Avoid these mistakes while using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest professional networks. 

It is also one of the most popular networking platforms for many young and experienced professionals in India. LinkedIn optimizes job search options depending on locations and operational areas thereby providing a hassle free platform to interact with the alumni and professors of national cum international universities. What most LinkedIn users aren't aware of is, that LinkedIn uses an internal set of algorithms to prioritize certain profiles over others. This method gives the businesses and individuals (who have optimized their accounts correctly) a leg up in using the service to find jobs, clients and much more.

To help your profile fetch a strong ranking in the internal search results, avoid these 7 mistakes on LinkedIn:

1.     No Display Picture

How would you react when you get a LinkedIn invite from someone who has no picture? LinkedIn is a professional network and adding a picture adds credit to your profile.

TIP: Have a genuine one, current photos always score! Don’t put party pictures, it is not Facebook.

2.     Ignoring Customized URL

LinkedIn provides a facility where you can select a public profile URL for your profile. If you edit your profile, the network provides a way to change this. The URL that is generated initially by LinkedIn is not search-friendly so select one that will help you appear better on search results.

TIP: Generally people would search you by your name so it makes sense to have a profile URL with your name. This also helps your profile to be ranked high in the search results.

3.     Having Incomplete profiles

A complete profile not only gives LinkedIn additional opportunities to identify search-related keywords but also the companies are more likely to rank completed profiles over partially finished ones.

TIP: If you aren't sure whether you've filled out your profile completely, LinkedIn provides a helpful tracker in each profile that shows both the percentage of fields completed and any specific areas that still need information.

4.    LinkedIn Requests

If you are searching for jobs and prefer adding people like a mission, there are chances that most of them reject your request. By using the LinkedIn requests feature one can send personalized messages to the people you want to add to your network.
TIP: If you know the person you are sending request to then it is fine, but if you are asking a complete stranger to add you (for professional reasons) to their network, then it makes sense to add a small note of introduction and the reason.

5.     Not Participating in LinkedIn Groups
Participation in LinkedIn Groups can be as powerful a ranking signal as the size of your professional network. So, if you aren't having much luck connecting with new contacts, you can join groups to boost your overall level of profile activity. To find groups to join, you can search LinkedIn using your industry's keywords, as well as see which groups the members of your network participate in.
TIP: Once you become part of a group, do your best to contribute in a positive and professional way. Simply joining a group isn't as beneficial to your search ranking as actively engaging with it.

6.    Not using ‘keywords’ to your Profile Summary
As you're completing your profile include the keywords for which you'd like your name to appear in LinkedIn's internal search results. Try to think like your target clients or employers and focus on the keywords you believe they would search for. For example, you might target the long-tail keyword phrase, "Software Engineer trained in best code development practice." But the odds are small, that a potential client or employer will enter this exact phrase into the LinkedIn search feature. Instead, they're likely to search for phrases like "Embedded C" or "C programming". So in optimizing your LinkedIn profile, try to think like your target clients or employers and focus on the keywords you believe they would search for.
TIP: The “specialties” section of the summary is a great place to list your areas of expertise using descriptive keywords.

7.     Not adding media to your LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn started rolling out the ability to add photos, videos and other types of rich media to profiles. This can be a good way to boost your brand and profile.
TIP: To see if you have access to these features, log into your profile and click the pencil icon found in the Edit Profile area of your Summary, Expertise and Experience sections. If you see a small icon labelled “Add Media,” you’ll be able to create a freshened up professional profile on LinkedIn. 

Hope these tips help you to familiarize with LinkedIn for your best benefits.
Do you have any more points to add on in the not-to-do list? Post your views...

Should beauty lie in the eye of the beholder?

We are the i-generation!

Where I can either mean impatience or intelligence; integrity or in-difference.

Yes, it can mean many more words which are currently resonating in your mind.

Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard's Almanack, 1741, has aptly put it in words:

"Beauty, like supreme dominion is but supported by opinion".

Interesting thought isn't it?

Imagine if we call a rose something else, would it stop smelling sweet?

