what are these different opportunities that are available for me?

I know it can seem very daunting, especially if you are a mid career or executive career uh at a stage in your life where you've been doing this same thing, maybe for several years, it can seem very intimidating to suddenly need to change tracks. But there are so many ways to use the skills that you have um to find different kinds of jobs and careers. And linkedin is a great place because, you know, once you start following people who inspire you very quickly, you'll kind of see, you know, what kind of content and what kind of careers are making you excited. So it's a really great inspiration that and then finally, um linkedin can be really useful for self evaluation and goal setting. One specific example here for is, you know, if you want to become, let's say a marketing specialist, I'm talking a lot about communications and marketing because that is my background, at least one of it. So if you wanted to become a marketing specialist and you're like, OK, what are the skills that I need in order to be able to do this job, all you would have to do is to look for similar positions that already exist within, you know, sectors or companies you're interested in and then kind of see, OK, what are the requirements?

What are the kinds of skills that they are looking for? And then on the basis of that, you start self evaluating whether you meet those skills and criteria or you start uh making uh a strategy or a plan of how you can build up those skills and experiences. So let's get right into actual uh your actual linkedin profile. I will go through a lot of very practical tips so that you um you can kind of use this later. I wish we had more time. So you could actually do some practical exercises, but we'll see what we can manage today. So the first thing is indeed about creating a profile. Now, I imagine most of you already have a linkedin profile, right? I'm just gonna assume that um but I'm also gonna now jump into kind of what are the the key components and kind of the first things that people notice, right? And that you should really kind of think about and work on. So as you can see here, this is my profile, I mean, might as well start with my example. Um And you here you'll see three components. The first is a profile picture, right? Obviously, now it might seem obvious the one thing or a couple of things to keep in mind when choosing your profile picture.

First of all, as you can see, I'm smiling and in fact, it's, it's a very good idea to use a picture where you're smiling because it just means that, you know, it it just comes across as, you know, you are a warm person, you're a friendly person and this is generally the attitude or the vibe you want to give to potential employers, right?

So that's one thing, the other thing is, you know, make sure that it's a professional photo now, you know, depends what you do. But in general for a platform like linkedin, you want to, you know, have something that looks that at least, you know, shows your face clear, that is not super pixelated, that is, you know, has a lot of light and a nice background, right? And looks nice. So I mean, this is not a Tinder profile. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that. So really choose appropriately what image you want to see because remember this is the first uh visual um inclination you're going to give towards people who maybe are looking to recruit you. The second thing is the background photo. Um Now there are a lot of different things you can do for the background photo. But since you have this whole space, really think about what you want to use it for. And I'm going to go through a few examples of what this could be. In my case, one of the key things I really wanted to showcase was the fact that I'm a social justice activist and an intersectional feminist.

And so what I chose was um a protest that I went to uh around, you know, uh my body, my choice and kind of, that's the image with the protest banners and stuff of this uh this protest. So that's kind of what I want to do to showcase. You can choose a whole variety of things. If you, if you don't have something specific, you can also use a nice, you know, generic visual, you can use a visual of the city that you're based in. If that's where you're mainly looking for work, you could also use it as kind of a place to showcase what are the specific skills um or jobs, you know that you're kind of looking for. And I'll show you an example in a second. And finally, the headline now again, even when people kind of uh are looking, are are using linkedin search to look for people, they will likely see your your headline. And this is again, really at the top of the page. So this is the first input into who you are, at least professionally. So as you can see for myself, since I am a jack of many trades and I wear a lot of hats, I've kind of mentioned some of the key factors here. The fact that I'm a co-founder at work ally that I'm a singer, a coach, et cetera. So, you know, it can be one thing or it can be multiple things.

