Personal Branding Blog — March 17, 2017 
One simple tactic on LinkedIn can lead to your absolutely ideal job. This approach is especially important if you do NOT have the qualifications, work history, education or experience that would make you a perfect candidate.
So, if you have a strong interest or great enthusiasm but nothing on your resume that qualifies you, here’s your LinkedIn job hunting hack. Best of all it’s FREE!
Step One: Go to LinkedIn.com and Sign In
Click on the small square in the upper right hand corner of your profile. It’s the icon made up of 6 small boxes, titled Work. Click on it and get to Groups, which appears on the second line. Or, visit the LinkedIn Groups tab at https://www.linkedin.com/groups
Step Two: See What’s New in Groups
Take the “Quick Tour” that pops up so you are familiar with how groups work.
If you previously signed up for groups but you haven’t been actively involved: LinkedIn will now give you the latest discussion topics from your old groups. The message is: “See the most important conversations from your industry, interests and passions every day.”
Take a look. If those discussions reflect your current interests and aspirations – then use the hack on your current groups.
Step Three: Find 10 Great Groups
If you haven’t signed up for Groups or you’ve outgrown the ones you joined: go back to your profile page. In the search box on the upper left hand side – put in the topic or occupation of your choice. You’ll get a page with lots of groups – so you may want to “shop around” by looking at the types of discussions and the titles of the people who are actively engaged in each group.
Plan to participate in 10 groups to use this hack. Some groups require permission to join – so don’t bother with those if you have brand new aspirations and little or no experience. Join groups that are open, which will give you more visibility for the hack.
Step Four: Pick the Perfect Discussion
Once you’ve joined a group: scroll through the list of Discussions. Click on the ones that interest you, with this specific criterion about what’s useful to YOU. A useful discussion must already have at least 10 responses to the original question or comment.
That means YOUR response will have a ready-made audience.
Step Five: Here’s the Hack
Find a previous comment you agree with. DON’T post: “Wow, I totally agree with you Claire!”
The hack won’t work if you just agree with someone. Instead, take the poster’s response and use a search engine to get an example of their point of view. Then – here’s the amazing leverage of this hack: add additional support for their point of view plus your opinion, insight or personal experience.
You might post, “Claire, the Sara Lee cheesecake product proves your point. It’s a very old brand with a very devoted audience. What’s amazing is some of their consumers have a unique way of eating the products. Sara Lee is sold in the freezer case of supermarkets, and are meant to be defrosted before serving. However, a large and unrecognized group of consumers love the frozen style, and never wait to defrost them. From my point of view, Sara Lee is missing a significant marketing opportunity here.”
That’s how you use your personal interests and enthusiasm for a brand or anything else to get you recognized. In my experience, when you did this correctly – expect a at least one out of four of your comments to generate interest in you. So, watch for invitations to connect and keep your eye on that discussion. You may continue to relate to members and their posts using the hack.
This is one of the ways that my inbox is filled every single day with at least one request to hire me, ask me to consult or request a coaching session. Of course, you may not want every opportunity you attract – but you can always say “No, thank you.”
Now, repeat this once day. Change up your groups as needed. Drop those that don’t produce invitations and opportunities. And, keep busy with the ones that are recognizing you as a star-in-the-making.
Step Six: Bonus Hack
In the upper right hand corner of your profile page: you will see a flower shaped icon. When you click on it, you can see and manage the order in which your Groups appear on your profile page. Consider what’s the most important to least important Groups – given your new aspirations and goals. Then use the arrow buttons to control how the Groups appear on your profile page.
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