When it comes to your LinkedIn profile, you must ensure what you have written is at a level that represents you to the highest degree. If your LinkedIn profile reads or appears to be unprofessional, unintelligent, or is not interesting, this is what people reading will view you to be in your professional life. Also, if readers of your LinkedIn profile cannot figure out what you do in your professional life, they will not be interested in you as a professional. The following article will provide you with the needed LinkedIn tips to ensure you create a LinkedIn profile that will represent you in a positive light.
Your LinkedIn Profile Should Be Edited Perfectly
If you want to be looked at as a professional, your LinkedIn profile must be perfect in terms of Editing. At the time I wrote this article I did a quick search on LinkedIn and found 361,130 people with the title manager as opposed to the manager as their job title in their current or past roles! We live in a very judgmental society, and many companies will view you are incompetent if you spell a simple word like manager wrong.
Grammar and Punctuation is Equally Important
Editing is not just about spelling but the use of grammar and punctuation. Your resume must be spotless in terms of both grammar and punctuation. As for editing your own work is quite difficult, so, therefore, my advice is to ensure at least one person with excellent editing skills reads over your LinkedIn profile.
Your LinkedIn Profile Must Be Focused
You must ensure that anyone that reads your LinkedIn profile understands a hundred percent what you do for a living. When you read many people’s LinkedIn profiles, their summary, headlines, and other sections do not inform the reader what they do for a living. Go through all these sections and make sure they relate to your current profession. Also, make sure your job information is also relevant to your profession, so people who read your profile will know in an instant that you are an expert.
Take Out Not Applicable Information
Another significant recommendation is taking out anything not applicable such as part-time jobs not relevant to your profession. This also included certification and education that is not relevant such as putting down a scuba diving certification alongside an accounting designation.
Your LinkedIn Profile Must Be Interesting
Do you want to stand out from other individuals on LinkedIn? Then you must ensure your LinkedIn profile is wordsmithed in such an away you leave an impact on the reader of your profile. You do not have to be a professional writer to do this; you just have to write interesting things about your professional experience. To expand on this, point the words you use should be interesting positive adjectives to describe your work experience. For example, a results-oriented data scientist who creates information that allows a business to make multi-million dollar decisions. This sentence takes possibly a boring role and makes it sound more compelling, relevant, and, most of all, shows the value of the person’s role.
Do Not Write a Thesis
Another critical point is not to get too long-winded in your writing, as this will boor any potential reader. This is not a thesis you are writing but rather an exciting bio of your professional life.
Your LinkedIn Profile Must Be Visually Appealing
LinkedIn is a visual social medium; therefore your LinkedIn profile must also be visually appealing to anyone who looks up your profile. For starters, your LinkedIn profile picture must be professional. Please refer to my article about profile pictures to learn more about this topic.
Have a Good Background Photo
Another essential visual piece to go with your profile picture is your background photo. LinkedIn provided a very generic background photo, but you should replace this one with something ever branded by your company or find one that is relevant. In terms of finding a branded one, if you are an employee, get permission and ask for a branded background photo. In terms of how to find a relevant background picture thing of something pertinent to your profession, such as someone in healthcare with a healthcare themed background photo. An excellent place to find a background photo is free stock photo sites such as pixabay where you can search for relevant background photos.
Use Visuals Throughout Your LinkedIn Profile
Another way you can make your LinkedIn profile more visually appealing is to put any relevant photos you have for any of your jobs. For instance, if you have any pictures of projects, awards, or any related work activity, you should add it to that position. Also, make sure you have legal permission before putting any of these photos up. Use Videos If You Have Any! A very underrated but effective way to dd visuals to your LinkedIn profile is to add relevant video content to your profile. Videos, if done professionally, can make you stand out compared to your peers. As the same as pictures, make sure you have permission before uploading videos.
You Must Incorporate SEO Into Your LinkedIn Profile
This final tip is probably the most ignored but might be the most important tip of them all. This is the fact your LinkedIn profile must contain SEO. SEO is the way you rank higher on the LinkedIn search engine by including things like relevant titles, keywords, and filling out all sections on your LinkedIn profile.
Fill out all Sections on Your LinkedIn Profile
Do many people notice on their LinkedIn profile section dashboard they are graded by LinkedIn how good their profile is currently? Such as being called an All-Star. If you are rated All-Star, it means your profile section has been mostly filled out. This, in turn, will rank you higher on searches people will do on LinkedIn. To improve your grade, fill in all possible sections on your profile, and do not neglect any sections. Even things you might consider minor like volunteering sections or projects you should fill in.
Add Key Words into Your LinkedIn Profile to Rank
Another great way to rank is to add keywords about your profession in the keywords section of your profile. These words should be the most common words used in your profession. For example, a Java Developer might list Java, J2EE, Unix, C++, Oracle, and other related words.
Connect with People on LinkedIn to Rank Higher
To rank even higher on LinkedIn connect with many people. An unknown fact is LinkedIn will rank you higher in searches by having more connections on LinkedIn.
Conclusion: Your LinkedIn Profile is, by far, your most crucial business social media profile. Therefore ensure you follow the tips in this article to create a compelling LinkedIn profile.