If an inherently beautiful object or person is not appreciated for its beauty, will it cease to remain so?  Yet appreciation and applauds play a vital role in our lives. When expectations stand tall with heads high in relationships, they demand nothing but appreciation. We demand a hike at work, because we think our efforts should be appreciated. We try different looks, dress well and do (or at least try to do) all the right things for the person we love, so that they appreciate our presence in their lives. But, treating this appreciation as testimony to persuading self towards attainment of beauty or intelligence is a baseless theory.

It makes absolute sense when Paulo Coelho, of The Alchemist fame quotes,

“If tomatoes wanted to be melons,
they would look completely ridiculous.

I am always amazed
that so many people are concerned
with wanting to be what they are not;
what’s the point of making you look ridiculous?”

Appreciation definitely helps us to perform better but it should not be the sole reason. Does it make sense if the whole world calls you, stunning, when you treat yourself like a repulsive? 

Think about it...

Are you in Love with your Job?

I have a friend who kept asking the nonchalant peers of our group (including me), "Tell me your dream guys?" and we used to shove him off saying, "This is not what we should be worried about right now. We have better things to tackle here. So where are we partying this weekend?" As time passed by, job started taking its toll on social life and expenses started to burn a hole in our pockets, but this question remained neglected and hell yeah...unanswered.
Do you like to remind yourself daily about your dreams and goals?  Are you aware of the difference between, these two magnificent terms?

Are you amongst those, who look in the mirror each day and ask themselves:
"What would you do, if you could do anything for 8 hours a day for the rest of your life, and money were no object?” If the person in the mirror only stares back in return, then welcome to the league. I came across this on question on LinkedIn in an article today and it instantly struck a chord with me.

My mind came up with bizarre answers like, I would party all day (and night), or listen to my favorite music, or talk to my dear ones all day long so that I won’t miss them and care a darn about the phone bills. Wow!! What a life that would be. But is that practical?  No brownie points for guessing, that it is more of a fairy tale dream than a dream job!
So, let’s give some time in finding out what you really love to do rather than doing something that just helps you pay off your monthly bills. Yes, that is necessary but it won't sustain you for a lifetime. Do what you like to do, take out time to play that guitar you had left playing just because you had high priority deliverable at work or stare at the rain fall if you like to and fall in love with the sound of the raindrops all over again. Exercise or take that yoga class you fancy. It made sense when Vincent Van Gogh once said, “I would rather die of Passion than of Boredom".

Are you living your dream my friend?

                   

                                                              

When My Diary Made Me Think

I received my very first diary - a Barbie diary, as a gift from my mother at the age of ten. I was never a Barbie fan but I fell in love with my diary as soon as I held it. I wasn't sure then of what the diary would make of me. I simply loved it and it loved me back, keeping all my secrets inked safe on its pages. When the concept of Blogging was not introduced, people like me, who preferred penning down their thoughts, turned to diaries.

Life today, is running through the busiest times that it ever has. Our schedules hardly allow us to savour the simple pleasures like listening to our loved ones, let alone listening to what our heart says. If you have a Diary and like writing about how you feel, you will definitely know that reading through the old pages of memories can be a great experience in itself. Imagine yourself, laughing at the silly but sincere words used to express joy about some-things, or amusing at the apologies you had written to God for the bad bad things once done or thinking about the promises kept and forgotten about things that you wouldn't repeat again. I bet we all have note of such things somewhere in our diaries.


I came across one such piece in the old pages of my diary. Here it is:
"In the mornings at times, when I manage to wake up at 4.00 am, everything around me is as if in "statue-you mode". STILL and CALM. It's still not the time for birds to wake up neither is it the time for the busiest of the people to start off their daily chores. It's one of those times, when one can clearly listen to the wall clocks talking, in their own sweet language ticking their hearts away. The morning silence can definitely help you to re-connect with yourself, listening to voices of your heart which do not find their way towards us during the day. Its the time when emotions surface your heart demanding, well deserved attention."

While reading through this I realized that our heart talks to us (or at least tries to reach us) in its own mysterious ways at all the odd times possible. Be it during a serious team meeting or during that important lecture that we want to focus on. But, the only way by which we can stop these voices is by responding to them. By keeping the promises we once made and by forgiving ourselves for the times when we couldn't. I sign off my first blog leaving behind a lingering thought, 

What is it that made you sit back for a while today and THINK?