“It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.” – Paulo Coelho.

David Beckham, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and countless other celebrities shares things about themselves on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. I do it and I’m sure you do it too. But I’m also sure that very few of you share your thoughts, ideas and opinions related to your professions on the professional networking site, LinkedIn.  Even when you can do it so easily with the site’s Share an Update feature. Instead, what are job seekers doing on LinkedIn? Literally begging for jobs. I just want to tell them, ‘Hey, this isn’t helping your cause any’. Whoever heard of people getting hired because of their desperate, fervent pleas for jobs? If you are a job seeker, here’s my bit of advice: Don’t push your resume; instead, pull recruiters. Through LinkedIn’s Share an Update feature.

Interestingly, this very old feature of LinkedIn is practically unused by people looking for jobs. I know because I keep checking my feed and see not a single update from those people who are supposedly serious job hunters. I would like to tell them that Share an Update is the perfect way for them to build their personal brand, their status in the industry and be a considered a subject matter expert. And yes, all this will naturally make them very good job candidates as well.
I asked a couple of job seekers I know, why they did not use this feature and received a counter question for an answer: ‘What do we share?’ I’m sure many of you have the same question, so let me answer it.
Here goes. You can share your thoughts on something related to your profession that you feel strongly about. Or a new idea which you think could help in your line of work. A perfect opportunity to display your thought leadership, don’t you think? Did you achieve something professionally that you want to announce to the world?  You can do that as well. Please note that if you have a lot to say on the matter, publishing it as a post makes more sense. Keep your status updates brief and crisp always.

And if you have read something online that you liked, why not share it on LinkedIn? Did you find mention in a newspaper or magazine article or anywhere for some work achievement? You can upload a picture or post the online link. Have you created a video? Share the link. Planning to attend a professional event, maybe a training program or a workshop? Mention it in your update. Mind you, these are just a few of the things you can share.

And to whom will you share? If you are going to share only with your connections, you will have a very limited audience and your purpose of finding a job is not likely to be served, because you’re not likely to have many recruiters as your connections. So share your update with ‘Public’ and if you have a Twitter account ‘Public + Twitter’.  If you choose the latter, your updates will appear as tweets as well.

Remember that you want recruiters and other professionals to read what you share. So don’t share random material or something that would be more apt for a social networking site. Also, avoid rants, and stay positive. Also, update frequency is key. It isn’t enough if you update your status on a monthly basis. Out of sight after all is out of mind. To remain top-of-mind when it comes to recruiters and hirers, you will have to share relevant updates much more often, say weekly or even bi-weekly.

So go ahead, step into the limelight with Share an Update. Use the opportunity to promote yourself, reach all the professionals that matter (read recruiters), and get your dream job at the earliest.

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