But remember this is where you need to mention the kinds of opportunities that you may be looking for or that you have expertise in, right? If you are um amazing, I I mean, if you are a chef and this is probably a place where you should add it. So people know about it unless that is not kind of the career direction you want to head in perhaps. So, um like I said, a few more ideas in terms of the background photo. Now there are a lot of really great online resources where you can find images um for free. Uh And they're beautiful, they look really nice here. I've given you some suggestions in terms of unsmashed pixels or Canva. Uh Canva is also a really great tool for those who kind of want to get into doing a little bit of design but have no technical knowledge of design. No problem. Camera is a great resource. There's a free uh version and not only that can you find a lot of um images, but you can also make, you know, adjustments or you can tweak the images, you know, for example, adding text or uh adding a bunch of images or changing color, those kinds of simple things. Um And here again, I've mentioned some different examples that you could use in terms of the background photo, you could use your company or your university logo.

I mean, if you're very proud of where you're working um And you would really want to showcase that and, and especially if it's an organization that is well known, then that's a good place to, to kind of uh add it. Like I also said, a city landscape could work just as well. You could have a picture of you and your team. Why not? If, if or you know, for example, if you're managing a team or you are an executive, it's a really good idea to kind of showcase how much you care about the people you work with. Uh And you could, for example, show a picture of that. Um you could also in different ways, show the causes or the mission that you are interested in. And that's one of the examples that I use kind of showcasing um the feminist cause that matters so much. To me, other examples could be, you know, some of the tools that you have expertise in perhaps if you who are working in academia or in more technical careers, um products or services that you offer. For example, if you are a graphic designer, this is a good place to kind of mention that or show some examples of your portfolio and otherwise abstract images will work just fine as long as you're using that space and it looks nice here, you'll find four different examples.

So the first one, for example, uh you see a couple of tools and this is because uh Catarina or cat, she was someone who participated in one of our work allied programs and she's an academic. So she really choose, chose something that was more formal, more professional. Um And you know, showcasing that set of skills on the right, you'll see, be a wonderful contact of mine who is a storytelling coach. And here you'll see, you know, she's really showcasing one of her products and services, which is a podcast that she runs, you know, that's great because that's really good visibility for that. Um On at the bottom, you see uh jasmine many of you may know the bloom, it's a wonderful newspaper for young uh career professionals who are looking for work and opportunity in social impact. Um And uh she's chosen to showcase the logo of her company. Makes perfect sense as she is uh the, the founder of the organization. And then finally, uh another friend of mine, Jasmine, you'll see that since she is based probably in Singapore, I think she's chosen a general city landscape. So all of these examples uh could work and hopefully give you some inspiration. OK. The next is the about section, right?

So underneath that initial section, there is the about and the about, I mean, ideally you can keep it short and crisp and I'll again show you some examples from my um profile and some others. But this is really where you need to capture your, why, you know who are you and what is your reon de re as we say in French? What is, you know, the reason why you wake up in the morning? What are the kinds of things that excite you? What are your passions professionally? What are the things you want to do more of? That's really what should be represented here. If some of you may know what an elevator pitch is. It's basically a really short summary. If you met someone in an elevator of how you would present yourself, that's what needs to be in your about section. I am A B and C. These are the experiences I have, I'm really looking for this or uh these are some of my achievements so your strong points could be in, you know, the skills and experiences that you're really proud of or that you're really good at. That's a really good place to showcase that. Don't forget to use meaningful keywords as well, right? Because if people are looking for certain things like copywriter or translator on linkedin and you use the right keywords in your about section, they will find you easier.

Uh And then lastly, this is not the place to summarize your CV. That's what your CV S or and also that's what uh the later ses sections on experiences will be. So here are some examples. This is once again, an example from my profile here, you will see, first of all that I love emojis and I have used a lot of them now depending on the kind of work that you do and also on your personality, you can choose whether you want to use as many emojis or not. But here you'll see what I've really focused on is kind of a short one liner in the beginning because um generally people will first see that and then need to click, see more to see more of it. So you want to give like that immediate most important information at top. So they get a general feel of who you are and what you want to do or what you, what you are about. Um and then I kind of chosen to focus on the opportunities I'm specifically looking for. So if people come to my profile and they're like, huh um you know, I want to kind of work with Gail or engage Gail on a couple of projects. You can kind of clearly see that I'm looking for opportunities on ABC D. And then I've given a little bit more information since I'm also a social justice activist.

