Should you share your personal interests on LinkedIn? At first blush, it doesn’t seem like a social media site that lends itself to that. The culture of the site and the format of the profile can feel very business-centric. Yet, there are many ways you can use LinkedIn to show folks that you are more than what you do for a living.

Whether you are a job seeker, a business owner, or a business development professional – you benefit by sharing your personal side.

Start by adding some sections to your LinkedIn profile that relate to your personal interests, especially your participation in volunteer activities. Then vary your posts to talk about business topics as well as information that ties to those interests.

 

Share Personal Interests in Your Profile

  • Use part of your profile Summary to include some personal interests. These could be references to your involvement in nonprofit organizations as well as to hobbies, and pastimes.
  • If you hold or have held leadership roles in nonprofit entities, list them as positions in your Experience Doing this draws attention to the nonprofits to which you contribute your time and talent. Plus, it illustrates your generosity of spirit and showcases your leadership abilities.
  • Use the Volunteer experience section as well. This is a good place to list things like working with a food bank, rescue mission, or other charity.
  • Incorporate time-limited activities into the Projects part of the Accomplishments Examples could include leading or being on the committee organizing a fundraiser or other event.
  • Describe the nature of the Organizations when you mention them. For example, when writing about my involvement with Toastmasters, I could briefly describe it as an organization that helps people improve their communication and leadership skills.

 

Share Personal Interests in Your Posts

  • Share posts about events your nonprofit is sponsoring. Recently, I shared a post about an upcoming Toastmasters event designed to help introduce people to the organization.
  • Publicize fundraisers for your favorite charity. Be sure to include the link to the event or where people can donate.
  • Share posts and photos after an event. Doing so helps keep up the excitement generated during the event and may encourage people to go to the organization’s website to learn more – be sure to include the link.
  • Include periodic thought pieces about topics you care about. You can do this through publishing articles yourself. You can also create a short post with a link to a blog post or white paper and encouraging people to read it and comment on your post. However, as this is still a business-centric site, I would avoid posting about divisive topics.

 

How About You?

How have you shared your personal interests via LinkedIn? What kind of feedback have you gotten? How have you seen others do it in ways that were engaging?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 45 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com