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Susan White (00:02)
It’s not just a resume site anymore. It’s a leadership and influence platform. And I think that’s really important because visibility leads to opportunity.

JoDee Curtis (00:16)
Welcome to The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, where we help HR and business leaders embrace joy in the workplace. I’m JoDee Curtis, owner of Purple Ink, an HR consulting and talent development firm, and with me is my dear friend and co-host, Susan White, owner of Susan Tinder White Consulting, an HR consulting practice. Susan is also a senior executive collaborator with Purple Ink.

Several months ago, one of our listeners asked us to talk about getting the most out of LinkedIn. Ironically, a new member of our Purple Ink team just asked me the same question this week, so I thought it was a good time and a good topic to explore. Many of you might understand the value of using LinkedIn to find a job, or you may be contacted by recruiters who use LinkedIn to find you on there, or others might use it to find prospects to sell their goods and services, and when I co-authored the book JoyPowered® Networking we talked about using it as a great way to network, to keep connected to people you meet. And those are all true, but you can also use it to build a brand. And we’ll talk about that more today. Susan, I thought we’d start by sharing our own experiences with LinkedIn. What features or tools do you use on LinkedIn, and why might you recommend it to others?

Susan White (02:01)
It’s funny that this is our topic today because just yesterday I was telling a friend of mine how grateful I feel that LinkedIn — really, when I retired from my corporate job and started doing consulting in 2014, how grateful I am that it existed. I don’t know how I would have stayed in touch the last 11 years with people that I’ve worked with. I don’t know how all the people that I’ve met, I would have easy access to staying in touch with them.

I am confident that I have gotten business through it because people will think of me and say, “Susan, didn’t I hear you’re consulting?” They’ll send me a LinkedIn message because they may not have my email. When I meet people, it’s definitely — I’ve profited from it, from business coming to me. I don’t do any promotions on LinkedIn. I don’t — people who connect with me, I do not sell to them, but people find me. And that has been the best gift.

But I also, just from a social standpoint, I love hearing from people that come across, I might pop up on them or I might’ve posted something and then they’ll reach out and say, we gotta have a virtual coffee. Anyway, it’s just been wonderful for me professionally and personally. I will tell you, I have 3,111 connections today. In 2014 when I started, I had like 300. And so it has been like a 10 time growth, but I really curate — curate my list. I have to know you and I have to like you. And not everyone has made that cut.

So I really feel good about my 3,111 people. If I’m a first connection to somebody, they might have been in a class I taught and I liked them, or it might be somebody I worked with and I liked them. So I feel really, if someone said to me, I see you’re connected to so-and-so, I can go back and figure out, yeah, I am connected to them and here’s why I like them.

JoDee Curtis (03:31)
Yes. You know, you just made a good point that I wasn’t going to talk about today, but we can talk about it here, is — or you mentioned sort of your requirement for accepting a connection on LinkedIn, and some people are, you know, very close to the vest on that. Whereas, like, on Facebook, I’m pretty careful about who I accept on there, but on LinkedIn, I have been one to accept most all connections, not all of them. If I feel like it might be someone who’s only trying to sell to me, then I do not connect with them. But because I do an awful lot of training and speaking, I have a lot of people in my audiences or classes that I always think, you know, maybe I’ll want to be connected with them down the road, or maybe they’ll think about me for a future training or speaking opportunity as well, too. So my guidelines on acceptances are, standards are pretty low, I guess, although it’s not all of them for sure.

Susan White (05:13)
Sure, I get that, I get that. I will look to see when someone sends me an invite, like, if they have, like, four other people, I’m thinking maybe this is not a real person, you know, they’re connect — yeah. But I’m just, if someone doesn’t send a note and say, “hey, this is where I met you, how I knew you,” if it wasn’t the same day I knew that person was in my class or that I had met them, I’m just real reluctant. I don’t know why I do, I hold it close to my chest, yeah.

JoDee Curtis (05:39)
Yes. Yeah.

