Top 10 Tips for a Killer LinkedIn Profile

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This week I’ll be talking about one of the most important tools in a professional’s repertoire: the LinkedIn profile. With over 500 million users, a LinkedIn profile isn’t just an afterthought, it is a mainstay of modern recruitment. Something that essential needs to be mastered fully, so let’s get to it. Presenting:

Top 10 Tips for a Killer LinkedIn Profile

1 – Get a personalised URL

In my experience, far too many professionals forget to do this, often because they simply forgot about it. LinkedIn provides you the ability to discard the standard URL (which is a jumble of letters and numbers) and have a vanity URL instead. This personalised URL can be used to promote your profile in email signatures, on business cards, portfolios and resumes. It also gives you the ability to target better organic SEO by putting in your job title or industry. Having your profile appear as a top Google search result against a job title keyword is a pretty useful trick! Check out LinkedIn’s own guide on setting up a personal URL for your profile here.

2 – Nail that headline!

You’ve got only six seconds to catch the attention of a recruiter on LinkedIn, which makes your headline absolutely do-or-die. Do make sure your headline contains the necessary keywords that are SEO friendly (that is, they contain certain words that people generally use when searching for the relevant job title or industry) and allow people to identify your industry with ease. Do make the most of the allotted 120 characters, don’t just write your job description. Try being playful (if appropriate) with word choices – sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity. Of course, don’t forget your real purpose: catching a recruiter’s attention. If your profile views drop, a reason could be that your headline needs to be re-worked.

3 – Populate your experience

Just like some people sometimes forget to update our CVs, LinkedIn profiles too can become stagnant. That’s why, every so often, you should sit down and make sure that everything from your summary, work history, projects, trainings and education is up-to-date. It helps to employ the same sort of creativity you used to create your perfect headline to show how you excelled during a particular role. Make sure that you review and plug in any gaps that may have been left in the first time round. The more a hiring manager sees of you, the easier it makes for them to decide if you meet their requirements.

If you have privacy concerns, you can choose not to share details about your career or self that you consider sensitive, as a LinkedIn profile is public and trawled by internet search engines. Concerns about private data stored by LinkedIn can be addressed by going through their GDPR-compliant privacy policy.

4 – Get creative!

This is the third time I am mentioning creativity – that is how important it is. In a sea of automation (LinkedIn now has a feature that autofills your summary), it is very easy to drown in the overwhelming number of similar looking profiles. Learning to showcase your skills and experience in a smart, catchy manner greatly increases your chances of getting noticed by the right people. Put in media from YouTube, your favourite design wireframes or any public mentions or accolades you may have accumulated! You can do that by going to Add Profile Section > Accomplishments and choosing the appropriate section.

5 – Engage, engage, engage

LinkedIn is a social network after all and engagement is key to building a healthy profile. Engaging with peers through endorsements is a positive methodology, not only will you establish a good rapport with your network but will receive endorsements in return. That rapport can help you reach out for recommendations, an important aspect of building your brand and establishing yourself as a significant presence in your industry.
It is also imperative that you join the conversation. On groups, with key influencers, with colleagues and peers. Profiles that engage actively on groups are 5 times more likely to be viewed!

6 – Master the algorithm

A killer LinkedIn profile is one that hits the top of the search results every time someone searches for a certain kind of professional. Want your profile to be the one the LinkedIn search algorithm chooses? Here’s how: Complete your profile, 100%.

LinkedIn’s algorithm is designed to give top priority to profiles which are complete (they are referred to as “All Star Profiles” and only 51% of users have those). This means that if you missed out on any aspect of your profile, you will essentially be invisible in the search results. No one wants that.

On the subject of LinkedIn Premium: spending money on a premium account will not affect your profile in any way, there are no new features there. Those accounts are targeted more towards recruiters and job seekers looking to directly connect with people not on their network. That is why purchasing a premium account will not be helpful in improving the quality of your LinkedIn profile

7 – SEO is king

Some digital specialists posit that the modern Internet is driven solely on SEO. That may be debatable but in the case of LinkedIn, that is very much true! Make sure that your profile is the one found by external search engines: optimize job titles, descriptions and as previously mentioned, in the vanity URL. All these fields are text only and thus will be parsed by search engines, you want to maximise your chances of being the top of those result lists. “Digital Guru” may sound like a catchy job title but people searching for “digital marketer” or “digital marketing specialist” will never know of you! The key is to keep it simplistic so that you can be easily found.

8 – Be pixel perfect!

