FutureProof You

# FPU Podcast Ep 3

[00:00:00]

Welcome to this episode of the Future Proof You F Yourself podcast, where I'm Aaron Makelky, our co host Dan Yu, and John Lovig and I are going to discuss all things LinkedIn. We have a LinkedIn quick start guide coming up live. This is in February of 2025. You can check it out on our website. The link is in the description.

If you miss one of our live classes like the Future Proof U LinkedIn Quick Start Guide this Friday, you can find digital downloads so you can grab that copy after the fact. Or you can check our content on our website and see what live classes are coming up in the future. In this episode, we each take one question on LinkedIn that we get asked all of the time.

My question, what makes LinkedIn different from other platforms?

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Dan's question, What's the biggest misconception around LinkedIn? And then John is going to chime in with some [00:01:00] quick wins, some easy little things you can do to make your LinkedIn profile stand out and work for you. Let's get to it. Hey I'm really excited about the classes this Friday, right? we're going to kick off our job search GPS, our job search masterclass. It, one of the things for the audience that I think will be really helpful is to really understand a little bit about our perspective on LinkedIn as a tool.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Aaron, one of the things that you've really locked in on about how LinkedIn truly is different from other social media platforms.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** and I was late to the LinkedIn game. I had an account for about a year. I thought the way you got a job on LinkedIn is put an account down, set a picture, and it just sat there. And after months of posting on other platforms, especially TikTok, I finally sat down and said, I should be creating content on LinkedIn.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** My TikTok content was doing really well. And a couple of things [00:02:00] that I've learned are different from LinkedIn. Obviously the tone, people bring their shirt and tie and the briefcase, and they are a little more business like, a little more serious, but some of the pros include the networking. You get way more reach outs.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** The DMs on LinkedIn are a goldmine for partnerships. Internal referrals for a job. Hey, I saw the thing you did. You'd be great. Do you want to work at my firm? One example I DM'd somebody on LinkedIn because they worked at a place and had the same alumni tag as my university.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** And I just said, hey, what's it like working that, for that big company? And they not only responded from a cold DM on LinkedIn, which nobody does that on Instagram and TikTok. I got this huge paragraph response and it ended with, do you want a referral? Is there a job you're looking at? And I wasn't even asking for that.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** And I thought only on LinkedIn from a cold DM, do you get somebody answering this in depth question? Response and offering to introduce you. one that I think is really unique [00:03:00] lately is it's pushing video. And I've experienced this recently. I was doing more articles in short form text as TikTok was banned and then unbanned in January of 2025.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** I thought, why don't I just turn LinkedIn more TikTok and so for a week, I started pushing more vertical videos and you can tell in the video tab, But also in the default feed, LinkedIn is pushing video. And there have been a few that have been way spun up and other platforms don't have that opportunity.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** TikTok pushes all videos. It's not a unique content style you can do, but LinkedIn is right now. And the quality of the reach outs and the potential juice behind your video posts to me are two of the best things about LinkedIn that other platforms don't bring.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Yeah. And it'll be it'll be an interesting evolution to watch, as. authenticity can vary right between between creators. Now, obviously you had [00:04:00] some really good success nearby by doing an authentic reach out. And I think that's terrific. It's a great example of, the misconceptions right around LinkedIn.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** And I think we're all. Brought up in a world where we were taught that the resume is the be all end all, right? Of, job search or just jobs in general. And then the LinkedIn profile when it was really launched, 20 plus years ago, it was really just a placeholder.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** And I think a lot of people hang on to that because Of a lot of misconceptions, is it authentic? They don't want to put themselves out there whatever misconception they might have. And I think the dynamic is really now flipped, right? That the profile has to be the be all end all, I say throw everything in the kitchen sink.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Into your profile because ultimately, you are, whether you like it or not, you're selling yourself, you're selling what you've done, where you've been, but where you really want to [00:05:00] go, and have it be a living document that's forward thinking rather than really just something that could be focused on, on 20 years ago.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Your job 10 years ago, 20 years ago, doesn't matter as much anymore. And I think, we talk about some of the simple fixes that we can do, John, I know you really love to talk about this. You're passionate about, helping people and teaching people the right way to use LinkedIn.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** What are some of the easiest fixes that you could just detail real quick for today.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** First and foremost, get content out there, right? A lot of people have these bare minimum profiles and what they're not thinking about is their level of searchability to others. Whether we're recruiters using LinkedIn recruiter or whether you're another person looking for someone within their network, searchability is important.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** you're not going to get that without keywords on your page. And most people don't think about what the search side of LinkedIn looks like, but. A lot of recruiters use keywords that should [00:06:00] be completely interspersed across your page. So the first thing I would always say is if you've got a barely there LinkedIn profile and you're, you don't know where to start I've probably said this a thousand times now, just put the content from your resume on there to start with.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** Once you get that stuff on there, you'll start to be able to tweak things, but don't. Don't get in your head, right? We always say it's better to have a B minus profile than an F, right? Or better to have B minus content than an F. No content is nothing. The other thing too, is just like you said, there's no reason to reduce the amount of stuff on LinkedIn.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** Even if people aren't going to scroll through your whole profile, again, it's keyword relevance. The number of times a keyword is repeated puts you higher in the search rankings. Load keywords into your profile try to avoid any jargon and, I think show some personality. Put some information out there that maybe sets you apart.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** One of the areas that can really deliver a difference for people is [00:07:00] if you change your headline to something that isn't the default and make it something a little bit more personable or a high level overview of you as a professional. Yeah.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Yeah. The default for for everybody really is the title at company that you're in right now or your last one, right? That's the default and that's really doesn't describe, who you could be right to your audience. we all know that organizational titles that really don't mean much a VP at one place.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Could mean nothing at another place. I was actually just speaking to somebody today that said, gee, what can I do to help my profile? And I said first thing you can do is add a picture. We had the, the gray ghost, that,

