“Your LinkedIn profile is the first impression of your professionalism.”
LinkedIn is the largest professional network platform, with 600 million active users. If you are serious about your career and professional advancement, you must have an optimized and up-to-date LinkedIn profile. Your LinkedIn profile connects you with a network, and recruiters often pick up candidates through their professional profiles.
Even if you are at any job searching stage, you need the best LinkedIn profile to showcase your sincerity and professionalism. A LinkedIn profile is a chance to get your name and your achievements in front of several professionals. So, you must have a concise, crisp, and compelling LinkedIn profile.
Here are some simple tips that will help you to create your best LinkedIn profile to date:
Choose a professional profile picture
Go to your LinkedIn profile and see what profile picture you have. If it’s a selfie, just remove it now. Your profile picture is the first thing your network and the recruiter see, so ensure it conveys your professionalism. These days, with a massive increase in LinkedIn as a parameter for evaluation of your candidature, you need to make sure it is perfect. Your profile picture should be recent, with your face clearly visible; if possible, the picture must be in professional wear, and don’t forget to wear the best thing, Your Smile!
Profile description is not just about the job title
Don’t get stuck to the conventional way; the profile description is all about your current and previous job roles. Use this foremost headline field to say why you love working in the industry you are working in, what makes you tick, and how you see your role.
Convert the summary into your sales pitch.
Don’t leave the summary field blank while creating your LinkedIn profile. This is by far the most crucial place to grab attention. Don’t just simply write your skills or job titles in the summary. Use this summary box to write your sales pitch and flaunt your USP.
Highlight your skills through a story that is intriguing and compelling. This summary has to be your masterpiece of content marketing. This is your chance to show what difference you make to the people you work with.
Say no to buzzwords.
Buzzwords or the sugar-coated adjectives you use for yourself in the summary are entirely meaningless. Because using words like “strategic,” “specialized,”” passionate,” “expert,” “leadership,” and “certified” is just irrelevant because on LinkedIn, your skills matter, not these buzzwords.
Relevant skills only
Adding your relevant skills from the skills list is the quickest of quick wins on LinkedIn. But remember that you have to add only relevant skills; there are better decisions than adding heaps of irrelevant skills.
Do LinkedIn Learning courses
Add the certificate of the course you just completed through LinkedIn Learning. Go to the LinkedIn Learning History section and link your certificate to your LinkedIn profile. In the history section, you can also view the progress of your courses and send updates about your learning to your network. In this way, you will showcase your passion for learning to your network.
Highlight the services you offer
If you are a freelancer, consultant, or working for a small business, you must use the Services Feature on LinkedIn. In this, give a detailed description of what services you offer. This will boost your visibility in search results.
Give and take endorsements.
Do you know what it means to get endorsed on LinkedIn? Endorsements mean that you will give a recommendation to your new connection about a professional already in your network. Be very proactive in managing your endorsements. These are just tricks to grow your network.
Take a skills assessment.
Skill Assessment is a new feature by LinkedIn that displays a Verified Badge on your profile for a particular skill. It is an online test that determines your level of skills, and it is entirely voluntary to show its results on your profile. If you are not satisfied with your performance, you can also retake the test.
Data shows that professionals with verified badges are around 30% more likely to be hired as the verified badge showcases proficiency in the skill and strengthens your personal brand.
Use the Publications section of LinkedIn.
Are you aware of the Publications section of LinkedIn? A majority of users don’t know this. This section is one of the under-used elements in LinkedIn profiles. The publications section is the best way to stand out from the crowd and gain attention to existing thought-leadership content.
Let’s see what you can add to your LinkedIn profile's publications section. Whether you have written or been a co-author of an eBook or white paper or written a blog post on your company’s blog, it is the time to link these assets to your profile.
Share relevant content on the feed.
Have you just made your LinkedIn profile and haven’t posted anything? Then, that profile is of no use. Apart from having a network of connections, you must appear actively in your connection’s LinkedIn feed. Apart from posting from your feed, you must add comments on others' posts as well; this will help you expand your network, and then you will be visible to connections of your connections.
You can post engaging content that aligns with your knowledge or subject. For example, If you are a person whose subject is biotechnology, you must begin posting about various COVID-19 drugs that are anticipated to cure it.
In this way, you grab your connection’s attention and leave traces of your intellect on your LinkedIn profile.
Follow the members relevant to your industry only.
Make sure your LinkedIn profile gives a glance at your niche. Niche means that your educational background, internships, work experience, and connections must be aligned. Only follow and have connections with those professionals whose interests and work match your passion for what you do.
The information you share on your LinkedIn profile should form a sequence; everything should look smooth. For example, If you are a freelancer, your LinkedIn connections must be freelancers or companies offering work to freelancers; having computer science engineers in your profile will add no good to your LinkedIn profile.
