9 LinkedIn must-haves for job seekers - LinkedIn Advice

If you’ve been in today’s job market for more than five minutes, you know that it’s a complex, competitive, even cutthroat environment that’s difficult to navigate.

Not only is the market overflowing with highly qualified individuals, but to complicate matters, the job search and application functions of yesteryear are no longer valid. Updating a résumé and (e)mailing it off to a hiring manager isn’t enough. You need to take your job search on the social media road.

But even then, says social media strategy consultant Neal Schaffer, there are numerous rules to follow. And the most important place of all to cross your t’s and dot your i’s is your LinkedIn profile.

Schaffer, author of “Maximize Your Social: A One-Stop Guide to Building a Social Media Strategy for Marketing and Business Success,” suggests these LinkedIn profile must-haves:

A serious photo.

A professional name.

A headline that reinforces your professional brand.

An optimized location.

An optimized industry.

A customized profile URL.

Strong status updates.

A compelling Professional Summary.

A window into your past.

Find out more about each of the 9 must-haves and the complete Omaha.com article