How to start conversation in Linkedin - To get Hired as Fresh Designer

I am ready with all of my portfolio resumed and I'm ready for the job. But I don't know how to even get started While approaching in LinkedIn while approaching for a job or internship. And I don't know how to even network with people to have that conversation flowing. That initial point is a problem for me. Jagdish, if you are in that category, this podcast is going to address you that I would highly suggest. Open the LinkedIn tool if you're listening to this podcast or you can even take notes and later you can able to do the actions. Okay, so let's start this podcast how you can get the conversation started in LinkedIn and what are all the strategies which you can use. Earlier we had a discussion about LinkedIn strategies and how we can do it, but this is more slightly towards how we can start the conversation flowing. Lot of students in my community also have asked this to know the nuances of how you can able to build that profile. Okay, so the very first point, what I would say is all about research, right? If you are not able to do the research, if you're not able to optimize your profile, what happens is you will not be talking to a proper person. You will not be talking to the right person, right? So this is very important to optimize your profile first in that optimize of optimization of your profile. I would say take a very good photo. You know what a best designed profile photo, more professional or creative or whatever. It attracts 21 times more profile views compared to a normal profile. So if you really wanted a higher engagement rate when people have to really respond to your connections or message. First of all, go and work on your photo. It doesn't take much time. Your simple mobile camera can take a good photo, put it in BG remover apply, put it in canva, remove your background, add some good colors, professional colors, plain colors, simple. If you are a designer, you should be definitely able to do it, right? Don't worry all of this point what I'm telling you. I'm going to be giving you a resources also at the end of this podcast. So do not worry about it. Okay? So the very important part is profile photo. Second is you have to complete all your profile. You'll have to add your details, section headings, your, your your expectation and what is your reason to be in LinkedIn? Please write that particularly in each and every headline. You know what a completed profile is 40 times more likely to receive more connections. That is a LinkedIn profile checklist. I'll be Sharing you that link also. Okay. So that you can check it out how it can do. Because a detailed summary will with lot of things what you're really expecting in the LinkedIn. And like, let's say if you are a designer, if you are a freelancer, if you are a design consulting owner, like how do you what are the reason you are in LinkedIn? And you can write about your real intention behind it, so people will be able to have a more connect with you. Okay, this is first optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Second is identifying your target market. Who is your audience? Let's say if it's a recruiter. So you know what. Users who follow companies are 81 times 81 percentage more likely to accept job opportunities. Users who follow companies are 81 percentage more likely to accept job opportunities. I repeated that because you need to know which company you're following. You need to know research. You need to do a research about your organization or the company, what you're searching for. And then you can utilize LinkedIn search filters. You know what, when you are able to search in a in a filtered way, you can find right companies, right audience, right person to talk with. This saves a lot of your time. You can go to a thing called LinkedIn company pages and you can find the right company there and you can create your own Excel sheet. Normally I used to give an Excel sheet for my students where they fill in real time how this data could be collected and how they can able to analyze the insight and they can able to approach the job based on that. Okay, It's a very, very important step identifying your target audience. The third important point is join relevant groups. See, you need to pause here guys, because lot of times what happens is people join in random groups. You need to strategize what is a group is really intended to go and find out a kind of searches and post and how activities. That group may have 20,000 people, but recently in one year no post has come. There is no point in joining that. Right? You need to join an active group, which is an industry group, which is a designer freelance group. Or maybe it's a designer's job search group. It could be anything. But be more specific in the target market, which you wanted to really add more value and get connected with. You know what? A group members get 5x more connection request because their visibility is already high in LinkedIn things, right in LinkedIn pages and LinkedIn groups. So people will have your visibility already high. You can go to LinkedIn groups guide in LinkedIn learning materials to learn more about it, right? Because five times more connection request happening is not you. You can understand the importance and you know what? Experienced 2 more profile view 2x more profile views. This Experiences 2x more profile views in your profile because this engages in a discussion or chat or anything. This can even effectively improve your connection with other people, right? So you can read an article called Effective LinkedIn Group Strategies because this is more important. And what happens is the fourth important point is content sharing. You know what, when you post an image, when you're able to post a video or when you're able to post a blog, this receives 98 percentage more comments. Guys, this is very, very important. Sharing relevant articles. See, let's say if you wanted to talk about primary research or if you wanted to talk about biomimicry design or anything which is which you are really interested to talk about in design, please feel free to share a content about it. It takes a minute to draw a poster in canva. It takes a minute to do a little research about it using AI tools like Chat, GPT, Google and all these things. And you can do a one post every single day. It doesn't take more than 10 to 15 minutes, right? You can do that blog, you can do that post, you can do anything. You can go to LinkedIn Content Tips. What LinkedIn will suggest you is high quality content and tips. How you can able to get attraction for different recruiters. See, you need to be prepared with all these things. Then and only people whom you are connecting with, they will be able to connect and respond to you just