Just kind of mentioning also, you know, uh the fact that I've worked in several different countries because that's one of my friends um et cetera. So this is just, this is an example. This is another example. It's of Katharina, the person I mentioned earlier again, she is a scientist and an academic. So she's chosen to focus on her main achievements, which she is highlighted with very simple emojis, just a checkmark. But this is again a great uh way to showcase something that really makes you shine. And you'll also see at the bottom that she's used keywords um that are applicable to her uh professional career. OK. So um let's see how we're doing with time. We don't have a lot of time. Um So uh I'm gonna skip this for now, but, you know, I really hope that after the session, whether that's tonight or on the weekend, you'll kind of reflect on your linkedin profile and take the time to tweak um Any of the sections you think could be improved, uh especially the about OK.

So moving on to features. So again, assuming, you know what a general profile looks uh looks like you start with the, you know, the general image and um and your headline and then there's the about section and then you have feature and this is really a space where you get to choose what kind of content you want to showcase.

Now again, there are lots of different things you can do. So don't worry for like, oh, I, I, you know, I, I haven't uh I'm not a public speaker or I don't, you know, I haven't been mentioned in the press. That's OK. I'm su you know, you can think of creative ways of what you want to showcase. For example, you could feature um kind of a portfolio of things you've done. So perhaps if you, if you are a graphic designer, you can showcase the different campaigns that you've worked on and we will give a really nice visual summary of the things you want to feature in terms of your expertise. This is uh my feature once again. Um For those of you who don't know, like I mentioned, I'm a linkedin job theory which is a really cute way to say I post social media, sorry, sorry, social impact rather jobs every week on linkedin. Um This is just something that I started to do a couple of years ago because I, I realized that for people who are not in the social impact sector, it can be so difficult to find uh opportunities. And yet on the other side, a lot of employers are constantly complaining that they don't find the right talent.

I've also done a lot of recruitment, so I've kind of been on both sides and therefore, uh this is something that I do as a way to kind of give back to the community. And here you'll see in my future, I've chosen to highlight or feature the job boards that I post every week. So this is very specific. But for example, if you share content every so often on the topic that you really care about, uh this could be a good place to do it. You can also write, you know, articles very easily on linkedin. Um And this is an example of that. So bea for example, she is a storyteller and she's written a lot of different articles on linkedin and other sources um or platforms. And here she's chosen a selection of that. So that's a little bit on featured. Now, moving on to experience, right? That's the part where usually you do a copy paste of your CV. But hopefully not. And here are some ideas for how you can improve that section. So this is a section where you should ideally talk about, you know, um the, the the company that you worked at or the organization, how long you were working for them and please do try to update this in, make sure it's as updated as possible, right?

You don't want your uh linkedin profile to seem really dusty and as if the last time you used it was four years ago when you were looking for work, it's not a good look for your online presence. Um The other things that you need to mention are obviously what you did at the organization through a job title. It's a good idea. Unless it's a company that's really famous like Adidas to actually mention what the company or organization does, right? So just a sentence on what they do is useful and then start by talking about what you did. Now, you could just as, as a lot of us do and to be honest, I used to do that as well. Just say, you know, bullet point list, this is what I do ABC D, but there are better ways to again showcase and shine on your strengths. So what you could do is to describe your experience with meaningful sentences. So rather than a just a short proofreading articles, give a little more depth and insight into what you did. Um The other really good thing to do if you're working on this section is to focus on your competencies. So not just say I did XY and Z, but rather, you know that my call potencies include creating strategies, managing teams, et cetera. Try to try to talk about them in, in an active voice showing that these are things that you are good at.

