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LinkedIn Profile Tips
LinkedIn profile tips – its easy to ignore your LinkedIn profile when you are not looking for a job though you might be accepting connection requests from friends and contacts, but everything else is overlooked or let me say that LinkedIn isn’t part of your worries for now but it has to be.
i can remember sometime ago when a big company in need of Tech freelance writers contacted me on facebook and requested for my LinkedIn profile saying that they have a job for me and the pay was reasonable. sincerely speaking, i needed the money and i was sure i could deliver but my linked profile was a little messy and that was how i lost the opportunity to earn some cool dollars. it happens to a lot of people. you might think that its nothing but your linked profile tells your potential recruiters a lot about you.
you know that someone out there needs your services and they cant get to you if you don’t make yourself available. LinkedIn is the perfect place to showcase your skills and achievements to that amazing employer of your dreams….you know what i mean right?
we have carefully outlined and elaborated everything you need to know about making your lnkedin profile attractive and extreemely appealing. are you ready? lets do this
- Complete your profile: if you are not already on linkedin, you can visit linkedin.com and signup immediately and if you have already signed up, its time to do the necessary thing. lets put it this way, the more complete your profile is, the greater your chance of being called for job interviews. when recruiters see your profile, they won’t just look at your profile picture as it matters the least ( sure you need to have a nice looking picture up there. In Oliver Queens voice, “suit up”), they want to know who you are, the skills you have acquired over the years, where you have worked, your connections and what others think of you.
for this cause, you need to fill every single section of your profile with accurate and enticing informations, you need to make it so so irresistible to the point where your profile can’t be overlooked by recruiters (more on this in the points below).
linkedin always measures the completeness of your profile and offers on how to make it better. - Nice display picture equals great first impression: can you remember “suit up” above? well its time. you need to make your first impression amazing and when i mean amazing, i really mean amzing. here is an idea, check out the linkedin profiles of some employees in the companies of your dream and see how astounishing their they profile pictures look.
you can either select the best picture of yourself ( don’t use another person’s picture please) or you visit the photo studio for a nice shot. check out the pictures below and see how good they are, make yours better
- Customise your URL: linkedin automatically assigns you a url at sign up which is a bad looking combination of digits. the good news is that it can be easily changed to something pleasing to the eyes . How is this done? firstly, go to the edit profile screen, you will see a public profile URL at the botttom of the gray window that shows your basic information. Click edit next to the URL and change it to something muchmore better. click on set custom URL when you are done.
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Write a Headline That’s good
Your headline doesn’t have to be your job title and company—in fact, especially if you’re looking for jobs, it shouldn’t be. Instead, use that space to succinctly showcase your specialty, value proposition, or your “so what?” The more specific you can be about what sets you apart from the competition, the better.
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Use Your Target Job Descriptions to Your Advantage
Take a look at the job descriptions of the positions you’re after, and dump them into a word cloud tool like Wordle. See those words that stand out? They’re likely what recruiters are searching for when they’re looking for people like you. Make sure those words and phrases are sprinkled throughout your summary and experience.
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Don’t Waste the Summary Space
“Ideally, your summary should be around 3–5 short paragraphs long, preferably with a bulleted section in the middle. It should walk the reader through your work passions, key skills, unique qualifications, and a list of the various industries you’ve had exposure to over the years.” Career Horizons’
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Use Numbers Right Up Front
“Much like the rest of your resume, you’ll want to highlight past results in your summary. When possible, include numbers and case studies that prove success. Social media consultant and speaker Wayne Breitbarth, for example, quickly establishes credibility with his audience by stating in his summary’s second sentence: ‘I have helped more than 40,000 businesspeople—from entry level to CEO—understand how to effectively use LinkedIn.’ Never underestimate the power of a few key stats to impress a reader.” American Express OPEN Forum
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Be Warm and Welcoming
“The summary section is your primo opportunity to showcase the good stuff about you, with your target audience in mind. Give ’em a little chance to get to know you. So what do you think the first impression is going to be if you craft your summary like some long, pompous speech? Or worse, craft it in the third person? They’re going to think you’re pretentious. And it’s going to be hard for that reviewer to get a feel for your personality and style. Be you here. Keep the brand message in line with all of your other professional marketing materials, but realize that LinkedIn is a platform designed for interaction.” JobJenny
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Avoid Buzzwords Like the Plague
What do the words responsible, creative, effective, analytical, strategic, patient, expert, organizational, driven, and innovative have in common? They’re the most overused buzzwords on all of LinkedIn. Come on—we know you can be more creative!