Susan White (05:41)
But your strategy has worked beautifully for you, because I know you’ve gotten a lot of business that has come to you because people have met you and they’ve seen you in action and they’re like, “we need her.” So that, it works.

JoDee Curtis (05:48)
Yes. Well, and I do use it as a branding opportunity really for myself and for Purple Ink. And of course, both of us use it as a platform to promote this podcast as well, too. We always post about the newest episodes and getting people excited about it.

Susan White (06:05)
That’s right.

JoDee Curtis (06:13)
I will tell you that 10 months ago, I had 7,250 connections on LinkedIn. And I know that because I wrote it down and I set a goal to add a thousand connections in that fiscal year. And I can tell you it was much harder than I thought it would be. I got to…

Susan White (06:40)
That’s a big number. Really.

JoDee Curtis (06:41)
I got to about 80% of my goal. Now I have 52 days left and I have two… what did I look this morning? I have, like, 230 more to get. So if you’re listening to me and you want to be connected to me on LinkedIn, I will accept, use this as a little ploy to reach my goal. And I’m hoping you might reach out and link in with me on LinkedIn.

Susan White (07:13)
I wish I could give you one, but we’ve been linked in together so long. So sorry about that. I can’t help that goal.

JoDee Curtis (07:15)
That’s right. Yeah. You know, I am also a business owner and I’ll admit, I’m looking for more business. Now, believe me, that does not mean I’m reaching out to my 8,000 connections and asking for business. I want to be a thought leader in the HR and the business world. I want to gain people’s trust and I want people to look to me as someone they would reach out to if they had an HR issue. So when I make my posts, you know, I guess I could say I want to be an HR influencer on there. Yeah.

Now, before I started my business in 2010 — and I did look up LinkedIn started, or it, it became available for public use in 2003, and I just used it as a way to be able to find people that I didn’t necessarily want to add their phone number and their email to my contact list. But it was, you know, again, people in my classes or hearing me speak, thinking I might have a reason to connect with them or maybe a client. But honestly, I didn’t post a lot, you know. I did use it, though, to learn about when people got promotions or took on new jobs and to learn about what was going on in the business community.

So for our listeners today, I think about what about you? What are you using LinkedIn for and what might you hope to gain from it? You may or may not have the same goals as Susan and I, they might be completely different. Or do you even — have you even thought about having a goal with LinkedIn, right? Maybe you’re just kind of there and not having any specific goals about it. So hopefully we can help you today if you do have a goal.

Susan White (09:25)
Yeah, I was going to mention that back when I was doing career coaching, I, it was so helpful to have LinkedIn because you could look at your network to figure out are there people who work at certain companies that might be willing out of the goodness of their heart to do informational interviews. Certainly, I think that LinkedIn’s job posting program is terrific. They really, most professional jobs, organizations are going to put a posting out on LinkedIn, whether they pay to do it or they share it out there. So I just believe that professionals really do want to be active on LinkedIn. They may not be looking for a job, but you wanna make sure you’ve got connections out there, you’re staying current. There’s so many wonderful articles people post out there. For me, I look at LinkedIn at least once a day, usually more.

JoDee Curtis (10:13)
Yeah, I do too. I do too. And you, you brought up a good point that I didn’t even specifically mention, that Purple Ink, of course, we do offer recruiting. So we post all of our open positions on LinkedIn as a way to… And sometimes those are paid ads and sometimes those are just posts as well, too, Depends on how, you know, how much promotion we need on the position. But LinkedIn is a powerful tool, but only if you use it intentionally. So today we’ll walk through why does LinkedIn matter, how to use it effectively, and what strategies can help you build trust and influence. Susan, why don’t you start with why does LinkedIn matter?

Susan White (10:45)
Well, let’s start with the big picture. LinkedIn has over 1 billion — yes, with a B — 1 billion members across 200 plus countries and territories as of 2025. And that’s according to Forbes.