like that. Connecting with people will not give you any results. Guys, we need to be more smart, strategic, understand how much visibility is getting increased. I'm also telling you the stat behind all these points, right? Because this is proven. This is already working good. This is in sync with LinkedIn's algorithm. You if you're not able to follow this, then there is no results. Okay, so use visual contents more rather than writing lot of sentences. Maybe your blog could be very short and simple, but it could be more of pictures, visuals. Because visual content on LinkedIn is a very good strategy you can work on. Okay, so the sixth important point is engage with content. See, you need to engage with the technical content or whatever is your thing. Like let's say if somebody is commenting on your content, this can increase your profile views three times more better, right? Because people will be like searching for a word called user experience design or user interface design or maybe gamification design. So if you are writing an article Or a blog or a picture about that particular gamification market for designers, people will be able to find you three times more better. This is high quality content engagement. You know what, there is an article called Boosting visibility through Engagements. You can go and find out that article. It will be really, really high value addition for you. Because when you are adding one content also per week, like let's say per week, if you're putting at least one or two content, it should be a high quality content, right? This is very important, guys. The seventh important point is personalized connection request. See, this is most, most crucial. Whenever you are doing all these things, make sure your personalized request are very, very specific to the point. Don't be generic. Be very specific why you wanted to connect with that particular industry or a person or a freelancer or somebody, right? Then your request will be accepted more faster. There is an article called crafting the perfect LinkedIn connection request. Whatever I'm suggesting you guys, the articles, this is all available in LinkedIn and which is free. Go to LinkedIn blog and you can read about this particular specific keyword and you can take notes and you can implement it. If you are able to work specifically on a topic, on particularly working on your post or making a profile or your profile picture or anything. This attracts more connections in your LinkedIn profile. And what happens is you will get at least every single day five to 10 people will be interacting with you. You can call them, you can email them, you can have a conversation with them. What happens is out of these people, there are 20 percentage chances people will call you for an interview or they will give you design task. So 10 people, if you're talking to two people will give you chance for interview or maybe a chance for design task, right? This is really sounds good. People who are mindlessly searching for jobs, they don't end up anywhere. People who do it with this strategy step by step. That's why I told you take lot of notes and implement each and every step in order. Then you will see the results happening. If you are not getting results, you can definitely count on me because this is already proven and working, right? You can able to write this in the podcast also. Hey Jagdish, I followed exactly the 10 steps what you said, but I'm not getting results. Maybe you could have made some mistakes, maybe you could have done it in a wronger way. But you followed the 10 steps but in a wronger way. I'll give you feedback, not a problem. Because if you have that accountability and follow up with you, you'll be able to correct your mistakes as well. Lot of times people when I tell them, they go and implement, but they implement it in a wrong way. Right? That is why I'm giving you this opportunity to talk back to me. I will be definitely able to give you a reply. There is an email also. You can write about your entire what you call need and wants so that I can able to specifically guide and help you. Not a problem. I cannot do it for all the people, people who engage in this podcast. Immediately I can able to revert you back. Okay. Okay. So you need to mention your interest and connection towards that particular personalized connection. Okay. This is a seventh step. The eighth important step is dm, which is direct messaging. See, in a mail, if you directly message, it has 300 percentage higher response rate. Craft a personalized concise message. Guys, use very good prompts. In Chat GPT, you can be very specific without any grammatical error. Ask a clear response. Definitely ChatGPT will give you. Or maybe a Google bard or maybe a Google search will give you a very good personalized message. You can go to a file called LinkedIn InMail Best Practices. There are a lot of articles around it. You can go and read about it and you can imply it. Okay, choose one or two good email messages. Craft it with your projects and portfolio. Craft it with your strength and weakness and you can directly message a person. What happens? Don't copy paste anything from chat GPT. Write in your own way. Use the tools. Do not allow the tools. I always repeat this. Okay, so you need to understand, you need to craft your message. Because if you are sending somebody a direct message, it should be short, precise, to the point, crisp and clear, interesting, engaging, showcasing your strength and weakness or showcasing your project which is most relevant for them. That is why 300% higher response rate happens for you. Right? And the eighth important part is informational interviews. See, 85% of the jobs are filled through networking. You need to request informational interviews. So mastering that informational interview requires this kind of skill. Okay, it comes by practice. You can read this article. I pasted that link. You can be thoughtful in your questions, prepare some good questions for you, prepare some good amount of information. You can find a good LinkedIn networking guide. Also. So what happens is you can find good informational interviews while talking to people, asking them for interviews, asking them for chance to interact with them. Because that is actually a very good seed whenever you're going for next level of recruitment or job. Okay, I already told you. 85% of the jobs are filled through very good networking. So a lot of people give you references if you talk with them through a proper strategy, proper method while you by using all these eight techniques. Okay, so the ninth important part is offer value. See, you should not be always taking information from them. You should give 10 times more information to them. A profile that publishes content, you know that gets six