And then obviously, you can also give a bit more information about the things you did at the organization and your achievements. Again, I'm going to show you some examples of this, of course. So um this is my profile again, easiest one to show here, you'll see. This is um one of, well, this is my, this is the job that I recently quit from. But this is the one that I was doing more or less for full time. So here you'll see in the first section, I've just, you know, written one or two sentences about what the European digital rights is. And again, I've tried to make it seem, you know, as it is a pretty uh relevant organization doing what it does. Um Then I just use one or two sentences to very quickly say, look at all these amazing things I've accomplished during my time there, right? Uh For you, of course, choose what makes sense. Um If you feel uncomfortable saying I did this or I did that, that's OK. You can just talk about the fact that you work on projects XYZ or, you know, you were um you, you know, for example, if you got really good feedback from um your colleagues or your manager, this could also be a really good place to kind of mention that in a nice way. And then also very important you'll see here when possible use numbers, use metrics, right? Um When I say I have revitalized a newsletter while if it goes to 10 people, maybe it doesn't matter so much.

But if it goes to 20,000 people, then suddenly it, it makes a newsletter seem a much more worthy kind of output to use numbers as much as possible. Then moving on, this is, you know, if you click on read more or see more, this is what you'll kind of see. The first section is, you know, as I mentioned, a little bit of a bullet list of what my responsibilities included. But I tried to, you know, as much as possible, make it clear what I did. Now, I could have made this list, you know, into 20 bullet points. Again, try to be short and concise. No one really has the time to look through pages and pages of what you did. So choose the really the main things that you want to highlight in terms of the things that, you know, were really a big part of your role and talk about those there. Again, if you can use figures, if you can use statistics and numbers really good place to do that. And then at the bottom, the thing that circle is um hopefully you're using it, it's just basically a way to show, you know, links or media or images showcasing, you know, all of this stuff that you said you did, right.

It's just a little bit more of evidence and it's an easy way for people to be like, oh, she talked about, uh, you know, designing publications. Ah, there's a link to, you know, one example. Great. So, um, what I've chosen is a mix of things I've chosen. For example, the annual report that I was bragging about, I chose one of the, the publications that I helped manage and put together and the website that I helped launch. Um And I've also added a bunch more, as you can see, it says there's uh more media options. You don't need to add a million, but at least try to add a couple, right? It's just a great way most things are online, right? Or if they're not, then it, then you should try to put some of your work online and then link to them. Uh The good thing here is as well. You don't necessarily need, it doesn't need to be a website. You can also upload media. So definitely use that. It gives a nice flavor again of the work that you've done and just gives a little bit more evidence. OK. This is another example um of how you can showcase your experience. So here you see it's very short and to the point um it starts with kind of OK. Uh the description. So what did I do? I I gave for tr uh topical uh lectures tropical that would be nice uh to postgraduate students, right on, on for this specific kind of research, et cetera. Um and then the metrics really great.

So and then you a one or two sentences to kind of say, you know, these many students attended. Um this is the evaluation I got right. If you have any kind of evaluation satisfaction uh rates which, you know, you might have, you might have them or not. Uh But this is a really good place to kind of add them because it just adds so much more um viability and so much more credibility to uh to the kind, the quality of the work that you do. Ok. Um And then I think this is one of the last things in terms of the profile recommendations, here are just some examples of the recommendations I have. Uh some of you may know that linkedin has a um a, a space towards the bottom where you can ask anyone you've worked with, worked for, worked under to give you recommendations. Uh In my case, I, you know, again, as much as possible, try to get a variety of them. So it's nice if you get a recommendation from someone you managed, right? If, if you have managed someone, it's good to get a recommendation perhaps from your boss or a manager.