It’s not just a resume site anymore. It’s a leadership and influence platform. And I think that’s really important because visibility leads to opportunity. When you post regularly, you’re not just sharing updates, you’re shaping how others perceive your credibility, your expertise, and your values. People get to know you over that platform.

JoDee Curtis (11:44)
A recent Forbes study analyzed 8000 LinkedIn posts from executives and found they generated 37 million views and 500,000 engagements. And that’s not just noise, that’s impact.

So why might you want to post more? Well, because frequency builds familiarity. Forbes found that posting two to three times per week led to 57% more engagement than posting just once a week. And visibility matters. Most LinkedIn posts earn the bulk of their views within 24 hours, so if you’re only posting once a week, you’re invisible more than 85% of the time, which is fascinating.

Susan White (12:36)
Wow, you — I know a lot of people will hire someone to be their social media person and they are out there doing all that. As a single proprietor HR consulting person of one, for me to do once a week, which I don’t, but if I did once a week, that would be real effort for me. But now that I see the value, you know, it does make sense. If you really want to not be invisible out there, you need to be concerted, intentional, and probably have somebody really dropping…

JoDee Curtis (13:09)
Yeah.

Susan White (13:10)
…information more frequently than I would have. So it’s really not just about being seen. You know, we want to be trusted. And I can understand that if you’re out there a lot on LinkedIn, you can start to build trust. If you’re bringing really good content regularly, people start to look towards you and you realize your dream, JoDee, of really being an HR influencer in your case. Because if we can build that trust in our brand online, it says 77% of business-to-business marketing leaders say buyers vet brands through their LinkedIn network, not just comparing company websites. They’re out there reading what you’re posting, seeing what kind of activity you get, what people are commenting on that you’ve put out there. So very powerful.

JoDee Curtis (13:56)
Yeah. And all of that means your profile, your posts and your interactions are part of your professional reputation. They shape how others decide to work with you, hire you, or refer you. And by the way, it’s not just about you. It’s not just JoDee Curtis. It benefits my company and my network overall. And that consistent posting can help build that brand awareness and strengthen those relationships as well.

So let’s talk a bit of strategy and what actually works on LinkedIn. We’ve mentioned before to post frequently — again, if this is your goal, right, to be an influencer on LinkedIn — but don’t worry about perfection when you post or, you know, always saying the exact words. LinkedIn, of course, has an algorithm and it rewards consistency.

And secondly, tell stories. I think people love to hear stories about what’s going on in your business. And posts between about 1,500 to 3,000 characters have the highest engagement rates. So use line breaks and make it digestible to people.

Susan White (15:21)
They also advise that you should use visuals. I know I am drawn when I see a photo, a picture, a video, I’m drawn to it. Video posts now slightly outperform images, 2.35% versus 2.32%, but only when they’re insight rich, according to Forbes. So you wanna be original. If you can use real people that people identify with, even better, if you have their permission.

Resharing others’ posts earns less than half of the engagement than an original content post is. Every once in a while, I am so moved by somebody’s that I share it. But if you’re looking for engagement, that may not be the strategy. Doing your original content, according to Forbes, would be a better route to go. LinkedIn will reward authorship and credibility. And finally, grow your network thoughtfully. Add your LinkedIn link to your email signature, your business cards, your newsletters. Comment meaningfully on others’ posts. So get it out there.

JoDee Curtis (16:22)
Yeah. Here are a few other quick tips to help you get the most out of LinkedIn. Number one, audit your profile. Make sure your headline and your about section tell your story. And is it up to date? Right?

Susan White (16:39)
Yes, and I’ve heard about the photo it’s very important it’s a smiling photo. Make sure, recruiters, anybody’s looking to engage with you — this is the time for positivity. You know, that may not be your natural state, but this is the time. So smile in that photo.

JoDee Curtis (16:56)
Yeah, and use keywords that reflect your expertise and goals. It’s important to note too, if you are using it to look for a new position, those keywords can be anywhere in your LinkedIn. They can be in the profile, they can be in the job description, they can be a skills section as well, too.

