Before I event start answering this question, I will tell you that I am going out on a limb on this one.  I am going against what a lot of people are actually doing.  You may think that I am crazy or just wrong, but my intention is only to help those that are unemployed with the best advice possible.  You can take my advice or leave it.  I welcome all opinions, but I do hope you will continue reading to the very end of this blog post to better understand me.

This question came recently from a LinkedIn/Twitter friend, and it is actually something that I almost put in my post of Favorite LinkedIn Pet Peeves yesterday.  It is also related to my previous post on What Do You Use Your LinkedIn Profile Status Bar For?.  In essence, should I tell the world that I am looking for a job in my Profile Status box?

You will be able to read about my thought process in my upcoming LinkedIn book, which is nearing completion as we speak.  But as a preview of what I plan to discuss in that book, you need to remember that everything that you do and do not include in your LinkedIn profile becomes your brand = how people perceive you.  Is “unemployed” something that you want to include as part of your brand?  My answer is “NO!”  You want positive qualities associated with your brand.  And whenever I see someone with a Status Update that says they are looking for a job, I want to tell them what I am about to tell you.

Now, I am not suggesting that you lie about your status.  Obviously you want to tell your network, and if asked by a recruiter, that you are unemployed.  But what I am saying is that the Status Update should be utilized differently in order to promote your brand.

For just a moment, let’s pretend that we are recruiters looking at LinkedIn profiles.  Now, I am not nor have ever been a recruiter, but I have engaged with enough recruiters that I have a faint idea of how they work.

First of all, do you know how recruiters find you on LinkedIn?  They search for you, of course, and if they are using LinkedIn recruiting solutions they are looking at a screen that looks something like this.  The key to being found?  List as many companies as you can that you have worked for with accurate titles in your profile.  And include those keywords that you want to be associated with in your profile.  Simple enough.

But what happens after they search and find you and start looking at your profile?  Recruiters want to see that you are happily employed.  Why?  Because, in a recent LinkedIn Poll, 60% of Recruiters said that passive candidates are better employees.  And, furthermore, quoting from this same LinkedIn Blog post, “It’s a widely held belief that the best talent is employed,” and “if they are actively looking then maybe they are not as good, or not as loyal.”

I can tell you from the talent that I meet while networking that the above statements are absolutely and totally false.  If you are talented and happen to be unemployed, the above types of comments obviously hurt and fill your heart with anger.  There are so many reasons why someone loses their position or chooses to be unemployed.  How can you lump all of these people together into one category of people and say they “are not as good?”  It’s ridiculous.  And it is discriminatory towards those that deserve better treatment.

Now, the above blog post was not the opinion of LinkedIn; it was merely the results of a LinkedIn Poll.  So do not direct your anger at LinkedIn.  In fact, we should be thanking LinkedIn, because they have provided us a service by telling those who are unemployed what they need to know: DO NOT ADVERTISE THE FACT THAT YOU ARE UNEMPLOYED. We cannot change the way that recruiters think about us.  We can only play up to their expectations.

If you are unemployed, I understand the temptation to put that you are unemployed on your Status Update.  But, just as you can easily waste your time sending out applications to positions that are hiring on the Internet and compete with the several hundred other applicants who saw the same advertisement, letting the world know that you are unemployed by broadcasting that fact in your Status Update is only diluting your brand and making you look like an active, not a passive, candidate.  It is potentially lowering your value in the eyes of 60% of those recruiters in that poll.

What to do then?  If you want to tell your friends and close connections that you are unemployed, do so over the phone or in person.  Don’t use Social Media to broadcast it to 40 million other people.

Now, there may be people out there that have found a job by broadcasting the fact that they are unemployed just like there are always rare people who do find jobs on the Internet.  But, in my opinion, based on the above evidence, it is always best to preserve your LinkedIn Brand and get out and meet new people to network with that may directly or indirectly lead you to your next lead in your job hunt.  In fact, regardless of your employment status, you should always be networking and meeting people: dig your well before you are thirsty.

I rest my case.  Feel free, as always, to comment.

This is a funny question, and I think it is only asked because LinkedIn has not done a good job branding this functionality in their user interface.  Let me explain in more detail.

Branding problem #1: LinkedIn Applications were introduced on October 28, 2008.  This introductory blog post mentioned nine applications that were released.  But in the video of the same day, there is talk about ten applications. What’s going on here? After doing some research, “Polls” was added to the list of nine applications to make ten.  Which raises the question: Is “Polls” an Application or an afterthought?

Branding problem #2: If you go to the Applications page by accessing it on your left-hand navigation bar you will go to the page where you can sign up for the ten applications (including “Polls”, but if I am not mistaken it was only recently added here).  But what about this “Events” application that I have heard of, that a LinkedIn executive  plans to discuss as his Keynote speech to the ECEF (Exhibition & Convention Executives Forum)?  Where is it?  How do I access and install it?  And why does the “Polls” application get special privilege with a special link and not “Events”?

Branding problem #3: (taken from the above ECEF link) “Allen Blue…will also present LinkedIn’s new events platform and explain how it brings “word-of-mouth” to the marketing of events.”  So is “Events” an _application_ or a _platform_.  Applications are introduced as being built on the “Applications Platform”.  So is events not even an application but a platform?  And there will be more “Events” being developed from the “Events Platform”?

Branding problem #4: So we have an Applications link on the left-hand navigation bar.  But have you noticed the option to “Add an Application” at the bottom of the right-hand column of information on your LinkedIn Home Page?  OK.  Another way to add the same ten applications?  Wait…there are more Applications here!  Aah, this is where the “Events” application is!  But what about this “Job Search” and “LinkedIn Answers“…why are they here?  They aren’t Applications, are they?

If you are as confused as I am you can see why I ask this question.  In an ideal world, an “Application” is an optional and additional module that is created using the LinkedIn API to access profile and other personal information and provide unique functionality.  I am not an engineer and I could figure that out.  In this respect, “Polls” and “Events” are questionable as these are simply user generated content like “Answers”.  I mean, if “Answers” is considered an “Application”, maybe you can say that the “User Profile” is an “Application”.  And don’t get me started on “Job Search”…

I mention all of this, because when I recently asked a question on Answers on “What is Your Favorite LinkedIn Application?“, what do you think generated the most responses?  Yup, “Answers”!  Is “Answers” even an application?  I’ve come back in full circle…

On a serious note and to be fair to LinkedIn, applications do deliver what is promised: they allow professionals to communicate, collaborate, and share information to make them more effective and competitive.  I do not doubt this, and although Applications in general seem to be under-utilized, I urge you all to take another look at them and take one or two of them out for a test drive.  If they don’t work as advertised send LinkedIn your feedback.  We can help LinkedIn improve upon itself in this way, and I always try to use my blog to not only provide a pay-it-forward type of advice to you all, but also to inform LinkedIn of how to better itself.

OK, maybe I haven’t fully answered the question I posed, but I have done my best.  And the more you learn about LinkedIn, the more you will realize that there are a lot of things that there really aren’t clear answers for.  Take how they count your five “Introductions”…still can’t figure that one out so I will answer that on another day…

But because of my silly mood seeing that it is April Fool’s Day, I can’t resist ending my blog like this:

If LinkedIn is a networking platform for professionals, don’t they need to be a little bit more professional itself in their user interface and branding of their functionality?

Your honor, I rest my case.  LinkedIn is guilty of misleading branding!