In The Pursuit of the Dream Job: LinkedIn vs Personal Website

If you are looking for a job or new business connections, you probably know that you need a “modern” resume called LinkedIn. Although it’s a great tool for making connections, have you considered any other ways of standing out from the competitiors? 

If you’re thinking: “Why would I need anything else besides a great LinkedIn profile?”, think again. Even in the digital world, every resume needs its faithful companion, a cover letter, which will show potential employers your creativity, personality, and work ethic. Of course, I’m talking about a personal website. If you still have doubts, let me show you why the “vs” between LinkedIn and personal website should be changed to “and”.

His Majesty, the Resume

LinkedIn is the world’s biggest professional social network. So, as you may conclude, it’s a must-have social network when it comes to building your career and making important business connections. The golden rule is to think of LinkedIn as your online resume. It should reflect your education, previous experience, projects and pieces of work you’ve completed. And the best thing is, it provides you with much more options than a regular, offline CV. Let’s explain some of them.

• Building business connections – LinkedIn provides you with the opportunity of connecting with people. The problem is that people tend to randomly add new connections and that doesn’t make sense at all. Your goal should never be just increasing the number of your connections. Forget about that and focus on engaging and building relationships with people that are relevant to you or your business.
• Gather feedback – Endorsements and testimonials are other awesome features LinkedIn has to offer. It basically allows you to get a social proof of your skills and talents. When someone recommends or endorses you, other people who see your LinkedIn profile can also see these. On one hand, you’re getting feedback, and on the other, you’re building relevance and authority in the field you’re interested in.
• Job Recruiters and Human Resources Professionals are there – Did you know that 94% of the recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates? So, if you’re looking for a job or an additional assignment, you should be there and connect, connect, connect! The thing is, business is not always about WHAT you know, but WHO you know. And that’s why having a strong LinkedIn profile is very important.
• Learning opportunity – On LinkedIn, you can find a lot of professional groups from different fields. Join the group that is relevant to you and make sure to participate in the discussions. Use the new LinkedIn Experts and follow experts about the topics that are relevant to you. That way, you can find and connect with like-minded people and learn new things.  

Make it All About Yourself

Different LinkedIn profiles are filled with different information, but they all look the same. If you want to express your creativity or make your profile stand out from all the others, that’s not going to happen. And what would happen with all the content you uploaded if LinkedIn just shuts down one day?

That is one of the main reasons why you must consider having a personal website. It reflects your personality and skills to the world in a way that no profile on social networks can. It allows you to control how it looks, how others can interact with you via your site, what information you want to give and what to highlight. A personal website lets you play with visuals and details – you can create one-pager, full website,  or use it as your portfolio or just to showcase your work. And, as we already mentioned, ‘I don’t know how to build a personal website’ is no longer a valid excuse!

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By having a personal website, you own content you create. Every word you write, every piece of information you share, belongs only to you. And you don’t have to worry if all of that will disappear one day because you control it. The only restriction here is the creativity, and that can not be an issue. You’re different. You’re unique. And that’s exactly what your personal website reflects – YOU.

What happens if you Google yourself? Well, if you have a personal website, you own the first result of the searches for your name and that’s the best “free” advertising you can get! It gets even better – if you want to create a website which is all about YOU, do it the right way and use .ME! Show that you’re fearso.me and present your extraordinary resu.me! Isn’t it just aweso.me?

A personal brand is not a plain marketing talk – it should be a dynamic interaction and engagement between you and your target audience, people you want to influence and impact. So, even if it sounds a little bit “too much”, you should always have in mind that it reflects you and that you’re in charge of it. A personal website is a perfect tool for boosting your freelance career. Plus – all of your favourite Superheroes have it! 🙂

LinkedIn vs and Personal Website

Both LinkedIn and personal website have their own “perks”. LinkedIn is a perfect tool for making professional connections, while personal website allows you to express creativity and to stand out from the competition.

Use LinkedIn for introducing your website, blog or portfolio. Share a new blog post into a LinkedIn group and start a discussion about it. You can also use LinkedIn for getting traffic to your website –  when people like what they see on your profile, they will visit your website. So it’s a win-win!

Because of its branding possibilities and the positive feel that it carries with itself, .ME domain can become your Willy Wonka golden ticket into the Chocolate Factory – a place full of new business opportunities and career options. 🙂 Use it combined with your resume on LinkedIn and don’t worry about communicating your uniqueness and originality. Start working on your personal website right now – check here if your desired .ME domain name is available!