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Treat Your Profile Like Your Resume
Your resume isn’t just a list of job duties (or, at least, it shouldn’t be)—it’s a place to highlight your best accomplishments. Same goes for your LinkedIn profile: Make sure your experience section is fleshed out with bullet points that describe what you did, how well you did it, and who it impacted.
Read More: How to Turn Your Duties Into Accomplishments
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But Use the First Person
You shouldn’t use the first person on your resume, but it’s actually fine to do so on LinkedIn (think “I’m a passionate development officer who raised $400,000 for cancer charities last year,” not (“Jackie Stevens is a passionate development officer…”).
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Get Personal
“Your profile is not a resume or CV. Write as if you are having a conversation with someone. Inject your personality. Let people know your values and passions. In your summary, discuss what you do outside of work. You want people to want to know you.” Forbes
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Show Your Achievements
Recruiters spend countless hours scouring LinkedIn in search of the high performers. And when they find them, they contact said high performers. Knowing this, you’ll serve yourself well to market yourself as a high performer in your summary and experience section (think action words, accomplishments, talking about times you’ve been promoted or hand-picked for projects).
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Include a Current Job Entry, Even When Unemployed
“If you’ve only listed the past positions you’ve held in the experience section but show nothing current, you’ll probably get missed in most searches. Why? Because most recruiting professionals exclusively use the current title box to search for candidates; otherwise they’d have to sort through thousands of candidates who held a certain role (for example, graphic designer) as far back as 20 or more years ago. The simple workaround, if you’re unemployed, is to create a dummy job listing in the current section that includes the job title(s) you’re targeting—‘Full-Time Student/Financial Analyst in Training’—followed by a phrase like ‘In Transition’ or ‘Seeking New Opportunity’ in the Company Name box.” University of Washington
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Add Multimedia to Your Summary
“A picture truly is worth a 1,000 words, especially when it comes to showcasing your work. LinkedIn lets you add photos, videos, and slideshow presentations to your profile summary. So instead of just talking about your work, you can show examples. Or show yourself in action. Or share a presentation. Click ‘Edit profile,’ scroll down to your summary, then click on the box symbol, then ‘add file.’” Business Insider
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And Your Work Experiences
You can do the same thing for each of your work experiences. So, use this to your advantage: Add your company websites, projects you’ve worked on, articles you’ve drafted, or anything else that can provide a more multimedia look at your work.
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Add Projects, Volunteer Experiences, or Languages
Do you speak Mandarin? Have a project management certification? Volunteer for Dress for Success every weekend? Adding these “additional” profile features (listed on the left when you’re editing your profile) is a great way to showcase your unique skills and experiences and stand out from the crowd.
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Request One LinkedIn Recommendation a Month
When someone says, “You did a great job on that project!” ask him or her to take a snapshot of that success by writing a recommendation on LinkedIn. And don’t be afraid to specify what you’d like the recommender to focus on. Getting generic recommendations that say, “Lea was great to work with” aren’t very helpful—but something specific, like “Lea’s contributions on the project enabled us to increase forecasted savings by 5% over our original plan” will really showcase your strengths.
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But Make Them Strategic
“Make a strategic plan for your recommendations,” says Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s career expert. “Approach different people and suggest particular skills or experiences you would like them to highlight.”
