Jennifer McClure`

Helping Leaders Leverage Influence & Create Maximum Impact.

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Written by Jennifer McClure

Build a Powerful LinkedIn Profile to Showcase Your Personal Brand and Career Success

As someone who has been active on social media platforms for many years, and regularly speaks on the topic of Personal Branding, I’m often asked the question:

Is it still possible to use social media to build and extend your Personal Brand?

The short answer is – Yes. Absolutely!

While social media has changed and evolved over the last couple of decades, I believe that engaging on social media platforms where your people hang out is still a good investment of your time, so you can connect with and learn from others, establish your credibility, build your personal brand or business brand, and grow your career.

So, where do “your people” hang out online?

If you’re a business leader, there’s no doubt that LinkedIn – the “professional” social network that has been around since 2002 – is the most beneficial place for you to engage online, and is worth the investment of your time — especially if you’re looking to grow your career and your business, and to attract opportunities.

But even though LinkedIn is pretty straightforward – create a profile, connect with people, post and share ideas, etc. — you’re likely not getting the most out of your time there that you could, if you were to create an intentional strategy for using the platform.

By being intentional about how you use LinkedIn, you can build your credibility as a thought leader, your reputation as a business leader that others want to work with or do business with, and readily access a vast network of people and resources that you can utilize (for free) for your personal and professional development.

How can you get the most out of your time on LinkedIn?

First, it’s important that you create a LinkedIn profile (or update your current one) that sets you up to achieve your career goals. Starting with your professional profile is important, because it’s extremely valuable online real estate.

How valuable is your LinkedIn profile?

Using your phone or desktop right now, open your favorite search engine – for example, Google. Type your name in quotes (ex. “Jennifer McClure”), and press enter.

You’ll likely notice that the first page of search results for your name returns several websites and social media profiles of others that share your same name, and if you’re lucky, the top 10 search results will include a link to your public LinkedIn profile, or at least one created by one of your namesakes.

For example, in my case, there are quite a few Jennifer McClures that have a strong online presence, and while the search results for my name will vary somewhat from day to day, it’s almost always the Jennifer McClure who owns the .com website for our name that comes up first.

JenniferMcClure.net – my business website – and typically shows up as the third result for my name – which is still pretty good. But do you know what almost always shows up as the number 2 search result for all of the Jennifer McClures?

Yep, you got it. My LinkedIn profile.

So, while Jennifer McClure the photographer will always own the most valuable real estate online for our name (until I win the Mega Millions lottery and offer her enough money to part ways with it), my LinkedIn profile is doing some pretty heavy lifting for my personal and business brand.

Why is that?

I’m no SEO expert, but from what I do understand, the fact that the LinkedIn website is trusted and highly active – with over 900 million users clicking around on their site every day – search engines believe that serving up a LinkedIn profile link high in search results will likely be a strong match for the person that you’re searching for.

Couple that with the fact that I’m a very active user of LinkedIn, with almost 30,000 first-degree connections, and over 200,000 followers, it’s one of the best places for someone searching for me to start in order to determine if they’ve found the right person.

If you’re a business professional, your best opportunity to get noticed online is to have a robust, fully complete, and active LinkedIn profile.

People ARE searching for you online – or they should be – and you have a simple (and free) way available to you to deliver exactly the credibility, image, and authority that you prefer, by being intentional about how you use LinkedIn.

What makes a LinkedIn profile great?

From my research, and from my personal experience as an early-adopter and power-user on LinkedIn for over 15 years — by the way, I’m member number 5,852,039 on the platform — here are the minimum steps that you should take to make your LinkedIn profile work for you:

Use a high-quality head shot for your profile photo.

Your LinkedIn profile photo is your first chance to communicate that you’re friendly, likable, and trustworthy — which, whether we like it or not, are attributes that are crucial to establishing credibility and connection.

We’ve all heard the phrase: “People do business with people that they know, like, and trust”.

If you want to be successful, it’s important to do everything that you can to establish that type of credibility in your personal and professional relationships — as well as online — which is where many first interactions occur these days.

LinkedIn research shows that simply having a profile photo results in up to 21x more profile views, and 9x more connection requests.

Below are 7 Profile Photo Best Practices, summarized straight from the LinkedIn Talent Blog – if you’d like to make sure that your profile photo sets you up for success on LinkedIn:

Tip #1: Pick a photo that looks like you.