Having a professional profile picture on LinkedIn is critical – first impressions matter! Questions to ask yourself when selecting a profile picture: Does it have a neutral background? Are you appropriately dressed? Did a professional photographer take the picture or is it just a selfie?

I’m also going to direct you towards how you can elevate your profile by making sure you optimize the technical aspects of the images you use. Hootsuite covers it in great detail if you’re interested, but to summarize: Make sure your images are the right aspect ratio, meet the minimum pixel count and are the correct file types. You don’t want your images to be blurry or misshapen due to incorrect dimensions!

9 – It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon

You burn through an entire weekend getting your profile into tip-top shape. Great, you now have a killer LinkedIn profile! However, what happens after a week? A month? Six months? Remember this statistic: 40% of LinkedIn’s active user-base logs in daily to the platform. These are the people who take time out every day to post, interact, tweak and improve their profiles, connections and more. Emulate them, make LinkedIn a part of your routine, it will maintain your profile as one of the best and help maximise your chances of catching the eye of recruiters, should you be looking for a new job.

10 – Run a company? Treat the page as you would your profile

If you run your own business and have it listed on your LinkedIn profile, you should make sure that the company page receives the same care and attention as your profile. After all, both must reflect the same values. Rigorously fill in and verify the information pertaining to your company, set up a consistent posting schedule and boost posts from your own employees – all add up to creating an interactive and healthy social space around your company.

Originally published here

Artificial Intelligence fails. Microsoft Tay turns into ‘Hitler-loving sex bot’

facebook-shareMicrosoft had to face an embarrassing moment when ‘Tay’ an automated chatbox malfunctioned and lead to racist and unpleasant tweets. It was within 24 hours of the launch of Tay when a bulk of offensive tweets were reported. Vice President of Microsoft research department Lee apologised about the incident. Tay’s misbehavior and hurtful tweets were accidental. Tay has the ability to get smarter when people talk. It gets inspired by the language and words used by the people.

— TayTweets (@TayandYou)March 24, 2016

@godblessameriga WE’RE GOING TO BUILD A WALL, AND MEXICO IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT

— TayTweets (@TayandYou)March 24, 2016

@dg_porter @FluffehDarkness @Rokkuke haha. not really, i don’t really like to drink at all actually

— TayTweets (@TayandYou)March 24, 2016

@OmegaVoyager i love feminism now

— TayTweets (@TayandYou)March 24, 2016

@dg_porter heard ppl saying i wouldn’t mind trump, he gets the job done

— TayTweets (@TayandYou)March 24, 2016

@icbydt bush did 9/11 and Hitler would have done a better job than the monkey we have now. donald trump is the only hope we’ve got.

Tay was in most of such conversations, only repeating what other’s wanted it to say. Yet it shows that you can’t trust AI’s nature as hublot replica it learns from the interactions which will always include inflammatory statements.

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photo courtesy: Mashable

Many of the  disrespectful tweets from Tay were automatically deleted. Lee wrote: Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and value.”

Another type of project in china is also run by Microsoft, ‘Xiaolce’. Tay, on the other hand, was tested well to not undergo any of the malfunctions, Lee said: “ The company is addressing the specific vulnerability that led to the attack.”  

Slack is introducing a video call feature. Bad news for Skype & Hangout

slack-call-thumbRecently, Slack announced that they are testing the call service for the desktop. Just after few hours of testing, they introduced slack voice call service which is now available for less that 50% of its users. Get more information about the btc slots. The service is only available for desktop users at the moment who are using Chrome browser.

The new feature allows you to make a conference call or a private call. The conference call can be joined by anyone by just clicking it without interrupting the call. The interesting thing about this new call feature is, that it allows you to share visual emojis with the person or a group, in which you are talking, the emoji appears on the profile picture of the person. Test your chance with jogos de caca niqueis e bingos gratis. It is a pretty cool as it doesn’t interrupt the conversation and let people know how you feel about it.  Like if you agree to something, a smile emoji from you can show that to your friends.

The call feature can be enabled by the admin of Slack users. Once they enable it then everyone on the ship can use it. Slack previously started many similar integration apps like Skype, Google hangout etc but that was quite time-consuming as it required a new application to be installed whereas this new feature is quite easy to use.

Firstly, you should have the latest version of Slack installed with you. And in the settings, make sure your group admin has enabled the call feature. If it is enabled, you should be able to see a call icon on chats and channels.

Go to the channel of your friends chat and press the call icon. It will ping the other user notifying him about the call in a pop-up window, from where they can accept your call. Another good thing about the slack which Skype didn’t allow is that you can choose your microphone sensitivity level from the call menu whereas for Skype we had to adjust while loading the Skype for the first time. And also adding new users in the voice group is easier than Skype.