And again, it doesn't, you know, if you, if you're not on good terms or you don't feel comfortable asking your current manager you can always ask, you know, a coach of yours, a mentor, a previous employer, someone you have good relationships with um, et cetera. So again, you know, even if you're, if you don't have a lot of experience and you volunteered for certain organizations, though, you know, you can ask someone from those organizations to write your recommendation. Again, it's a really nice way to showcase in a more neutral fashion that you are doing a good job and that, you know, people enjoy working with you to name a few things so highly recommend using recommendations. All right. And then the last thing, once you've done all of this wonderful work to improve your linkedin profile is very important. You've done the work you spent hopefully a few minutes or a few hours on it, get some feedback on your profile, right? Ask your partner or your mother or you know, your cousin or your friend. It doesn't really matter but ask them to have a look and give you some feedback. This is also useful, not just, you know, in case they're like, oh, you know, maybe they say why, why didn't you highlight the fact that you did this, for example, you know, and they might be able to give you ideas, but also don't forget that it's really important that the language looks and sounds clear science and that there aren't any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes, right?

Um Many of us are not English native speakers and that's ok, but it's, it's pretty straightforward to ask someone to have a quick look over it and to proof check it and to proofread it to make sure that it all looks beautiful and is give, you know, and is speaking about you in the best way possible.

Uh, before I continue, I'm just gonna quickly uh, look at the chat. All right. OK, cool. Uh If we have time at the end, I'm happy to take questions and look through them, just wanna make sure everything's fine. So moving on to the next really, really juicy part, right? OK. You have a great profile. That's all set, but you haven't been using linkedin for anything else. Now, you remember all the things I said about networking and engaging, this is where we're gonna talk about how to post and interact on linkedin. So, um in terms of posting on linkedin, you know, if you're wondering uh oh I can't, you know, I, what am I gonna post about? You know, I'm not necessarily an expert on this uh or I feel uncomfortable doing. So there again are a lot of different creative options. The first is, you know, if you are in an organization or, or even if you um you know, um you have studied a speci a specific uh uh course or specialization, then this is a, this is the kind of content you could post.

So for example, if you are very interested in, you know, or you've done gender studies, then maybe you want to showcase, you know, every so often, some really interesting articles or inside related to gender equality or, you know, the things you're learning from gender studies.

Um Remember that no one is an expert at everything and even something that might seem really obvious to you. Uh because you know about the topic may be really interesting and fascinating and eye opening for someone else. So this is, you know, you could talk about uh your academic um uh courses, you could talk about your work. Um If, for example, while I was working at uh European Digital Rights, you know, we were, there was stuff happening all the time, we were an advocacy organization. So there was stuff happening all the time and it was, you know, it, it would have been super easy for me to just say, you know, today we launched this, um today we sent this letter to Meps members of the parliament uh for those of you who don't know that acronym, etcetera. Um Also, for example, what I'm doing right now, I'm speaking at an event that in itself could be a, you know, a really good content for um for to share on linkedin. But this is also something you can do. You can kind of go on linkedin and say today, you know, I attended this really great event, um my favorite sessions or A B and c I hope that I make the list and then you can talk about this a couple of things you've learned that way. Anyone who's looking at your post will get a few crucial bits right of, of like learnings or lessons that you've received and they're gonna really enjoy and get value from your post.

Um uh And then also, you know, if, if none of this really seems to fit, you can always, depending on who you follow and the kind of news that you read, uh and look at you can, you can simply share that further. Um And just pull out, for example, you can pull out a sentence or two that you think, you know, really stands out from a news article or, or um or something that you're reading, uh use that as a content. Uh If you want to give your kind of two cents on it, you do that, you add a few hashtags and then give a link to the news. So if there's so many different ways you can post on linkedin, couple of other considerations, of course, you know, on linkedin, you don't have um the restrictions that you have perhaps on Twitter. So, you know, your post can be relatively long. It doesn't necessarily have to be only four sentences. Uh But, you know, this isn't really the space for you to write an essay. If you want to write an article, which I highly recommend, then there is a specific space on linkedin to write articles and blogs. And then you could, you know, once you've posted that you can create a separate post saying, hey, you know, I wrote this article about A B and C.

