Hiring or looking for a job? Upgrade your LinkedIn profile to stand out

When most people find themselves unemployed or are looking for a career change, they head to a job board. But have you heard of LinkedIn? It’s a social media platform with a twist.

LinkedIn also offers excellent options for those looking to hire employees who don’t want to wait for a sea of faceless applications to pour in. It provides prospective employees unique ways to stand out and gives companies a fresh way to look for new talent. Tap or click for smart things you should be doing with your LinkedIn profile.

Job seekers are looking for a way to outshine their competition, while those looking to hire want to make sure they are finding a good fit. Let’s look at ways to make your LinkedIn profile stand out.

Add a video to your profile for a personal touch

LinkedIn has a feature to highlight your skills: Personal video. Commercial videos and advertisements have become increasingly popular in today’s social media climate, and now you can add one to your LinkedIn profile.

Everyone has a story that led them to their career path, and now you can highlight yours. With this feature, you can add a Cover Story to showcase your specific skills and background while highlighting your personality. If you are looking for a job, this video feature is a great way to shine.

If you are looking to hire someone, this feature allows you to get a personal look into prospective employees’ lives, something you don’t get with just a resume.

Hiring? Stand out as a company

LinkedIn isn’t just great for job seekers. It’s the premier platform for companies to find qualified candidates fast. In fact, it’s the platform we use to find new talent.

But how do you stand out as a company in such a fierce market? There are a few things you can do to outshine other employers.

  • Have a detailed “about us” section. Be sure to answer basic questions like where you are based, what you offer and your company values.
  • Post meaningful content highlighting your brand. Keep it light-hearted and entertaining to draw prospective employees’ eyes.
  • Create a showcase page. This allows you to maintain a LinkedIn-style blog where you highlight your brand daily.

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Smart ways to make more money and find new customers

Small business owners must build trust, set trends and share their customers’ values. Connecting with customers is one of the most important ways to make money.

Success starts close to home. Before connecting with customers, you must build strong bonds with your teammates. Tap or click here for five leadership secrets every small business owner should know.

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Use YouTube without a mouse: When you’re watching YouTube videos, press K to pause or play, J to rewind 10 seconds, and L to fast-forward 10 seconds. And, while you’re there, join me at YouTube.com/KimKomando.

3 ways you're a target online

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Single? Posting vacation pics? Sharing Instagram videos? These everyday habits can put you in a scammer’s crosshairs. Also, China’s stolen military secrets, why Gen Z is ditching cars, and the best way to clean up duplicate photos.

All I want for Christmas is a capybara: No, not me! The semiaquatic rodents that live up to 12 years and weigh up to 150 pounds have stolen the internet’s heart with viral videos. In a Reddit post, a 24-year-old brother asked if he was a jerk for thinking it’s just a TikTok phase his 16-year-old sister will grow out of. Spoiler: She will.

53% of businesses

Have been targeted by a financial deepfake scam. Even worse, 43% fell for it. These scams use bogus images, videos or audio recordings to convince people to buy gift cards, wire money or otherwise spend. If you get a random financial request at work, reach out to the person directly to confirm.

How to protect your teen on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat

Social media is a minefield of dangers for teens, exposing them to extreme content like anorexia “thinspiration,” drug culture, hardcore pornography, suicide glorification and even predatory grooming. Algorithms push the darkest corners of the internet right onto their screens, sometimes with devastating consequences.

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Security tip: Next time you stay at a hotel, turn on your VPN

Did you know the average American spends more than 24 hours each week online? That is a considerable chunk of time.

If you’re one of many with multiple devices regularly accessing the internet, you probably know you need a secure connection to protect sensitive data. A virtual private network or VPN is the best way to do this.

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Future of hiring: Gen Z is ditching traditional resumes and recording videos on TikTok to land jobs. Take Nicole, who applied for a Barstool Sports internship with a video resume and racked up over 657,000 views. No word on how many recruiters saw it, but it sure beats having a resume get buried in an inbox or automatically trashed by an AI bot.

Take a break: By default, YouTube will load a new video for you to watch after the one you’re viewing ends. The setting to change it isn’t very easy to spot. It’s the small toggle switch down in the right corner. You’re welcome.

🏥 Hope she’s OK: Celebrity chef Rachael Ray posted an Instagram video in which she was slurring her words. It racked up hundreds of thousands of views, and internet “doctors” speculated a stroke, alcoholism or worse. On a recent podcast, Ray said she’d suffered “a couple of bad falls” but no other details.

🇨🇳 Patreon copycat: Communist China app TikTok’s new Subscription feature lets you offer paying subscribers exclusive content, like videos, notes and unique badges. To qualify, you must be 18 or older and have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the past calendar month. I wouldn’t put my efforts into this until we know what’s going on with the ban.

Save data: Chat apps like WhatsApp are excellent for keeping in touch but can eat up a ton of data. If you use one, open its settings and customize how media is downloaded. If you pick Wi-Fi, you won’t download videos and pics until you’re on a recognized network. Nice.

🚨 If that’s how it is, Soviet: Russia’s propaganda machine paid a Tennessee media company $10 million to post pro-Kremlin content. Tenet Media has a roster of popular right-wing influencers, including Dave Rubin, Tim Pool and Benny Johnson. The hosts say they had no clue Russia was paying them. FYI: Since November 2023, they’ve posted nearly 2,000 videos, racking up 16 million views on YouTube alone.

📝 Keeping up with the Kontracts: Kim Kardashian’s 8-year-old son, Saint, is starting his own YouTube channel, but only after signing a contract. Some of the terms? No recording while big sister North is making music, show Mom all videos before posting, and Mom can delete the account or make it private if he breaks the rules. Love the idea? I’ve got my own Kids’ Tech Contract you can use with a little one in your life.

The new influencers: Unemployed folks are using TikTok to share “day in the life” videos with followers to show how they cope. The algorithm rewards shocking and emotional content, so it’s a good way to rack up views — and money. Better idea: Refresh your LinkedIn profile and set yourself as #OpenToWork there to find an actual job (paywall link).

Crime gets clicks: A beauty store in Concord, California, came up with a clever way to stop shoplifting: Posting videos of thieves on TikTok. They have a sign warning would-be bandits, and it’s working. Since they started posting, thefts are down, sales are up, and their TikTok account is racking up millions of views.

Search battle: AI chatbots vs. Google

Still turning to Google for answers? How we search online is changing faster than I’ve ever seen in tech.

Google still processes a massive 8.5 billion daily searches, but AI is coming in hot. As of July, 1.5 billion people globally were using AI chatbots, and that market is projected to hit $455 million in revenue by 2027.

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A helicopter was about 75 feet above my house in Santa Barbara, and I looked up the tail number on Flightradar24. Is it an insurance company taking videos to decide on coverage or the county checking whether someone’s built something they can tax them on?