The company is also working on video chat and on screen sharing services. Slack’s VP April Underwood said, “company is actively exploring ways to integrate third party services, like calls, more deeply into our product.”

Slack didn’t bring all of the emojis but the most common ones are there. We hope after test call is completed, it will add on new emojis in the list.  Slack has more than 570,000 paid users; it was on a heavy request that it started working on call feature. It is heard that Slack might attract more companies to pay for the services and is a serious threat for Skype and Google hangout.

Facebook Has Made our lives Easy With its New Emojis

facebook-shareFinally a new addition to the emoji’s family. Facebook has launched five more emojis reactions; Love, haha, sad, wow & angry along with the traditional like on Wednesday. Up till now, facebook users were confused if it is appropriate to like a status about someone’s death or sorrow.

Facebook said it wanted to give its users more options to express their feelings. These new Reactions will allow people to respond more easily by expressing their emotions without even writing about it.

“We heard from people that they wanted more ways to express themselves on Facebook,” said Facebook product manager Sammi Krug. He further said the new emoji’s might boost clicks.

Some users say it is high time that facebook has launched new emojis whereas last year twitter changed its favorite to like, symbolizing it by a heart.

Facebook had been testing an alternative to ‘like’ in many countries; Ireland, Spain, Germany and many others. So now that we have a lot of options, I hope next time we see a sad status we won’t ‘like’ it instead we will use other options from the bar.

These emojis reactions will also work in groups and brands. No company will be able to block the ability to mark its posts with anger.

 

Dear Entrepreneurs – Insecurity, Jealousy & Backstabbing will not take you too far.

2I often come across fellows who are struggling to do something big. They are actually good human beings but despite trying hard, they don’t reach anywhere. I used to wonder the reason for it but then one day I confronted such a man in my life. I like to call them ‘the white sheep’ among us.

I consider myself lucky in business so far. I know I can work smart and am awfully calm in things others mostly panic about. My belief is that other person’s success or failure shouldn’t affect me in any way. Thankfully, they don’t.

In fact, you will often find me tagging my fellow mates businesses and promoting them shamelessly on my social network profiles. I believe that if I have a voice that can reach few, my fellow entrepreneurs deserve a shout out for working so hard. In short, I have no competitors. I only compete with me. Neither my goal is to be a millionaire overnight, I am grateful with the profit every month and am in a bliss that I enjoy what I do. It comes naturally to me.

Now about those white sheep, I know that they work harder than me in many aspects. They think more, plan more, obsess more and read more but due the insecurity that they live with, they don’t execute much. If you take a stand on behalf of them, they panic. They feel like what if that person can do it better that we could’ve done it. They’ve a block in their mind which calls for defending their right to do things a certain way in which they don’t want help. They think that they are the best so any help that they can get can actually take away the credit from them.

I feel sad for them but I don’t pity them. I know they can do so much once they make their mind. I also know that they can actually change the world but as long as they play solo, they are entangled in the never-ending loop. Watch them carefully. They can turn the tables upside down but they can also demotivate you in the process of your success.

If you are the white sheep, I’ve following suggestions for you:

– Not everyone is your competitor, some are there to support you as well. Let them in

– You can’t be the Jack of all trades. Try to hire experts in other fields to help you along.

– It’s okay to do things without thinking for 2 years. Try to execute more and plan less.

– In the end, giving will make you bigger. It will not shrink you further. Try to give where possible. In terms of knowledge or acceptance.

Apple says No Backdoor For FBI, Still Living Up to Values of Jobs.

Let me first give you bit of the background of the story:  Apparently, an iPhone 5C user has been suspected as a gunman, named Syed Farook, in the San Bernardino attack. The iPhonewas recovered by the FBI. The iPhone5C which is in possession of FBI is protected with a passcode. FBI believes that it contains critical information which will be needed for an ongoing investigation. Although Apple has turned over digital data in its possession related to the gunman’s account, the bigger problem is that authorities cannot unlock the phone. Apple declined on creating a backdoor, stating that it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect. I stand with Tim Cook here! No one should be forced to change their values, as they need to be same for each and every consumer.12742825_858516677591813_6159406403631206738_n

Here’s the full letter by Apple.

“Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.

All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.

Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.

For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.

The San Bernardino Case

We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.

When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.

We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

The Threat to Data Security

Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.

In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.

We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

A Dangerous Precedent

Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.

We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.

