How many of our members use Captivate, Articulate, or some other tool to develop eLearning? After reading a post in our LinkedIn Discussion Group, I wondered who I would find after doing a quick search of our Member database.

I found six names.

That number doesn't reflect the interest our membership has shown in eLearning topics. Our Articulate Storyline seminars sold out earlier this month. The Technology Tidbits (formerly Technology and Training) SIG is flourishing. Surely we've got some eLearning gurus amongst us.

I performed a search for Captivate users. Results: four members. Articulate users? Again, four members.

This research led me to ask a different question. Are we using our member profiles to their fullest? By now most people who are actively looking to promote themselves online know to use keywords in their various profiles.
Philippa Gamse says in her book 42 Rules for a Web Presence that Wins,  "Search engine marketing is very passive, but proactive participation on LinkedIn can be very helpful in this type of situation, where targeting is very important, and where displaying your expertise can be more productive in gaining qualified leads than blatant advertising. Yes, it takes some focused time, but can really pay off."

Jeff Haden, writer for Inc., states that we should layer keywords within our profiles. "Work through the rest of your profile and replace some of the vague descriptions of skills, experience, and educational background with keywords," he says. "Your profile isn’t a term paper so don’t worry about a little repetition. A LinkedIn search scans for keywords, and once on the page, so do people."

And so does the ASTD-OC Find A Trainer feature.

If you've inserted the objective statement from your resume in your ASTD-OC profile, you're not helping people find you. A recruiter's eyes wash over those statements on your resume, diving straight for the meat. A project manager seeking a consultant will do the same with any online profile.

What should you do?

Think about how you want to be found. What key statements have you included in your resume, or in your elevator speech, that describe what you want to be doing next in your career? Think about the special skills that you possess, the software that you can utilize, to accomplish the things you are most passionate about. I encourage you to include that information in your ASTD-OC profile. Pepper those statements with the keywords people look for:

Change (14 results) 
Coach (28 results)
Leadership (33 results)

Especially since ... that guy who was looking for eLearning consultants? LinkedIn wasn't giving him the results he was looking for. So I told him to look here.