Level up your LinkedIn game: insider insights from Alissa Warne
Every profession comes with its highs and lows, and the people you have around you often determine how you navigate those challenging personal — and macro — moments when panic, uncertainty, or stress try to overshadow the bigger picture. The strength of your network depends on the individuals within it, which is why MBAchic takes pride in fostering a strong community that shares both challenges and successes, supporting each other along the way.
Whether it’s an in-person event somewhere like NYC or London, or a virtual gathering to connect across regions, MBAchic is dedicated to ensuring you get the most out of your experience – in business school and beyond. To thrive on LinkedIn as an MBA and professional, we invited our community to join us for an engaging conversation with Alissa Warne, Head of Marketing, Growth Markets at LinkedIn. The focus of the conversation? Taking your LinkedIn game to the next level.
Based in London, Alissa Warne currently serves as the Head of Marketing, Growth Markets at LinkedIn. In 2019, she earned her IMBA degree from IE Business School. With over a decade of experience as a marketing leader in the tech industry, Warne empowers businesses to adopt a customer-centric approach to achieve transformational goals through strategic marketing, personal brand development, and career coaching. A member of the MBAchic community since 2019, she has been a dedicated contributor, hosting her own #MBAchicTakeover (sharing a day in her life as a student in Madrid and leading the IE Business Global Innovation Challenge), earning Silver and Bronze Anthem Awards in collaboration with our team. She has also offered invaluable advice through a guest piece, guiding readers on effective networking at MBA conferences.
Elevating Your LinkedIn Game
Over the years, LinkedIn has evolved into a platform for staying connected with colleagues, promoting personal brands, and nurturing relationships established at in-person networking events. Industry professionals recognize the potential of social networking sites to enhance their professional presence. You can find insights on optimizing your LinkedIn profile as an MBA candidate in a piece by MBAchic insider Lynda Peralta and discover how to unleash the true potential of LinkedIn through Anika Friesen’s perspective. But how crucial is it to maintain an impressive LinkedIn profile, and what strategies can help enhance your visibility on this platform? Whether you seek to attract recruiters, market your consulting services, or position yourself as a thought leader in your field, Warne imparts invaluable wisdom to the MBAchic community. Her insights empower members to craft standout content and establish meaningful LinkedIn connections that align with their objectives. We’ve distilled Warne’s key insights so that everyone can benefit from her expertise (subscribe to our newsletter for information about our Founding Membership which enables access the full replay).
Increasing Your Visibility on LinkedIn
With over 1 billion LinkedIn members spanning 200 countries and regions, standing out in the crowd, regardless of your industry or expertise, can seem like a daunting task. Factors such as the consistency and frequency of content creation, strategic utilization of keywords, and effective hashtag use all contribute to user engagement. However, as per Warne’s insights, the most significant factor determining your LinkedIn visibility lies in cultivating a robust social network, categorized into first and second-degree connections.
“If, for instance, I’m a marketer aiming to secure my next marketing role or speaking opportunity, but I discover that my connections and followers primarily consist of lawyers or doctors, essentially, they wouldn’t interact with my content as they aren’t the intended target audience,” explains Warne.
Secondary connections encompass the connections of your own connections. Engaging with them becomes possible when you comment on a post by a mutual connection—an effect that Warne describes as amplification. Once a solid network is established, the focus shifts towards crafting content that aligns with the interests of your specific network. However, it’s essential to recognize that every network naturally includes some diversity, such as friends, family, or former colleagues from different industries, as acknowledged by Warne.
“Consider your core audience—the 80% of your network that you aim to learn from, share best practices with, or even secure job opportunities from,” Warne elaborates. “This is where you tailor your content.”
Building Your LinkedIn Presence
Were you aware that your LinkedIn network can encompass up to 30,000 first-degree connections? Distinguishing between connections and followers—where the latter has no numerical limit—becomes significant since connections are the ones with whom you can actively engage on the platform. The optimal approach to structuring your LinkedIn network and enhancing your online presence revolves around categorizing your connections into four primary groups:
- Connections capable of aiding in securing a desired job
- Connections who might potentially hire you
- Connections who can assist in job acquisition
- Connections already holding your dream job
Once these four connection categories are identified, tailoring content to resonate with each specific group becomes pivotal for driving engagement.
“Those who could potentially be your hiring manager, you might want to post content that emphasizes your skillset, or how you help companies succeed in that area,” Warne explains. “But for those who could help you in that process, you might just want to tag them in posts so that you can get increased visibility or ask them for comments for opinions so that their connections will also see it to amplify your content.”
Equally crucial is the careful selection of keywords for your profile summary and profile headlines.