times more profile views because you are adding a lot of value to the LinkedIn on the viewers who are viewing this, right? So you are putting a video, if you are putting a post, if you are writing some blog. You know what guys? Universe gives you more when you give more. It's as simple as that. There is nothing G boomba magic and all here. Okay? The more you plant trees, the more you will able to get fresh air. The more you are able to save resources, the more you will get it back. The more you are able to help people, the more you will get help. Simple. If you are able to content, if you are able to publish more content and give more information in your LinkedIn page and if you're able to talk to people like as if you're offering more value and if you are able to talk to certain people with resources like let's say, hey, I found your profile is interesting. I'm suggesting you this material you can read and improve. I feel this is a feedback. You can voluntarily genuinely tell that what happens is 10 other people will give you returns for that. Okay, so don't think about returns but just honestly give you. It's all about farming. LinkedIn is about farming. It's not about hunting. Okay, so you can go and read an article called LinkedIn Content Marketing. It will be a very professional helpful tool. You can create a profile there and create a very good strong pitch. Guys, finally, because profile with a very good pitch, summarizing what's your real intention? Summarizing what's your real skill? Summarizing what are you really capable of solving a problem for an industry that attracts more people. It aligns with the target market needs, target recruiter needs. And you can able to do it very superbly. Okay, you can go and read an article called writing a LinkedIn summary. You can very well write a summary and which is like a pitch statement and a hook statement for your target market. And the last but not the least very important, I would say it's a golden tip. Guys, please have a very good personalized branding elements with you. If you are a designer, definitely you need to create a logo. If you are a designer, definitely you need to Have a clear written mission statement why you are becoming a designer? What is the impact which you're going to create in this society being a designer? Hey Jagdish, you're talking something very high and big. No, guys, this is normal. If you don't have a reason why you wanted to become a designer, I would say you can even stop this podcast and leave this. It's not going to add any value. Whatever you listen so far you wasted the time. Please don't do that. If you are in this podcast still, you are listening. If you're listening for design for Change, you could have understood why is the very important question which I used to always tell my students and in the podcast also, please write it down. If you're not having that. Why? Probably you are not driven in design like somebody else is driving you. Or maybe you have chosen design for something else. Or maybe salaries. Yeah, salary could be an outcome. But that's a. That's not the real point. That's the real point is why you are in design and what value you are adding. Money is a byproduct, right? So always don't write money as a reason. No, money is not the real reason. What you're doing it could be for maybe an auxiliary reason, maybe a secondary reason or something like that. But the primary reason is something else. You are here adding value for a different point, right? Like maybe some people would think in terms of adding value to a system. Some people think in adding value to an organization or maybe for their personal benefit also for their own satisfaction also. Yeah, money could be an outcome or a byproduct of it. Right? So write clearly, what is your mission statement? Your logo. Your mission statement and add a tagline to your logo. What happens is when people see your logo, people connect with you in a very personalized mode because symbolization and iconization people have a personalized touch. Why companies create a logo, why companies create a brand name, why companies really check all these things before they launch a product in the online, they could have done it, did it without a logo also, right? You know what? 83 crores has been spent for designing a logo for Apple. When Steve Jobs did it. Yeah, that's in a higher scale. But think why leaders have really thought logo is important. Of course, 83 crores would have been went into R and D for researching about Apple products. Right. But why we all connect Apple Majorly because of logo. Majorly because of the tagline, majorly because of the vision of that one man. Vision Mission brand logo tagline will Have a personalized touch with you, Particularly if you're a designer. You need to do it. Guys. You can use Canva Logo Maker, you can use Hatch Full, a very beautiful tool for creating logo. You can use 99designs.com. I'll be pasting you that link also. Definitely. It'll create a huge impact. Guys, in your profile, when you're developing this habit, please work on all these 11 steps and then start approaching in LinkedIn. Whatever I told you, this will become a goldmine for you. Okay, so to summarize on this podcast, optimizing your LinkedIn profile with COVID photos and complete your headings and summary details and identifying your target market and joining in the relevant groups and giving some requests specifically and sharing your content and engaging with the technical content and personalizing your connection request and directly messaging to them and information interviews and getting networked and getting referrals and offering a value proposition and creating a strong pitch and creating a personalized logo mission statement and a tagline for it. If you're able to Follow these tips 100% sure, if you consistently do 21 days of networking in LinkedIn, chances are minimum you will get at least 10 meaningful connections out of which 5 interviews or maybe 3 bare minimum interviews. You will get it. Guys, you know what? If you really crack all these things and go for a job, bare minimum, you can get 50 to 60,000. Being a designer, you don't have to have any experience. You need to have a right intention why you wanted to become a designer and what skills you got. And you have to showcase to that people. If the recruiter is seeing that nobody cares whether you are from a design college or whether you have learned it on your own, or what kind of a skill do you have, it doesn't matter. People will be able to happily hire you. So please go and implement all the steps and you will see the difference. And also I already told you, you can write it to me in the podcast. How do you really reflect on these topics? Okay, thank you so much guys. All the best. Take care. Bye bye. See you. Ra.