Why don't you check it out and tell me what you think another really um good strategy on linkedin is to try to get as much engagement as possible, right? You don't only want to say, hey, do this and I know that you also want to say, is this your experience? Can you tell me a little bit more about, you know, if this is um if you found other challenges or if there is any advice you have. Um And that's a really great way to also bring people in. Um Another thing that you can do to uh get more engagement is like I said, add hashtags make sure you add links, right? So it would be a pity that you talk about, you know, I read this great article about this, this and this and I feel so and so and then you don't add a link and people can't need more. That's a pity. So definitely add links also in terms of the broader, I won't go into it. But like social SCM, so um a search engine um manage and those kinds of things, it really helps if you link to credible sources. So if you're linking to an article on the New York times or et cetera, it just, it helps boost your post and then finally tag people, right?

If you uh were inspired to write something or if you learn something, for example, from an event in hint this one, for example, you could always tag people in your post. And that's a great way again to um give um kind of show a little bit of appreciation towards other people on linkedin. But also it means that, you know, the person hopefully will see the post and will engage with it. And also the people who follow the person you've tagged may be able to see that post and engage with it. So it just boost your post again. Um Emojis as someone who is a lover of them are a great way to grab attention, but they're not necessarily always appropriate, right? I'm not saying you need to throw on 50 emojis in each post depends a bit on what you're talking about if you're someone who likes using it and it works for your career. Fine. But you know, for example, my partner is a lawyer and I know that he will stay the hell away from emojis in his post because they just don't come across in the gray world world of law is the way I see it.

Uh And then finally, you know, always consider giving a little bit of a visual boost to your post by adding things like images, videos if there is one gifs right there, people love gifs. And in fact, even when, um I used to create posts on Twitter, uh some of the posts I would get the most engagement are gifs because they're funny, they're, you know, they use a lot of common social language, people uh feel like they are in the, in crowd and uh it's just really fun to engage with them.

All right. So here again are two examples of the kinds of posts I've done. Uh the first one I haven't done uh many of them, but you'll see that it got quite a bit of traction. I basically uh was really annoyed and uh and continued to be about racist artificial intelligence. And that's really the kinds of topics that I was working in at European digital Rights. Um So I pulled out as you can see a really short sniff it in terms of what the hell I'm talking about and uh with this scandal. Um And then I, you know, kind of just showcase my annoyance in a way that's a bit more professional. I've added a link to read more. Um And what, what's also really great is usually when you add a link, if it has a visual already, it will showcase that. And that's what you see. I didn't add the, the, the visual myself, it just was shown automatically with the link. And then you'll also see I've added hashtags um maybe one quick thing to keep in mind also with, um with posts is, first of all, don't worry too much if, you know, you're not getting hundreds of likes and things that's so normal and happens with many of my posts as well.

You know, it obviously depends on things like how many followers you have. Uh But also things like when you're posting, so that's something to keep in mind as well. Right. Um Quick advice. It's usually a good idea to post things in the morning when people are getting into work or in lunch breaks and people maybe, you know, are, are going through their social media or at the end of the day in between those times, depending on your time zone. Of course, it might not necessarily the best time to get traction on posts. So that's something to keep in mind. The other example here is, as I mentioned, I'm a job fairy and these are the kinds of posts that I post every week. Um And uh and again, you'll see it's relatively long, but that is a good thing because that means that there are more job opportunities. Um and people and more options for people to kind of get value from it. All right. So I've told you a little bit, I've given you some ideas in terms of what kind of content you can, you can use right before I move on to this one other thing, right? If you are feeling intimidated by the fact that you have to create regular posts. Remember that regular doesn't need to mean every hour or every day. It's perfectly fine to set reasonable goals for yourself. If you're like, you know, what the most I can do is post something about this topic that I'm interested or following once every two weeks. That's perfectly fine.