“Especially if you don’t have any connections in common with a person, if you send them an InMail, likely your name and that headline will be the first thing that pops up,” Warne points out. “So it’s just really important to make sure that it accurately represents what you want out of that conversation before you reach out.”
Becoming the Most Attractive Candidate to Recruiters
Besides having a polished photo and headline, including your name, preferred pronouns, or crafting a compelling cover story, how can you authentically stand out as an appealing candidate? Even if you’ve submitted an application through a different platform, it’s worth noting that recruiters frequently review your LinkedIn profile discreetly, as their views are typically hidden from users. One prevalent misstep among LinkedIn profile users is duplicating their resume on their profile page—a practice that, according to Warne, doesn’t effectively capture recruiters’ attention. Instead of echoing a resume, a standout profile should convey a more personal narrative that transcends mere career statistics.
“Instead of specifically breaking down every task and responsibility that you’ve ever had, talk about what’s the overall narrative for your career experience to date,” Warne suggests.
Struggling to find inspiration for shaping your narrative? A valuable starting point lies within your MBA application. Warne recommends strategically integrating your narrative, personal career goals, and aspirations into a concise five to six lines of text.
“You don’t need to start from scratch,” Warne insists. “You can look at other people’s profiles as inspiration, but make it your own. What do you want to achieve in your five to 10 year career plan?”
Enhancing Your Interview Opportunities
If you’ve been using LinkedIn for a while, you’re likely familiar with the “Easy Apply” button, which offers a convenient way to swiftly submit your profile to recruiters. However, while this feature can be advantageous with a well-tailored resume, an outdated or inadequately populated profile that fails to showcase your relevant career journey can diminish your prospects of hearing from potential employers. To increase the likelihood of transforming an application into an interview, there are several crucial steps to take when revitalizing your profile to shine in a competitive field.
“Everything you’re writing should be geared towards what was the end result, what was the contribution that you made to the company as a whole,” Warne says. “Then ask yourself, how does this stand out? How can I make myself sound less generic? What is the unique angle that I brought to this role?”
Furthermore, recruiters employ automated tracking systems (ATS) that simultaneously scan traditional resumes and social profiles to sift through potential candidates. It’s essential to be highly deliberate and thoughtful in selecting keywords that align with these algorithms to avoid being overlooked right from the start.
Once you’ve fine-tuned your content, Warne suggests taking a bold step and directly connecting with the hiring manager.
“I know a lot of jobs reveal who the hiring manager is, who the job was posted by,” Warne says. “[While] some of this might only be open to Premium members, you can [sometimes] see the hiring manager’s name and then reach out to them as well, that makes a difference.”
Boosting Your Personal Brand
Always on the lookout for ways to take your personal brand to the next level? It’s a journey that never really ends! If you’re in the initial stages of constructing your profile and positioning yourself as a thought leader in your field, there are thoughtful ways to craft impactful content. Rather than falling into the trap of being self-centered and exclusively sharing personal accomplishments, Warne emphasizes that the most successful posts should offer value to the audience through education, inspiration, or shared insights.
“[Take the time to] understand what [your connections] care about, what their goals are, what challenges them, what keeps them up at night, what’s their perspective on the world,” suggests Warne. “Then you can start to craft valuable content that speaks to those types of priorities that they have.”
In terms of content, no two professionals are identical in their abilities or expectations, so quantity will vary but consistency is key.
“Really be realistic and find a posting cadence that works for you,” suggests Warne. “I would create an Excel spreadsheet or a tracker where you can actually map out your content so if you’ve committed to say posting once a week, make sure you have at least four or five posts that you could talk about in the next few months.”
For authentic and relatable content, Warne proposes identifying three or four “big rocks” — core professional values you stand for and deeply care about — that you can weave into your posts. This could involve themes like mentorship, social impact, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, or volunteer work.
Lastly, not everyone is aware of LinkedIn’s Creator Mode, which amplifies the reach of your existing content. Activating creator mode grants access to additional tools and features that facilitate content creation and audience growth on LinkedIn. By enabling this mode, you might become a suggested creator to follow, increasing your visibility and allowing potential followers to discover you and your content throughout LinkedIn. This mode also unlocks features like LinkedIn Live and Newsletter, combined post analytics, and audience analytics.
So there you have it, a wealth of insights straight from Alissa Warne on how to rock your LinkedIn game. From building a killer network to crafting standout content, and even insider tricks like activating creator mode, you’ve got the tools to make your LinkedIn profile shine. Whether you’re aiming to catch the eye of recruiters, connect with industry peers, or establish yourself as a thought leader, remember that your LinkedIn journey is uniquely yours. So go on, give your profile that much-needed makeover and be sure to share what you learn along the way with the MBAchic community.
Photo from Jeneta Hot // LinkedIn London
