LinkedIn is quickly becoming a future of recruiting and networking, and you want to be part of this platform. An effective LinkedIn profile could get you everything from a new job, a business partner, or potential employees for your business. So, this platform has a lot to offer for ambitious professionals like you. But, getting the most out of LinkedIn requires you to build a LinkedIn profile. You need to have the right information and the right contacts to have an effective profile. We’ve simplified that process for you down below.
LinkedIn: A place to build your professional brand
The first thing to know about LinkedIn is that it’s a place to build your professional brand and network with other professionals. You use that personal brand on LinkedIn to find potential employers, professional contacts, and even possible employees. In short, it’s a place to network with professionals online.
You can connect with other people, inbox them, or interact with their posts online. Other people can also discover your profile by searching for people in your industry. For these reasons, LinkedIn is an excellent place for people to find new professional contacts, and it’s an extremely useful medium for networking.
How to make your LinkedIn profile stand out?
LinkedIn has 830 million users, so you need to stand out by using these 12 tips.
1. Tailor your profile
You need to tailor and present your profile with your specific goals. For example, if you’re looking for a job, orient your profile with your skills and present yourself as a candidate for a vocation. If you’re looking for business contacts, you should portray yourself as a business leader and prioritize your business achievements and experiences.
2. Don’t overlook the header
Your header is an excellent way to show off your personality and brand. Specifically, it’s a great way to land an excellent first impression on visitors to your profile. LinkedIn offers you a maximum file size of 4MB and recommends you use an image size of 1400 x 425.
3. Use a professional profile photo
A professional LinkedIn photo makes you as much as 14 times more likely to be discovered. Leaving a blank LinkedIn photo will leave you almost impossible to be discovered. A clear and professional profile photo is an excellent way to show off yourself as a professional. Ideally, use a professional-looking and clear headshot image that’s smaller than 10 MB.
4. The headline should be catchy
The headline defines who you are and what you do so write it carefully. Use a catchy and effective headline with industry keywords that link you to your industry.
5. Add contact details
Include all the contact information you’re comfortable with sharing. An email address and a phone number are a must. A link to your blog or portfolio is also a great addition, and you can include your social media contact information too if you want.
6. Summary: Your “elevator pitch”
Your LinkedIn summary is functionally an ‘elevator pitch, a short description of who you are and what you do to introduce yourself to new people. LinkedIn lets you even include documents, photos, links, and videos for your summary. So, you can creatively build an impressive summary.
7. Add details to the experience section
Only add brief information about your professional experience, consisting of what you did, where you worked, and for how long. This information is concise enough to be meaningful without being too long. Also, add any keywords you can to the experiences section.
8. Get endorsements
Having people you’ve previously worked with endorse you gives a powerful image on LinkedIn. It’s irrefutable proof of the value you deliver. So, ask for endorsements and recommendations from anyone you’ve ever professionally engaged with.
9. Customize your URL
A customized URL makes your profile more discoverable. A short URL is also easy to share so that’s also advantageous. So get a short professional-looking URL for your LinkedIn profile.
10. Build relationships and expand your network
LinkedIn has over 1 million groups to choose from. You’ll likely find like-minded and useful contacts from these groups. You can also build relationships by interacting with other people on their posts and inboxing them. Another powerful way that LinkedIn lets you interact with others is by publishing your own personal blog posts on the platform, where you can showcase your knowledge and experience.
11. Remain active on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social media platform at its heart, so you have to be active on it to reap its benefits. You don’t need to always be logged in, but you should check it daily. See what people post every day, engage with them when possible, and offer them thoughtful opinions.
You should just be active enough that you can quickly reply when someone interacts with you and to see new posts from important contacts.
12. Create an All-Star profile
Thankfully, LinkedIn provides you with a useful gauge on your screen’s right-hand side that quantifies your ‘Profile strength’. This measure tells you how complete your profile is. Ideally, you want to fill that gauge to achieve an “All-Star” profile.
Having an “All-Star” profile means you’ve fully completed your profile, and there isn’t anything you’ve left or overlooked. So, naturally experienced LinkedIn users see it as a green flag and evidence of professionalism.
In conclusion, you need to build a complete, concise, and active LinkedIn profile to be effective on the platform. You need to need the right information, connect and interact with the most relevant people and have a complete profile. You’ll easily and effortlessly network and benefit from LinkedIn once you’ve achieved that.