LinkedIn now houses a community of over 300,000 making competition for jobs even tougher. Employers, hiring managers and recruiters will usually make LinkedIn one of their first ports of call when they’re trying to form a profile of you.
A lot of people simply cut and paste their CV onto their LinkedIn profile and hardly ever log in ever again. Your LinkedIn profile should be more than a potted history of your previous positions. Your LinkedIn profile gives you the opportunity to highlight and showcase your personal brand. With that in mind, here are a few tips on how to make the most out of your LinkedIn profile:
- Have a sub-header
It’s the first thing people see in your profile. It follows your name in search results. It’s your personal brand. (Note: your e-mail address is not a brand!) Your company’s brand might be so powerful or well renowned that it and your title are sufficient. Or you might need to distill your professional personality into a more eye-catching phrase, something that at a glance describes who you are and what you’re really about
- Highlight key points for all to see
Briefly say what the company does and what you DO for them. Picture yourself at a conference. After you’ve introduced yourself, how do you describe what you do, what your company does? Use those clear, succinct phrases here—and break them into visually digestible chunks, which are memorable.
- Think of the skills field as your personal keywords for SEO
Ways to refine the ways people find and remember you. The optimal number is unique to each person. Include a mix of high level and niche skills and be specific. Get Endorsements -Add skills that your connections can endorse you for and recognise those you’ve worked with on their professional skills. There are over 3 billion endorsements given to date on LinkedIn. Recommendations are equally important, don’t be afraid to ask your connections. I’d be more than willing to recommend someone who helped me out in the business world.
- Connect!
The people you connect with reflects the quality of your own personal brand. What happens when you scan a profile and see that you know someone in common? That profile’s stock with you soars. The value of that commonality works both ways. So identify connections that will add to your credibility and pursue those. Think about your industry and companies you like, don’t just ‘collect’ hordes upon hordes of people you don’t know.
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