The content below is from LinkedIn. LinkedIn sites add more breadth and detail than a resume but the two should work together as strategic marketing documents.
A strong LinkedIn profile lets people know who you are, what you do, what you’re interested in and you’re interested in talking to recruiters.
Add a professional profile photo. It increases the credibility of your profile and helps you stand out from the crowd. Members with a profile photo on LinkedIn can get up to 21 times more profile views that members without a photo.
Make your headline stand out. Your headline is created when you add your positions to your profile. However, you can re-write it to promote an area of expertise. There’s no rule that says the description at the top of your profile page has to be just a job title. Use the headline field to say a bit more about how you see your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you tick.
Write a summary. The About section of your profile should express your mission, motivation, and skills to people who view your profile. Ideally, you should limit the text to one or two paragraphs while filling this section. Check out some LinkedIn profile summaries that we love.
Add your relevant work and education experiences. Keep the profile updated with all of your professional experiences that align with your current career goals. Licenses and certifications are also great way to showcase your knowledge and professional achievements. Here’s how you do it – click on the “Add profile section” button under your name on your Profile, scroll down to the Recommended section, and click “add licenses & certifications.”
Add relevant skills. This helps you showcase your abilities to other members and recruiters. Once you add your skills, your connections can endorse them. If someone endorses your skills, it will increase the likelihood of you being discovered for opportunities related to the skills you possess. However, the key here is staying relevant and also including details of your experience alongside your skills. A long list of skills that aren’t really core to who you are and what you do can start to feel unwieldy. Take time for a spring clean of your skills list every now and then. You are nearly three times more likely to receive connection requests if you have five or more skills listed on your profile.
Request recommendations from your connections. A recommendation is written to recognise or commend a connection, such as a colleague, business partner, or student. Recommendations are personal testimonials written to illustrate the experience of working with you. There’s a handy drop-down menu in the Recommendations section of your profile that makes it easy to reach out to specific contacts and request recommendations. Take the time to think about who you would most value a recommendation from – and personalise your request. It’s worth the extra effort.
Once you’ve created and updated different sections of your profile, you can begin sharing your public profile with your wider network. Your public profile is a simplified version of your complete LinkedIn profile that shows up in search engines and is visible to everyone. It’s one thing to have a network of connections on LinkedIn – it’s far better to have an active role in that network, appearing in your connections’ LinkedIn feeds in a way that adds value for them. Sharing relevant content with your network is one of the most accessible ways of doing this. You can make a start by keeping a close eye on your LinkedIn feed, and sharing content or commenting on content that you have a perspective on.
You can promote your profile to show up better in search engine results by creating a personal URL. You can also create a badge for your public profile that you can add to your online resume, blog, or website from the Public profile settings page.
Consultants, freelancers, those working for smaller businesses, and others can showcase the services they offer via a LinkedIn Service Page. LinkedIn Service Pages are dedicated landing pages that showcase your services and businesses at no cost and operate on a request and proposal model. Learn more about Service Pages and how to set them up here.