How to Get an Analytics Job had its very own Albert Bellamy on the podcast to talk about LinkedIn strategy. At the time he was interviewed, Albert “the marine who smiles at spreadsheets”, had taken over the How to Get an Analytics job LinkedIn page and grew the followership tenfold. When Al took over, the page had 348 followers, he grew it to 3,500 followers. Since then, he has interned at Google as a business analyst and is now a Senior Marketing Intelligence Analyst for Annalect. These are his tips for using LinkedIn to network, engage and create opportunities.
Al started his LinkedIn trajectory with a 30-day challenge. The challenge was to do 30 days of content, one post every day. Al took it an extra step by posting original content every day. After the thirty days Al had:
Tripled his network
Increased profile views by 30X
Received a Free T-shirt (who doesn’t love a free t-shirt?)
Since that challenge, he has continued to grow his network and engagement by focusing on four areas to create opportunities.
Four areas to focus on to create opportunities
Profile completion
Having a complete profile boosts your credibility on LinkedIn. LinkedIn advertises the users with complete profiles and that just means filling in each of the gaps/spaces on your profile with something. A complete profile is 40X more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn. An all-star profile has five elements. If you fill in these five your profile is more approachable. The five elements are
Headshot
Clear and focused picture of just you (not cropped) that is well-lit, with a neutral background. In this picture, you should be dressed for the job you want and look approachable (strive to look like someone you would want to work with).
Headline
Job title, this section will often auto-populate if you select from a listed company or industry, but you should personalize it to fit your role.
5 skills
LinkedIn allows up to fifty skills in this section but having at least five is a good start. You also want these to be relevant to the jobs you are looking for.
Summary/About me section
This section also auto-populates, avoid this auto-populated version. It is easy to spot an about me that has been auto-filled and is unattractive to recruiters. You should tailor this section to fit your experiences.
Experience/Education
Include your experience and education that are relevant to the positions you are applying to. Include some detail about your experiences, don’t just put in the title you held.
Going beyond the five elements for a profile
Banner pic
Do not use a random picture, make it on brand, this could be either you performing or a picture that represents the industry or brand you are interested in working with.
Location
Some people do not realize that you can input any zip code you want on LinkedIn. The zip code you input cues LinkedIn for hiring locations. If you are living in an area different from where you want to work, you can set the zip code to the area you would like to work in.
Featured Section
You want to put special content that highlights what you are most proud of. You could show your best projects such as Tableau dashboards or blog articles to whoever is visiting your profile.
Targeted networking
You want the people you are connecting with to be relevant to your passions and aspirations. After all, you want a LinkedIn where the content you explore is relevant to your goals. Tips on who to connect with when starting and growing your connections:
- Start with classmates or alumni
- Find alumni in the field or companies you are interested in
- Follow influencers who can help you and connect with the people who interact with them
- To be interesting, be interested. When reaching out to people to connect with read their profiles and take an interest in their experience. This interest leads to better connections and a more personal engagement.
Content creation and engagement, what Al calls the secret sauce
- Start with comments, preferably on posts by people with a large following
- Post original content, every day if you can
- Space out your text to make it easy to read
- Catch people’s attention in the first 3-5 lines
- Advanced: attach original media such as photos or videos
- Do not post more than once a day and avoid sharing other’s posts (the LinkedIn algorithm punished you for these acts, shared content is seen as redundant)
- If you are linking to content outside of LinkedIn post the link in a comment, not in the body of your post (the LinkedIn algorithm is less likely to promote your post if it takes people away from LinkedIn)
Personal branding
“Put yourself into the vessel of what you intend to be, that job that you’re going to get that’s who you are as of right now and just make your LinkedIn profile look like that”
- Direct all content towards your brand and professional goals
- Your personal brand is your online reputation
- The contacts in your online network are likely people you will never meet in person. Their only impression of you is how you present yourself online, the content you post, the comments you make, and the pages you follow.
- Framing your personal brand is about representing yourself as who you want to be. For example, if you are a student looking for an analytics job it would be more beneficial to write a headline that shows you want to be hired as an analyst instead of simply stating that you are a student in x or y major. Nobody is hiring students to be students.
- You don’t want to take this too far. If you are interested in getting hired as an accountant, you do not want to lie and say, “I’m a CPA”. However, stating that you are a data analyst although you may have no official work experience as one is not a lie. If you have analyzed data and it is what you are learning and are interested in, you would not be lying by saying “I am a data analyst”.
- When forming your personal brand on LinkedIn keep content to a few core themes. It’s okay to include personal stories, such as milestones with your family and kids but keep it on brand and professional without oversharing.
- Be deliberate with your message by focusing on your profession, passions, and hobbies.
Link to the full interview on the How to Get an Analytics Job YouTube channel: