5 ways for Singaporeans to be invisible on LinkedIN

According to SocialBakers.com (a social media analyst), there are 1.15mil LinkedIN users in Singapore. That equates to a 25% penetration rate. In our inaugural bad hire survey that we did late 2012, clients usually cite LinkedIN as one of their key source of good performers.

As the penetration number gets higher, it is harder and harder to wiggle out of that noise and reveal to the market of headhunters. Here are a five things I’ve observed that will make you almost invisible on LinkedIN.

1.       Not having a photograph – Many resume experts preach against putting up your photograph in your resume to avoid and prevent discrimination. Unfortunately many LinkedIN users apply that over into their LinkedIN profile as well. LinkedIN isn’t a resume. It is a social tool for you to network and no networking is done behind an avatar. If you don’t have a photo attached to your profile, you might as well take down that profile.

2.       Irrelevance – With that many (and more to come) Singapore users, you need to have good content in order to propel yourself onto the first few pages. LinkedIN search results are actually very similar to any Google results. It does have its own set of algorithm. So if you have less than 500 connections, incomplete profile, no photo and no activity, you are probably going to end up on the last few result pages. If you don’t read beyond page 3 of your google results, do you think any LinkedIN users would? I don’t think so.

3.       Bor(yawn)ing – Have you noticed in any networking session that the most popular guy is usually the one with lots of stuff to talk about? And they have to be content which could connect with the strangers in the room. You won’t know what common interests they may have but if you don’t list down yours, neither would they. Especially the interesting stuffs like sky-diving, an amateur football coach, etc

4.       1 connection – If no photo isn’t bad enough, it is coupled with a profile that has single digit connections. That is telling the whole world that you created the account but just left it there to decay. LinkedIN is like an investment that works for you while you sleep. And the more connections you have, the higher you will be ranked and made available to users who are searching keywords that you have listed in your profile.

5.       Last activity is 2 years ago – You still have to work that account periodically. And you do that by sharing content so it appears to the users that you are a thought leader in a particular field. How is that helpful? It helps you to beat off competition who otherwise just leave the account to survive on its own.