Find People on LinkedIn: The “Skills” Feature
LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Skills last week – a FANTASTIC search tool. Whether you are the Searcher or the Searchee, this is how you can use Skills.
For the official version – please visit LinkedIn’s blog.
To Search: The Learning Curve Buster
Actually – it is not much of a Learning Curve. Find LinkedIn Skills at http://www.linkedin.com/skills/
This is the screen you reach – I typed in Social Media Marketing:
This great information comes up!
1. Other keywords for the skill – hyperlinked to new search results
2. A description of the skill – to be sure you are in the right place
3. A list of the top people with the skills*
4. Companies with the greatest concentration of people with that skill. Followed by available Jobs looking for that skill.
Scroll down on your screen to find:
5. Groups people with these skills have joined – join these Groups, too
6. Related Locations – click on one of the hyperlinks to see more profiles of people with this skill in that location.
To Be Found: The Learning Curve Buster
To add Skills to your LinkedIn profile so you may be found by people looking for your skills, login to your account and go to Profile > Edit Profile. Just beneath your blue box, you will see this – click on Add sections to add the skills section to your profile:
Choose Skills from the left-hand column in the next window. You will be returned to your profile. In Edit Profile, find Skills and choose Add a skill:
Simply Add a skill until you finish. Type in your skill (it may auto-complete a few options you had not thought of yet), your proficiency level with the skill and the length of time you have worked with that skill.
* I love this new Skills tool. However, it does seem to “reward” the profiles that treat LinkedIn like Twitter. In other words, individuals who connect with ANYONE who asks seem to rank higher on the Skills page. This is counter to LinkedIn’s earlier recommendations of best practices. To read a little more about this, visit Open Networking on LinkedIn: Choosing to Connect with Everyone to offer your point of view.