So if our team is searching for candidates on LinkedIn and they’re looking for someone within a hundred miles of Indianapolis who has 10 years of experience in engineering who have supervised a team or led a successful team, all those words we might be plugging in to find candidates. Have those words in there somewhere, right?

Susan White (17:56)
Another tip that I got is that kill the suit. You wanna make sure — resumes are usually pretty formal, but LinkedIn is, your approachability is important because you want people to contact you who don’t know you, right? And so if you are usually really buttoned down and dress up in a suit, if you’re a male, probably not time to wear a tie. If you’re a female, maybe it’s time to go with a sweater instead of a jacket. You decide what you feel is most approachable. With that smile is going to increase the likelihood that people will go ahead and click and send you a message.

JoDee Curtis (18:31)
Yeah, I love it. I love it. Then again, we talked about, you know, engaging on other people’s posts or joining conversations that people can see you’re visible on there as well.

Susan White (18:47)
I have this real need to encourage other people. I find it, it fills my bucket to help other people feel better about themselves and about what they’re doing. And so I, you know, I told you, I’m out on LinkedIn at least every day, once a time, once a day, but probably several times more than that on most days. When I’ve got nothing to do and I’m waiting for a doctor, I’ll go out and look at LinkedIn and I read people’s posts, I read their articles and I’m forever liking them, noting that a heart or support or an idea, I feel like it’s a great way to affirm other people. So doing that helps my digital footprint. So it does help me and the LinkedIn algorithms. For those of you that when you got time to kill and you got your mobile device with you, why not?

JoDee Curtis (19:37)
Yeah, I agree. I love it.

Susan White (19:41)
LinkedIn isn’t just a platform. It is a professional stage that you’re on. Show up, share your voice, and build the kind of trust that opens doors for you to the degree you want them opened.

JoDee Curtis (19:52)
Yeah, I love it. So a couple other goals that we just briefly mentioned that I thought I would add about too, I think we could do a whole podcast on finding a job on LinkedIn with some of the tips that we use today. But I did, I actually have a friend who works for LinkedIn, and I reached out to her and I said, what are you talking about internally at LinkedIn or what do you always recommend that people do specifically if they’re looking for a new role?

And she said the best advice is for people to keep their profile up to date and add skills for different roles they’ve had. She said that sounds straightforward, but that people don’t always think about how LinkedIn’s job matching algorithm works and what powers the tools that recruiters have. As — again, as Purple Ink being a recruiter, we have a lot of extra tools that we can use to find people on LinkedIn that the average user doesn’t have.

Those keywords, those experiences, you mentioned earlier, Susan, as well, about the difference between a resume and LinkedIn. You know, we always recommended people to keep their resumes short, but on LinkedIn, that’s not necessarily true. You can add all you want on there. Not that you necessarily need to add, you know, that I worked at Dairy Queen when I was in high school, which might not be relevant, but it does give me an opportunity in going back a few more years to show some more skills or different experiences that I had as well too.

Susan White (21:46)
And that increases the likelihood that you’re going to have more words match up for the Boolean word search. So yeah, it’s time to let it all out.

JoDee Curtis (21:56)
Yeah. Also for someone on LinkedIn who is looking for new opportunities or roles, my friend at LinkedIn suggests if you’re reaching out somewhat cold to people who work at organizations you’re interested in, that you might say, “This is who I am. These are my skills and experiences, and I’m interested in this particular role, and here’s why I think I would be a good fit. Do you happen to know the hiring manager or anyone on the team?” And she says that can be a lot more useful than reaching out to someone and saying, “Do you have 30 minutes to talk?” For example.

Susan White (22:42)
Nobody has 30 minutes to talk to someone they don’t know.

JoDee Curtis (22:46)
And you’re being very specific. I know if someone reached out to me with a specific request, I would respond to that. But if they reached out cold and said, “Do you have 30 minutes to talk?” I’m telling you, I might not follow up with them on that too. So I thought that was good advice.

