LinkedIn continues its impressive growth with recent stats boasting 135 Million users. I see the appeal of this network. At its core, LinkedIn is a living public resumé that allows businesses and entrepreneurs to seek out and connect with other professionals who may support their goals as consultants, employees, partners or advisors.
However, as with so many other social networks, it’s just a tool and so the benefit you receive from it is dependent on how you use it. Publicly displaying your resumé is one thing, but when it’s buried among 135 million others, how are you found? And if you are found, how do you differentiate yourself?
Lately I’ve been searching the site for possible candidates and I was met with, well… the “same old-same old.” I was reminded that with so many channels to engage in we’ve become lazy in our creativity, which has never been more important. As social channels grow and become even more popular, the need to differentiate ourselves — to stand out — becomes so much more important.
The one tip we should all be heeding is to avoid the most overused descriptors in our professional profiles. They scream “marketing-speak!” and frankly, have become shallow, meaningless words to potential employers like myself. What do these 12 Most meaningless LinkedIn profile descriptors really mean?
If you really want to showcase how innovative, creative and dynamic you are, why not try finding innovative, creative and dynamic ways to illustrate that?
I’m curious to hear what other employers have found to be meaningless buzz words on LinkedIn or resumes in general? In what ways can you more effectively display your professional characteristics in the written form? Share with the class…
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Sam Fiorella is a globetrotting interactive marketing strategist who has earned his stripes over the past 20 years in senior management roles with corporate sales &marketing teams as well as consulting for more than 30 marketing agencies. Sam’s experience with over 1600 Interactive projects during the past 15 years spans the government, finance & insurance, manufacturing, national retail and travel/tourism sectors. Currently, Sam is the Chief Strategy Sensei at Sensei Marketing, where he is charged with strategic campaign guidance and marketing technology development that power the Sensei Customer Lifecycle Methodology. Sam is a respected blogger and popular keynote speaker on marketing, branding and social media communications having presented at more than 200 conferences in the past 2 years. Follow Sam on Twitter or Connect with him on LinkedIn.
@samfiorella Whoa...guilty as charged, as some of these terms have crept into my LinkedIn profile. Although I have extensive (too many years to even mention) experience, am creative (slightly kooky) and have people skills (people like me, they really like me) I will try to come up some more inventive, less trite, descriptions! Although, I agree with Paul's reply, the proof is in the "accomplishments" section of your profile. Show me what you've done!
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Thanks for the post, Sam. Although guilty of using inane descriptors myself and ignoring their use by others, I'm still a sucker for an active verb followed by specifics. For example, "creative" in and of itself says nothing, other than a cry for attention. However, "created a CRM system that helped increase customer retention from 60% to 78%" gives me a real understanding of somone's purpose, priorities and a great interview question or two. In short, don't "tell"..."show!"
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ha ha Sam the hypocrisy of this article juxtaposed with your profile below the article...it reads like bullsh*t bingo "globetrotting interactive marketing strategist" what the??? "Chief Strategy Sensei" what is that???? what do they say...kettle calling pan black? Give your head a shake as we say in Middlesbrough
@PhilLDurrant I'm Chief Cheese Officer, don't cha know?! The irony was not lost on me when I was reviewing profiles for this article and I decided not to change my own profile to show we're all human.
How did you know I was about to overhaul my LinkedIn profile this weekend? What a timely post....I'll come back and let you know how many of these I strike off the list, cheers Sam!
Latest blog post: 7 Ways to Amplify Your Creative Reach on Twitter
@Steve Birkett Yes, please do! There's a business in this...Your LInkedIn profile "slap yourself silly if you use" check list...only $6.99.
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I like to wear my managerial hat with my leadership belt. And brown shoes. Cause that's how I roll.
Latest blog post: Pitching Social Causes and Non-Profit Organizations
The most overused one I recieve/see is "ability to prioritize." Prioritize what? Buying a pair of shoes over a purse.
You know another word that is quickly getting over-used -- Passionate. I was just going through a few twitter profiles today, and they are ruining a great word! You know the kind I'm talking about - I'm passionate to help people make $5000/mo...from home...using only their left-hand!
Love your original list, though. I've probably seen all of them just this week on LinkedIn profiles. Contributes to my declining attention span as I just speed read over the profile and move on.
OK, see if you like how I started my profile: I am what I need to be...
Show not tell. The best piece advice I ever got for resume writing was to show my results. I always try to balance any quality with an accomplishment to illustrate my capabilities.
@susansilver Balance is key. Too much on accomplishments always raises red flags for me.
Sam - Sometimes marketing folks are not so creative or coherent.
What do #9 Managerial hat and #12 Motivational personality really mean anyway?
Did somebody really put #2. Extensive experiences in their LinkedIn profile.
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@spofcher Creative folks are usually shoemaker's children. They spend all their creativity on their clients and go numb when it comes to their own stuff.
Good stuff here Sam. I wrote a post this week offering a prediction that LinkedIn profiles would replace tired old resumes. But the LI profile is rife with mistakes it's no better than a bad resume. http://wp.me/pJX7l-zJ