Even if it's once every month, I mean, ideally I would say a good balance would be at least twice a month. But you see what works for you. Ultimately, it's better that you post once a month than once every six months or once every two years or once every time you're looking for a job, right? We don't want that, right? So moving on, here's a little bit of uh other advice in terms of how you want to come across and the way you want to speak or a K A your voice on linkedin, which is very important, right? You are, you, you're not someone else, even when you share content from other people, you're doing it from your perspective with your lens, with your experiences. So the number one thing to keep in mind is the authentic. It's more important to put out quality content than quantity, right?

Don't, don't focus too much on, oh, I need to get out uh something every week rather focus on. I want to put out um you know, content that is useful for people. That is interesting, at least to myself, right? Um Write content that adds value to your network. This is really the key thing if you're posting something and you don't think, you know, look, there are a lot of brag bragging type of posts on linkedin and I'm not necessarily saying that there's no value to that, right? Um But you wanna avoid only putting out posts like that or putting out posts like that without, you know, providing any kind of value to people, even if you're bragging about something. For example, let's say I'm talking about uh the fact that I just uh hosted a podcast, I'm gonna end that with some kind of call to action. I'm gonna say I love this kind of stuff and I'm looking for way more podcasting opportunities. Do you know of, you know, uh the these kinds of projects or, or organizations that I could liaise with or you could say something like um are you also interested in this topic? Let's connect and talk more about podcast? So you can always tweet content in a way that that makes it more valuable to the person reading it and then finally post what feels right and not what you think is expected from you, right?

Don't get into this very um this rabbit hole of, oh I need to say this because this is very trendy and I can't say that because then I'll piss off A B and C post what is meaningful for you, if you don't know anything about food scarcity, then maybe you shouldn't be posting about it because it won't come across as authentic or that, you know much about it.

Right. All right. I think I've actually run out of time. So, um, maybe to the, to the moderators, should I stop here or do I have a few minutes to finish up or maybe it doesn't matter. So, maybe I just have a couple more slides. So I'll just quickly go through those. And so the last couple of things uh like I said, be active, uh that doesn't mean only posting. It also means liking other people's posts, commenting on other people's posts following people connecting with people. Like I said, don't be shy.

Everyone is doing it. I get requests to connect or people following me every single day and that's perfectly fine. It's nice. It's good to know that people are enjoying my, right. So similarly for you, you don't need to accept everyone but accept the the connections you think would be interesting and useful and similarly feel free to follow people who you think uh bring value to yourself and then uh finally acknowledge others and interact with them. This is not a platform where you only pat yourself on the back. This is also a great space for you to give back to say, thank you to say I was really inspired by this and this person. So like share, comment on posts, you know, sharing content, like I said is also a really easy way. You don't have to write very much. You write one sentence, you share someone's post, for example, the job postings and people really get value in that other things you can do. Congratulate people when they get promotions, when they get jobs, it always makes people feel happy. It would make you feel happy too, wouldn't it?

Um And then finally, you know, there's a bunch of other things you can do on linkedin as well. Like I said, there are free groups which are private or public on the topics you're interested in. You can find articles and stories on the topics you want to learn more about. But there's also things you can get from a paid account such as training, you can email people who are outside of your network directly. If you have a paid account, you can also see more information about statistics who has viewed your profile, how well your po you know, certain posts are doing, et cetera. And that was a very quick um session about how to use linkedin. Good luck. You've got this. Here is some information about me. Uh You can start uh practicing your linkedin connecting muscles by connecting with me on linkedin if you like um and send me an email if you're interested in collaborating uh with me on anything or if you're looking for a career coach, for example, thank you. So much everyone for joining. Um If there are any questions, I am happy to take them now, but I don't think we have a lot of time. Thanks everyone.