Make sure that your LinkedIn profile photo is up to date and reflects how you look on a daily basis – or at least on the days when you’re at “work”.

In other words, if you were planning to meet with someone in-person today, would they be able to recognize you from your LinkedIn profile photo?

Tip #2: Use a high-resolution image, and make sure your face fills at least 60% of the frame.

The ideal size for your LinkedIn profile picture is 400 x 400 pixels. If it’s smaller than that, it will be blurry. If it’s not a square image, then your face will likely be distorted when it’s resized by the back-end website design.

Tip #3: Be the only person in your profile picture.

If you use a group photo as your profile picture, I’m not sure which person is you.

If you want to include a team picture on your profile, use that one for your background image instead, which I’ll share more about below.

Tip #4: Get someone else to take your profile photo.

Did you know that the front or selfie camera on most phones produces a lower-quality image than the rear camera?

To remedy that, you could use the rear-facing camera and the built-in timer to take your own photo, but by getting someone else to take the picture for you, you’ll likely find that you’ll pose more naturally and comfortably, and you also won’t be out of breath from running from the camera to strike a pose just in time.

Tip #5: Take a photo with the “right” expression.

In other words, smile!

A recent study published in January 2023 of 800 profile pictures revealed that people viewed the person in the photo as more likable, competent, and influential if they’re smiling in their picture.

“By far the most impactful characteristic we found in this study, though, is a particular kind of smile. A smile with teeth visible gains an average of +0.33 for Competence, +1.35 for Likability, and +0.22 for Influence. 

To our surprise, a closed mouth smile has about half the effect on Likability and no statistically significant effect on Competence or Influence. 

Too much of a good thing can backfire, though. If you take your open mouth smile one step further into a laughing smile, you’ll get a Likability push up to +1.49 but lose your gains on perceived Competence and Influence.”

(Smiling is complicated, ya’ll.) 😊

If that all sounds confusing, my best advice for you? Just be your best self.

Tip #6: Avoid distracting backgrounds.

Don’t have anything in your background that distracts from your face.

Find a simple background that can help ensure that you’re the focal point. Your background doesn’t have to be a white, empty space. You can take a picture outside in nature, or against a painted wall. Just keep things simple without being boring.

Tip #7: Dress like you do at work, or for the environment where you want to work.

If you don’t want to wear a suit at work, don’t wear a suit in your profile photo just because that seems “professional”.

Your goal should be to show your true self that you’re most comfortable with both in-person and online, so the people who are the “your people” will want to connect with, work with, hire, and promote you.

Background or cover images on LinkedIn

At the top of your LinkedIn profile, you have an opportunity to add a background photo, which shows up behind the small box that includes your profile photo.

Use this opportunity to showcase more of your company or personal brand, to share your logo, a photo of your team, or a cool location in your workplace or city.

For example, my current background photo on my LinkedIn profile is an image of me speaking in front of a large audience. As a keynote speaker, this allows people to see me in action, and adds credibility that I actually do what my profile says that I do.

Best branding opportunity? Your headline.

The headline on your LinkedIn profile is the sentence or words that show up directly underneath your profile photo. If you do nothing to change the headline, it will default to your current or most recent job title and company name.

So, if you’re the Human Resources Director at Acme Corporation, that’s what your headline will reflect — which doesn’t distinguish you from the thousands of other HR professionals on LinkedIn in any way.

Personally, I’d be much more interested in learning more about someone whose headline is — “I help burned out and frustrated HR Professionals to take control of their careers.”

In one brief sentence, I know what Julie Turney, (HRforHR) does, who she helps, and how she does it — AND I want to know more.

(Learn more about Julie Turney in episode 44 of the Impact Makers podcast – Get Out of Your Head and Just Get Things Done.)

Or, how about Josh Bersin‘s headline? “Global Industry Analyst, I study all aspects of HR, business leadership, corporate L&D, recruiting, and HR technology.”

Even if you don’t know Josh (one of the leading researchers and voices in the people and HR Technology spaces), you get a clear idea of what he does in just 17 words.

Tips for creating an effective LinkedIn profile headline:

Your headline should be more than your job title and company name.

For the last 13 years, I’ve spoken frequently on the topic of Personal Branding. In my workshops and training courses, I teach leaders how to understand and clarify their personal brand, and how to use the following formula to create a Personal Brand Statement that they can then use to describe what they do in a concise sentence.