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** put a, cover photo too. Cause that. That's just so boring to just leave the default.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** one of the elements that I think speaks to all three of our answers is LinkedIn is unique in that it has the smallest percent of users. Regularly posting [00:08:00] content. for example, if you go to Tik Tok, I don't know what percent, let's say 10, 20, 30 percent of people regularly post. You're competing against a bigger chunk of the platform.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** However, on LinkedIn from them, and we have a blog post under future proof view on our LinkedIn page, they said 3 percent of users regularly post content. So the attention equation for supply and demand is the most in your favor on LinkedIn because it has. 97 percent doom scrollers, 3 percent posters. So if you're in that 3%, that equation favors you getting your content out and people seeing that more than any other platform, at least at time of recording in 2025 when we're making this.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** yeah, I've had so many people, say to me like, wow, you really do produce a lot of content, how do you find the time? I don't spend every day producing content. I take an hour on the weekends, and I [00:09:00] just come up with something timely, right? Something that's involved in my industry.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** And it could be newsworthy, right? Trends in, job search, return to office, hybrid workplace, all of these things. They're just relevant, I think, to everybody involved. And I think it goes across industries. Without knowing that I was going to become that, a lot of people call me now the, oh, you're the kind of like the subject matter expert on, on jobs and job search.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** And I go that was not my intention. I'm just trying to help here, but yeah, it's frequently matters.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** matter expert.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** That is so not my jam. It's just, I want to be here to help people. And that's what we also built, future preview.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** One of the key differences is those top level people on LinkedIn are not necessarily smarter, better, and more skilled than you. They just use their profile and their posting to share what they learn, to have a helpful tip. And I learned that in the education space. I followed these people that were [00:10:00] posting things and getting all these comments and all this reach.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** And my first response was oh, that's not any better than what I do. And then I'd think about it and go, but I didn't write an article about what I did. That person wrote the article. That person made the video. And I just reminded myself, LinkedIn lurkers are 97 percent of the platform. So if you can keep up on this stuff and take it in bite sized chunks.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** So one of our students hadn't posted anything. They took our LinkedIn Quick Start Guide course. And we said, just do one thing a week. Okay, anybody can take 15 minutes a week to write a post and you can schedule it whenever you want. Then you can maybe do a couple a week or get to Dan's level where you're doing three a day and having tens of thousands of followers, but you can just be consistent with little chunks.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** It'll pay huge dividends over time.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Yeah. And ultimately your brand is something that you can control. And so it's a, as John said the E some of the easiest fix [00:11:00] out there, fixes out there that you just got to do it

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** One thing to note too is this is where LinkedIn shines beyond a resume because a resume is never going to convey to somebody how you think or approach the world of work and yet, and or convey the special skill set that you have that might not be present in other professionals in your peer group.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** And so sharing your knowledge and expertise on LinkedIn. Does that it shows people and it draws more attention to your profile than you would normally expect.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** And one of the questions to ask yourself to Dan's point about, oh, the resume is the end all be all, I challenge listeners to think about how many people have looked at your resume this week. So if you haven't applied for a job, it's, none. Maybe you applied for three jobs, maybe three people looked at that.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** Go on your LinkedIn, and in your analytics, how many profile views have you had this week? And tell me which one is more.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** [00:12:00] a hundred percent. That's it.

**john-lovig_1_02-03-2025_124243:** I'm at 500 almost

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Yeah and so that, that's a great opportunity to really scale your personal brand and your networking. That's what we like to teach at Future Proof You.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** to answer that question for myself, I have zero resume views, because I haven't sent any resumes out. I'm looking at my analytics this week. I have 606 profile views and 125 searches. That's only because of my LinkedIn presence. That's not my resume, which is sitting on my Google Drive waiting for me to email it to someone one to one.

**dan-yu_1_02-03-2025_124244:** Yeah, I am 528 views for this week. there you go. to the audience we have a lot of things coming out to help you in your journey in your job search. It's job search February and we're here to help.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** Thank you for tuning into this Future Proof U podcast and video episode. Again, you can check out our website. The link is in the description below. That's [00:13:00] futureproof you. com. If you missed the live class in February to quick start guide your LinkedIn profile, you will be able to find a digital version of that you can grab after or see the next upcoming live classes around career skills.

**aaron-makelky_1_02-03-2025_104243:** LinkedIn, job hunting, interviewing, tech skills like using AI, and content creation. Thanks again for being one of our listeners. We look forward to helping future proof you.