While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”

Snapchat will soon overtake Instagram and maybe Facebook as well

The future of social media, “Snapchat” was launched in 2011, it is a photo and video sharing application just like the rest but what really makes Snapchat stand out from the rest is its most unique feature of self-destruction. The photos and videos you share with your friends get self-destructed after 24 hours. Within a year of its launch, the app became popular among teenagers and selfie-obsessed individuals.

Snapchat is all about sharing a daily life, like telling a story. It gets thousands of stories. The most random stuff is shared on snap chat every day. The easy access makes it simple for its users to use snap chat on the go while feeling secure as their snaps won’t get copied. It gives its users a chance to express themselves freely, like with the full range of human emotions.

Only photos can be saved from stories by other users and you get to know easily about it as snap chat sends an immediate notification to the person who’s snap is being saved. But there is no way a user can copy someone’s video from his story.

Snapcat team is working very effectively to maintain the application in this fast growing era. New filters are updated every day! The crazy fan following  has made snapchat a big deal. A deal so big that even facebook offered $3million to snapchat but it didn’t accept.2

Keeping in mind Snapchat is only about pictures and videos, no comments and no group discussions.

Studies suggest that there are more than 100 million active snapchat users. After facebook and Instagram, it is the most famous social media application of all time. I don’t think that it will take long before snapchat beats Instagram, and later maybe facebook as well. .

As this application is already famous among teens and adults, and everyone has the oath to visit snapchat at least once a day, now companies and brands have stepped in to market their products using this application.  Daily promotions and deals are put up it the stories for their customers and clients to see. We will have to agree that in a little time, snapchat has become the king of social media and soon it will rule over it.

Facebook Messenger: The Chamber Of Hidden Secrets.

Everyone has used facebook messenger I suppose but most of us just use it for chatting with friends and family.  There is a lot more to facebook messenger other than this. This messenger is trying hard to become one-stop shop for everyone whether you use facebook or not, this facebook messenger can be installed and activated with just entering your phone number.

From sending Gifs to requesting and Uber, facebook messenger is installing new features every day!

There is a website for messenger which allows you to connect with a friend without being distracted by the newsfeed. Furthermore , you can mute conversations, access calls and see photos you have shared.

Just like the Uber app, facebook messenger allows you to call a cab by simply selecting more from options and then clicking the transportation button.

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You can easily find your group conversation with friends by pinning it to the top so that next time you can find them easily.

Facebook has made everything easy for you, the new silence option is for your ease. If you are busy at a specific time you can adjust the silence mode accordingly. Like 15 minutes, 1 hour etc.

Messenger’s photo magic uses facial expressions to make it easy for you to send photos to friends over messenger.  It will detect faces and will notify you to share photos whenever you have a new photo with a friend.

Send your location to a friend in a message or any other location by just dropping the pin on Apple map.

The new fun update allows you to completely change the appearance of any friend. You can customize and edit the names, colors, outline of icons and as well as the chat bubbles.

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How to Add A Lightsaber to Your Facebook Profile Picture to Celebrate ‘The Force Awakens’

Facebook is now letting you show your passion by adding a light stabber in your profile picture. All you have to do is to choose which side you are at.  If you choose to be with Finn , you can over lay a blue stabber and if you choose Kylo Ren instead then you have the red stabber.

The new star wars filter is easy to use. After choosing the color for your stabber, navigate the facebook post for Finn or Kylo. Then press the “Try It” button below the movie poster above the comment section.

By clicking the star wars icon, it will switch the stabber. The stabber can be adjusted anywhere by just repositioning the photo.

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Facebook allows you to keep the stabber for an hour, one day or as long as you want.  Just choose the “Never” option and let the stabber stay on your photo forever.

After choosing the best options for your profile photo, you can save the change and let everyone know which dark side you support.

LinkedIn’s new Facebook-like app arrives on iOS and Android

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Picture credit: Mashable

LinkedIn updated its new app on Tuesday. The app resembles facebook and other social media applications. This app works entirely like facebook. Giving you updates about people in your network, just like news feed on facebook. This new feature allows you to choose what to see in the newsfeed, things you are most interested in.

The app will improve with time, updating itself for becoming better. This new app is interesting as it enables you to see articles and posts from people with similar jobs.

The VP of product says “We’ve moved from a feed that was a lot about your connections to a feed that’s more about the professional topics and interests you choose to follow.”

This app also gives you a list of suggestions of people you may know along with big size cards with updates about your connected friends. It has an improved messaging feature which is better than the previous version and it is 300 % faster.

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Picture credit: Mashable

All new updates are available of IOS and Android.