I am ___ (your professional identity), who helps ___ (your audience) do or understand ___ (your unique solution), so that __ (the transformation or benefit you create).

Want to create a great Personal Brand Statement that describes you well, and helps you to create a great LinkedIn profile headline? Download a copy of my Personal Brand Workbook, a free 16-page guide designed to help you work through the types of work where you’re at your best, what you enjoy doing the most, and what opportunities you’d like to pursue. 

A good LinkedIn headline helps people who are viewing your profile to understand your unique talents, how you create value, and the impact that you create.

Finally, let’s cover one most important sections of your LinkedIn profile – your About section, or Summary.

Your goal should be to make your profile summary one that gets read and helps readers to understand the work that you do, who you help, and how you create impact. It should read like your very own marketing brochure – not like your resume.

The most interesting and effective LinkedIn profile summaries are written in first person, and tell a story that showcases your thought leadership, and highlights your unique perspective, insights, and accomplishments, as well as the impact you’ve made in previous roles.

For a great example of a well-written profile summary, check out one that my friend Amber Naslund — a great writer, and also an executive who works at LinkedIn — used previously as her LinkedIn summary:

(Learn more about Amber Naslund in episode 50 of the Impact Makers podcast — Balancing a Strong Personal Brand With a High Profile Corporate Career.)

By reading this profile summary, I know exactly what Amber does in her day-to-day work. I understand how she got there, and what she brings to the table that makes her work and life experience unique and compelling. This work summary isn’t boring, and she also shares a bit about her life and interests outside of work. (And if you know me, any summary that mentions horses will most certainly capture my attention.) 🙂

You can get some great ideas for writing or revising your own LinkedIn profile summary by checking out some tips and examples over on the LinkedIn Talent Blog — 14 LinkedIn Profile Summaries That We Love (And How to Boost Your Own.)

Now is a great time to review, revise, and update your own LinkedIn profile.

Using the tips above, you’ll increase your chances of getting noticed (by the right people), and creating opportunities to grow yourself and your career.

Categories: Blog, Personal Branding
Posted on July 11, 2023

Written by Jennifer McClure

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile to Build Your Personal Brand and Grow Your Career

Impact Makers Podcast Episode 076

How valuable is your LinkedIn profile? Hint: The answer is very!

If you don’t believe me, grab your phone, Google your name in quotes (“Jennifer McClure” for example), and hit enter.

Unless you’ve got an extremely common name, you’ll likely notice that the first page of search results for your name returns a number of social media profiles – which may include yours, as well as others that share your same name. And included in those top 10 results is likely a link to your public LinkedIn profile, or at least one created by one of your namesakes.

Whether you’re searching for your next job, open to career growth opportunities, or looking to grow your personal brand, or your business, your best opportunity to get noticed online is to have a robust, fully complete, and active LinkedIn profile.

While LinkedIn is straightforward – create a profile, connect with people, post and share your content, etc. – you may not be getting the most out of it as you would if you were to create an intentional strategy for using LinkedIn.

There are multiple ways that you can optimize your LinkedIn profile to build your personal brand and grow your career. By doing so, you can use LinkedIn to build your credibility as a thought leader and your reputation as a business leader that others want to work with or do business with.

You can also readily access a vast network of people and resources that you can utilize (for free) for your personal and professional development.

In this episode, I’m going to share some of my favorite tips and strategies for creating a LinkedIn profile that stands out, works for you, and increases your opportunities!

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

  • Why a LinkedIn profile is valuable
  • What makes a great LinkedIn profile?
  • 8 profile photo best practices
  • How to maximize your background photo
  • Tips for an effective LinkedIn profile headline
  • Tips in writing your About section
  • 10 profile summary tips

IMPACT MAKERS PODCAST – EPISODE 76

Key Quotes From This Episode:

“People ARE searching for you online – or they should be – and you have a simple and free way available to you to deliver exactly the credibility, image, and authority that you prefer, by being intentional about how you use LinkedIn.” ~ @Jennifer McClure

Connect with Jennifer:

Send her a message [https://jennifermcclure.net/contact/]

On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermcclure

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferMcClure

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_mcclure/

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JenniferMcClureSpeaker

Categories: Blog, Personal Branding, Podcast
Posted on January 26, 2023

Written by Jennifer McClure

Driving Success with LinkedIn as a Small or Mid-Sized Company | Talent Connect Vegas 2013 [video]

Recently, I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect Vegas 2013 Conference on the topic of “Driving Success with LinkedIn as a Small or Mid-Sized Company”.