Susan White (23:10)
Good advice, yeah. JoDee, it’s time for a listener question. And this one comes from one of our listeners in August of 2025. “How do you ensure that employees are actually contributing and not just using AI to do their jobs?”

JoDee Curtis (23:26)
Well, I have to laugh at that question because I have to say my first thought was, “I hope my people on my team are using AI to do their jobs.” I’m a big fan of AI. I think it helps us to be significantly more efficient if we’re using it well and using it properly. And I keep asking my team to be more creative in using it.

But I wonder if what people are really thinking is, you know, do I have an eight hour job and I’m doing it in three or four hours because I’m using AI and then I’m taking the rest of the day off? So I’m suggesting that a question might be how can people use AI to do their jobs and then do more with the extra time or to have it automate tasks that are a bit redundant or boring or not necessary for them to spend a lot of time on, but allow them to work at a higher level or to create more opportunities for themselves to show their creativity or their ability to take on higher level projects and tasks.

So I do have to laugh a bit too, because, you know, I’ve been around a while with my gray hair. And I think — and I know there’s a lot of angst about AI, and I’m not suggesting that maybe isn’t valid. But, you know, I remember when I started work, we didn’t have computers. And when I got a computer at my desk, I thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be so fast. What will I do with my time?” or “I’ll never have to work overtime again now that I have a computer.” And you know what? We figured out how to crank out more work and take on more opportunities and do more things. I have faith that the greater population will, population of the workforce at least, will feel that way as well.

Susan White (25:49)
That’s a great outlook and I think you’re probably 100% right.

JoDee Curtis (25:53)
So we’ll see what happens.

Now for in the news, we did a September bonus episode on job hugging, so I’ll only discuss it briefly here. But by the way, if you would like to access our bonus episodes, check out our Patreon page. We have three monthly membership tiers where you can get perks like early and ad-free access to episodes, video recordings of them, our top action items, and these bonus episodes. If you want to try it out first, you can sign up for a seven-day free trial. And you can find all this great stuff at patreon.com/joypowered. That’s patreon. P-A-T-R-E-O-N, dot com slash JoyPowered.

So let’s go back to my initial thought. What is job hugging? Well, in contrast to the once popular trend of job hopping, a new phenomenon called job hugging is gaining attention. Coined by Dr. Diane Hamilton in a recent Forbes article, job hugging describes employees who cling to roles that no longer align with their goals or growth potential.

This behavior is often driven by fear — of economic instability, of losing benefits, or the uncertainty of change, as well as emotional loyalty to teams or managers. And with layoffs, hiring freezes, and AI disruption dominating headlines these days, many workers are choosing security over ambition.

Susan White (27:43)
JoDee, I’ve got to tell you, I never had a name for it, but man, I know in times of my career, I was hugging that job. I was a job hugger. So thank you for helping me see that there’s a name for it.

JoDee Curtis (27:50)
Yes, yes. And despite stereotypes about younger generations being more prone to job hopping, recent data from the National Institute on Retirement Security and the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows otherwise. Experts say quit rates are more closely tied to economic cycles rather than generational attitudes. So as the workplace continues to evolve, job hugging may be less about complacency and more about survival.

Of course, job hugging be good news and bad news for both the organizations and the individuals. For the organization to have more consistency and less turnover, we know that creates less expenses and can be a good thing, but the complacency and fear for individuals can also lead to less engagement at the same time. So you can listen to the full episode on that to find out more.

If you’re SHRM certified, you can get credit for listening to this episode. To get the code, go to getjoypowered.com/shrm and fill out a short evaluation. When you finish the evaluation, you’ll get the code and a link to proof of participation certificate. The code for today’s episode will expire on November 3rd, 2026. Again, that’s getjoypowered.com/shrm to get the code and it will expire on November 3rd, 2026. Thank you for listening today and thanks for your dedication to the HR profession. Please tune in next time and make it a JoyPowered® day.

Susan White (30:01)
Thank you.