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Don’t Be Afraid to Cut a Recommendation
“Ever get a recommendation you didn’t ask for? Or one that isn’t something you’d want to showcase on your LinkedIn profile? If you get a recommendation that’s poorly written or is unsolicited and don’t feel comfortable reaching out to the writer and asking for some revisions, no biggie. You can easily hide the recommendation instead. Select Profile > Edit Profile and go to the position with which the recommendation is associated. Click Manage. Uncheck the box next to the recommendation that you want to hide, and click Save Changes.”
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Manage Your Endorsements
Endorsements can be a great way to show off your skills—as long as your profile isn’t overloaded with too many to really send the right message. The secret to making them work for you is keeping your skills updated: As you transition between careers, develop new skills, or take on new responsibilities, drop outdated skills from your profile and add the ones you really want to be known for. Now, when connections land on your page, they’ll only see the most relevant skills.
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Update Your Status
Just like on Facebook, you can update your LinkedIn status as often as you wish. So, do! Update it professionally and strategically (share the article you just wrote, not what you ate for lunch today), ideally once a week. Your entire network will see your updates, both in their news feeds and in the weekly LinkedIn network updates emails they receive.
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Become an Author
LinkedIn’s newest feature? Allowing all users to write and publish their work on the platform. Share your perspective about what’s going on in your field, weigh in on a recent industry development, or show off your skills as a writer. It’s a great way to get noticed.
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Or Add Your Blog
“If you have a WordPress blog, we highly recommend feeding your blog into your LinkedIn profile (unless, of course, the content isn’t appropriate for a LinkedIn page.) To enable this setting, Select More in the main nav bar and Select Applications. From there, choose the WordPress application and enter the link to your feed. The blog will then appear in your profile and will update each time a new post is added.” 12Most
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Be a Groupie
LinkedIn Groups are an incredible resource—and they can do wonders for your job search. By joining groups relevant to your profession or industry, you’ll show that you’re engaged in your field. But more importantly, you’ll instantly be connected to people and part of relevant discussions in your field—kind of like an ongoing, online networking event.
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Have at Least 50 Connections
Having 50 or fewer connections on LinkedIn tells recruiters one of three things: 1) You are a recluse who knows very few people, 2) You’re paranoid about connecting with others, or 3) Technology and social media are scary to you. None of these are good. We’re certainly not suggesting you need to be one of those weirdos who wears your “abnormally large number of connections” like a badge of honor, but you really should have at least 50-100 people with whom you’re connected as a starting point.
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But Don’t Add People You Don’t Know
If enough people reject your request and say they don’t know you, LinkedIn can shut down your account. True story.
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Don’t Go Overboard
With all the bells and whistles LinkedIn has to offer, and without being limited by the 8.5×11″ confines of your resume, it can be tempting to, well, go nuts. And while details are good, there’s certainly a thing as too much. Step back, take a look at your profile, and see how it looks to an outside person. Is it enticing—or overwhelming? Edit accordingly.
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Keep Your Job Search Under Wraps
“Many people don’t realize that LinkedIn does have privacy settings—for a reason. ‘When you’re out looking for a new job, and are actively engaged in your current job, you want to be discreet,” Williams explains. ‘A telltale sign to an employer that you’re leaving is that you overhaul your profile, connect with recruiters, and have an influx of new people. You can tailor your settings so that your boss doesn’t see that you’re looking for opportunities.’ The privacy settings are easy to find: Just sign in, and then select ‘settings’ from the drop-down menu, where your name appears in the upper right-hand corner.” LearnVest
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Make Sure People Can Find You
Don’t forget to add your email address (or blog, or Twitter handle, or anywhere else you’d like to be found) to the contact information section of your resume. You’d be surprised how many people leave this off!
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Be Excited
At the end of the day, the most exciting people to hire are the people who are the most excited about what they do. So, make sure your LinkedIn profile shows your enthusiasm. Join and participate in groups related to your field of expertise. Use your status line to announce stuff you’re doing related to your field. Share interesting articles or news. Connect with the leaders in your industry. Fly your cheerleader flag.
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