The esteemed panelists I had the pleasure of working with included:

Angie McDonald – Vice President of Human Resources, Realogy Holdings Group

M.T. Ray – Senior Director of Global Recruiting, ExactTarget

Arnaud Kermouche – Manager of Talent Acquisition, Uni-Select, Inc.

The following video is from our session (some subscribers may need to click here to view) and I’ve also summarized some key points from the session below the video and the time increments for each question/response.

Whether you’re using LinkedIn for recruiting, employer branding or employee engagement via a free account or using paid LinkedIn Talent Solutions, I promise you’ll find the experiences, tips and suggestions shared by these successful Talent Acquisition leaders helpful!

00:00 – 07:00 Introductions

07:01 – 13:40 Describe the evolution of LinkedIn’s role in your Talent Strategy and how it’s grown over time.

ExactTarget – Today, 95% of ET employees are on LinkedIn and over 50% of openings are filled by employee referrals.

Uni-Select – LinkedIn is now a cornerstone in the employer brand strategy and is used to increase visibility.

Realogy – Started small and had to demonstrate ROI to be able to invest more in LinkedIn. Now use LinkedIn to find candidates and fill jobs domestically and internationally.

13:41 – 22:04 How did you get your leadership to buy-in and invest in LinkedIn?

Uni-Select – Worked with LinkedIn to understand candidates, to listen to them and improve communications.

Realogy – Filled key positions in the UK and Hong Kong that would have previously been filled by outside agencies.

ExactTarget – Showed significant dollar savings in agency fees and was able to invest more in an internal sourcing team.

22:05 – 29:43 How has using LinkedIn impacted your talent acquisition efforts?

Uni-Select – Able to attract and hire for C-level and VP positions directly.

ExactTarget – Have basically stopped using agencies domestically and have had success with some international hires.

Realogy – Use LinkedIn as a strategic tool to make business proposals and present data to inform hiring managers.

29:44 – 33:22 How much of a component is LinkedIn in your Talent Acquisition strategy?

ExactTarget – At least 50%. Able to target passive talent, get employee referrals and use it for employer branding.

Realogy – LinkedIn is part of a diverse talent acquisition strategy.

Uni-Select – LinkedIn is third highest source of applicants.

33:23 – 37:13 What does the future hold for your Talent Acquisition efforts?

Realogy – Understand how to utilize mobile and also how to work more closely with hiring managers.

ExactTarget – Social recruiting in general – not just LinkedIn, but also Twitter, Instagram and other social sites.

Uni-Select – A recruiting video and communicating more effectively with employees so they can be Ambassadors for the company on LinkedIn.

37:14 – 41:30 How are you engaging your employees to recruit the talent you need?

Uni-Select – Uses lunch and learn sessions.

ExactTarget – Partnering with hiring managers and teaching them how to use LinkedIn to share jobs.

Realogy – Provides tips on how employees can improve their Profile and how franchisors can improve their Pages to get more followers and attract people to the company.

42:00 – 53:00 Audience Q&A

More great tips and info from the panelists and audience members on getting the most out of LinkedIn, getting started with a LinkedIn strategy, proving ROI and dealing with push-back from Marketing or other departments who aren’t supportive of developing an employer brand.

53:01 – 53:16 Thanks and goodbye!

Thanks to LinkedIn for once again providing a great learning and connecting experience at their annual conference!

It’s never too early to register for Talent Connect 2014 in San Francisco October 20 – 22, 2014!

—–
Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of leadership development, executive communication skills and talent strategy. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

Categories: Blog, LinkedIn, Recruiting, Social Recruiting
Posted on November 25, 2013

Written by Jennifer McClure

10 Steps to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn [Beyond the Basics]

LinkedIn is a great tool for growing your professional network, communicating your personal brand and connecting to opportunities to help you grow your career and your business. But are you going beyond the basics in how you utilize LinkedIn?

Beyond creating a Profile, connecting with your co-workers and joining a few Groups, here are 10 solid steps you should take to get the most out of the opportunities that being a part of the LinkedIn network presents:

1. Post relevant and helpful information in the “Share an Update” box on a regular basis.

Want to build your personal brand and professional reputation? Then become known as a resource or “go to” person in your field or industry. Read a great article? Share it with a comment. Aware of an interesting networking or professional development event? Share it and let your network know you’re going.

