LinkedIn Landmen Profile Strengths in the Industry
By Michele Day
Remember the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”? Getting to know the right people in the oil and gas industry has just gotten easier for landmen using LinkedIn. LinkedIn, a business related social network founded in 2003, has changed the way landmen and others connect to find jobs and build their business reputation in the field of oil and gas. With over 225 million members, landmen recognize the business benefits of LinkedIn and are setting up strong profiles to set them apart as experts in the field.
Today, it is not enough to have a strong resume neatly typed on crisp white letterhead ready to present to a potential employer. A paper resume with a list of bulleted skills is just not enough. With the onset of Social Media, landmen are utilizing the internet to seek jobs and stay connected in the oil and gas industry. According to US News and World Report, it was reported “that three-quarters of managers surveyed hired through social networks: 92% used LinkedIn, 24% hired from Facebook, and 14% found their new hires on Twitter. Also, 94% of hiring managers use social networks at some point during the recruiting process, and 93% say they are likely to look at candidates social profiles. According to the survey, when recruiters view your LinkedIn profile, they want to verify professional experience, length of professional tenure and specific hard skills. The take-away for all active job seekers, as well as for those who plan to begin searching, is to beef up your LinkedIn activity and build a strong profile that highlights those areas. Also go a step beyond to provide interests and showcase soft skills that prove you will be the right cultural fit.”
LinkedIn is the landman’s electronic on-line resume. Creating a detailed profile is key for businesses to view your skills. To start, landmen may want to ask friends and family to help identify skills and add relevant details that may be overlooked when beefing up their LinkedIn Profile.
Reviewing strong profiles online can help in the creation of the landman’s LinkedIn image. In the article “Three Stunningly Good LinkedIn Profile Summaries by Andy Foote, several LinkedIn summaries were featured including the following profile of Mark Lazen, VP Implementation of 2U: “I am a seasoned digital executive, leader, and strategist. I am an expert in business and process design. As a Principal at Social Media Today, I created a multi-million dollar company with 10 distinct online communities. Fortune 50 clients, hundreds of editorial contributors, 1.5 million page views per month, and a #2 Google ranking for “social media”. I’ve worn many hats in my career-programmer, writer, researcher, manager, marketer, and strategist. As a result, I have a unique ability to manage multi-disciplinary projects and navigate complex challenges. But actual experience has taught me that my professional value boils down to the following:
- I’ve been directing development of media since the Web was born.
- I don’t care who gets the credit. I just want to win.
- I have Big ideas.
- Lots of people have Big ideas. Execution is what matters, and I do execution.
- If my left and right brain were hands, I would be ambidextrous.
- I am the calm one.
- I run toward fires.
- I love making new professional acquaintances.
- Reach out if you want to talk technology, business, or baseball.
- Specialties: Operational management, creative direction, editorial direction, communications, training and employee development, web development, product design, social media, and web analytics.”
More strong profile examples can be reviewed on LinkedInSights.com.
On the flip-side, “Richmond Personal Career Services” showed how to avoid a weak LinkedIn profile like Matthew Smith who had a poor photo; didn’t say what industry he is in; no clear idea of what he wants to do; typing errors; and a very little content that read, “I am a proactive, results-oriented manager and professional. Excellent communication skills and 25 years experience including 13 in senior management roles. Looking to work in sales, telecoms, light engineering or the public sector. Good at operations and general management.”
If landmen already have a LinkedIn profile and want to update it, a good option is to temporarily turn off “Activity Broadcast” so you can silently update your profile without letting the entire world know about it. Turning off the “Activity Broadcast” stops sending updated notices to the feed and Wall. To do this, go to ‘Settings’, and under ‘Privacy Controls’, you should be able to see ‘Turn on/off your activity broadcasts’. Click on that and another overlay window will appear allowing you to uncheck the option. After saving these changes, other users won’t be able to see every detailed profile update you’ve made. You can choose to leave it off or turn it on after you’re done editing.
Another way to Landmen are setting their LinkedIn accounts apart from others is be having a customized URL. Normally, the default LinkedIn profile URL will have random alphanumerical characters. However, landmen can elect to have a customized profile URL by going to Settings > Edit Public Profile > Customize Your Public Profile URL.
Network to groups in the Landmen industry such as AAPL, Land Professionals of the Oil and Gas Industry, Land Management Professionals, Professional Land Surveyors and GIS Professionals, Oil and Gas Land Department Professionals, Women in the Industry, Young Land Professionals, Denver Oil and Gas Community, Oil and Gas Pros, Oil and Gas People, Oil and Gas Careers, just to name a few of the LinkedIn groups to add to your connections.
Groups show up in your profile and demonstrate the landman’s interests. LinkedIn groups provide an avenue to meet people in your industry and have in-depth conversations. Groups are a valuable resource to help with challenges. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t forget to help others in return – you will be remembered for helping and build solid business relationships.
To build credibility, landmen ask for recommendations and endorsements from others and provide recommendations. According to the Forbes article “How to Write a LinkedIn Recommendation” by Liz Ryan, “The best LinkedIn recommendations are specific. They don’t use generalities like “Pam is a great person” or “Joe is a wonderful co-worker.” You can use words to bring your friend to life in your LinkedIn recommendation. If you tell a short story in your recommendation, the reader will get a little slice of the experience you had working with Pam or Joe. Here are examples of two LinkedIn recommendations you can use to start writing your own recommendations:
Sally and I worked together at Acme Explosives, where she was in Marketing and I was her liaison to the Sales team. Sally was a fount of information about the latest product releases, competitive stats and creative ways to turn customer conversations into selling opportunities. Sally is a talented, hard-working and warm co-worker and a joy to collaborate with. I miss her!
Christof and I served on an engineering team to bring Prodigal Products’ high-speed internet solution to the Middle East market. Christof had tremendous ideas and was always supportive of our colleagues and customers, even when his own workload was overwhelming. In one case we were stuck in Dubai and had a client emergency in Australia, and Christof devoted a full day to solving the problem from the waiting area at an airport. He’s a top-notch engineer and a wise businessperson who’d made a tremendous addition to any product development team.”
Studying all avenues of LinkedIn from profiles to recommendations pays off for the landman. A variety of business people and companies have used LinkedIn to grow their business. An article in Ragan.com, outlined how LinkedIn assisted James Filbird, the owner of JMF International Trade Group. Filbird used LinkedIn to grow his company to $5 million in annual revenue and finds 75 percent of his business via LinkedIn. He used the site to meet and maintain relationships with like-minded professionals. Using LinkedIn to develop his network consistently leads to new business opportunities for his American-owned, China-based consulting firm.”
According to the article “LinkedIn Success Stories” by Alison Doyle, Steve Weinstein was recruited after a company found him on LinkedIn. “The recruiter for Cooper (Steve's current employer) did a search for marketing communications people in the metro Milwaukee area, and found Steve, among others, who fit the bill for the open position that Cooper had open. Steve went in, interviewed for the job and landed it. Now he's the Manager of Marketing Communications at Cooper Power Systems and he also is a member of the LinkedIn Milwaukee Group.”
With many social media platforms to choose from, the first professional place to start is LinkedIn where landmen are connecting to other landmen and businesses in their field.