I share a ton of links and resources with my network via Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In, and in my experience the engagement is often higher and of better quality (i.e. informative threaded discussions, new connections made, etc.) when shared via my status update on LinkedIn.

Action Step: Share a LinkedIn Status Update with your network at least 3 times per week. Add this activity to your calendar or To Do list to ensure it gets done.

[Read more…]

Categories: Blog, Personal Development
Posted on November 13, 2013

Written by Jennifer McClure

The HOW and WHY of LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook For Business [Webinar Series]

I get to do many cool things in my job at Unbridled Talent, but one of the best things about my job is the opportunity to travel around and meet professionals who are interested in learning more about how to grow their professional careers or how to implement best practices to improve their company’s performance.

In addition to working with business leaders to define and implement people strategies required to achieve business objectives, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at over 150 conference events, corporate workshops, association meetings and webinars – often about how to utilize social media for career development, why social media matters for business and how to utilize social media tools and resources in Human Resources and Recruiting.

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

I love my job.

But even though LinkedIn recently reached it’s 10th anniversary, Facebook has turned 9 and Twitter has crossed the 7 year mark, many people are still confused about or unaware of how to best utilize social media tools as business and professional resources. It’s not uncommon for me to talk with someone after an event where the person relates something similar to, “I was skeptical that using social media was something that I (or my organization) needed to do and I didn’t understand it, but now, I believe that it is – and I can!” Best. Feedback. Ever.

And it’s ok.

That’s one of the reasons why Laurie Ruettimann* and I are teaming up to offer a series of upcoming webinars to help business professionals, human resources pros and talent acquisition geeks understand the HOW and WHY of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – and we’d love for you to join us!

We realize that many of you may not be inclined to attend a conference to learn more about how to use LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook and you also may not have the time or budget resources to do so. So we’re coming to you – in your offices, your cubicles or out on your back deck – via a series of 90 minute webinars to share what we’ve learned about using social media to cultivate awareness, develop your brand/your employer brand and effective ways to nurture both consumer and employment leads in the marketplace.

So here’s the scoop (click on the links for full session descriptions and for registration):

  • Developing a Strategic and Effective Presence on LinkedIn (May 21, 2013 at 2pm ET/11am PT )
  • Essential Elements for a Successful Twitter Presence (May 28, 2013 at 2pm ET/11am PT)
  • Strategies to Establish and Amplify Your Presence on Facebook (June 4, 2013 at 2pm ET/11am PT)

After doing webinars for other companies for years, many of whom charged quite a bit of money, we’d like to offer these webinars at an affordable price ($37 each or $99 for all three) and we’ll also provide everyone who registers with a free toolkit after each webinar that includes a copy of the slide deck, a recording of the webinar and a resource sheet with links to learn more from leading social media resources.

Not available during the specific dates or times? No worries. The webinars will be recorded for access at any time and you’ll still receive the toolkit!

Why are we doing this now? Because we want to help you and we want to share what we’ve learned from years of working as entrepreneurs, recruiters and human resources professionals along with our experience working in a variety of industries – both within corporate America and as external consultants working with some of the best leaders and companies in the world.

Have a question about the webinars or what’s in it for you? Let me know in the comments or you can find both Laurie and I on the interwebs via

LinkedIn – Laurie Ruettimann / LinkedIn – Jennifer McClure

Twitter – Laurie Ruettimann / Twitter – Jennifer McClure

Facebook – Laurie Ruettimann / Facebook – Jennifer McClure

Or just go old school and send me an email!

If you know someone who could benefit from one, two or all three of these webinars, please share this information with your colleagues or clients!

*True story. Laurie is my favorite Cynical Girl, Pixie of the Apocalypse, cat lover and thinker/agitator in the world of work. We “met online” years ago when I found her Punk Rock HR blog, so when we actually met for the first time in person at the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference, we were already BFF’s. Ultimately, Laurie has been one of the most helpful people to me in developing my business and my speaking career and is firmly ensconced in the Unbridled Talent President’s Club. See? Using social media to build real relationships and to grow your business can definitely work!

—–

Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of recruiting & human resources strategy, employment branding and leadership/career development. We offer keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

Categories: Blog, Employment Branding, Facebook, LinkedIn, Personal Branding, Social Recruiting, Twitter
Posted on May 8, 2013

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