LinkedIn operates the world’s largest online professional network, with over 900 million members in more than 200 countries. When your name comes up in conversation, when you ask for a phone call or meeting, or after a first-time introduction, everyone checks in on LinkedIn to get an idea of who you are professionally. Your LinkedIn profile is your best opportunity to spotlight your professional narrative, what interests you, and how you communicate.
Here are fourteen best practices to perfect your profile and make a positive impression on recruiters, hiring managers, prospective customers, partners, and everyone you meet in the market.
Get Current: Take a fresh look at your overall profile. Ask yourself, “Does this tell a compelling story about what I want to do professionally?” Feature more relevant experiences for the future positions you desire and highlight the skills that prove you’re up to the challenge. Update your LinkedIn at least once per quarter.
Extra, Extra, Read All About It!: The LinkedIn headline is listed right under your name in your Profile. It appears with your name in various places – in the “People You May Know” section, LinkedIn searches, LinkedIn job applications, posts, messages, recommendations, and invitations to connect. It’s real estate to claim a snippet of your professional identity, but be sure to change this descriptor as you navigate seasons or new accomplishments. There are many ways to write one, which can vary between listing your current title or a longer-term descriptor of the role you generally play across jobs.
Headline examples to spark some ideas for you:
Career and Leadership Development
CEO | Keynote Speaker | Investor
Graphic Designer & Illustrator | Web Design | Photography | Adobe Creative Suite Master
Life and Business Strategist
Helping brands reach customers through thoughtful and relevant content
Helping small and midsize companies get found online
Global Digital Content Leader
Revenue Enablement, Learning Design, Sales Effectiveness
Professional Summary: Your “About” section is an opportunity to show off strong writing skills and career accomplishments. Here is one place you can use your Baseball Card Stats. The paragraph describes your jobs, years of experience, and value proposition. Use 3-5 bullet points to showcase quantifiable results as your “stats.”
Career History: In your “Experience” section, you can write a long-form summary of what you accomplished at a past job or put that same narrative into quantified bullets – similar to the “About” section, we recommend combining both. Use this section as a short overview of your experience and then bullet points to highlight accomplishments and skills. Your Experience section is likely highly correlated to your resume.
Quantify, Quantify, Quantify: You know how resumes featuring quantifiable results are more powerful than those with general statements or descriptions of job duties? The same principle applies to LinkedIn. Whether you’re thinking about recruiters, hiring managers, prospective customers, potential hires, or future investors, people like to read results. Use numbers to back up your claims and tell the story of your achievements.
Find Me!: If you want your profile to be easily found by the right recruiters and hiring managers, ensuring your profile is optimized to the relevant keywords so you appear in searches can be helpful.
One way to find highly targetable keywords:
Find five job descriptions for roles you are interested in or targeting. Paste them all into the Resymatch.io job description scanner. Save the top 15 skills, and weave these throughout your profile. You can also follow this same process for your resume.
Become a Groupie: LinkedIn groups help professionals in the same industry or with similar interests share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and keep up with industry trends. Join a group to broaden your network outside your immediate connections. Use the ‘Search’ feature or ‘Recommended’ list to find Groups you’re interested in joining. However, don’t overdo it to bulk up your profile. Join only those groups that add real value and help you advance your career goals.
Follow Influencers: Search LinkedIn for professionals you admire and follow them. You will benefit from their updates and the content they create and curate to get a view into their professional network and world. Be genuine with your admiration and consider focusing on both influencers or leaders in the professions/industries you aspire to. Be thoughtful and strategic – too many “voices” and aspirations can trap us in the comparison game and make us forget what we have accomplished.
Follow Companies: The same best practices apply to ‘following’ companies on LinkedIn. Make a list of companies you love and ‘follow’ them.
Pay It Forward: LinkedIn allows you to endorse other users’ skills, giving them your stamp of approval. Encouraging others never hurts, so spend some time ‘endorsing’ other people’s skills. Be genuine. Only endorse skills you have experienced personally or believe to be true that person possesses. Many professionals will return the favor and endorse your skills.
Embrace Your Inner Book Worm: Reading online articles or books and sharing them on LinkedIn (with thoughtful commentary) enhances your profile and news feed. It also can be a great way to establish credibility as a subject matter expert and demonstrate your commitment to learning.
Ask for Recommendations: Have you asked others to recommend you on LinkedIn? People who are close to you and can vouch for your work ethic and skills can use the ‘recommend’ feature to paint a compelling picture of who you are and what you have to offer. Consider people in varied relationships with you – your boss, direct report, colleague, vendor, or client.
Profile Pic: Is it time to update your profile photo from ten years ago? Do you have a professional headshot you can use instead? Do you look friendly and mature? Is this image high quality and crisp? If you don’t have a professional headshot handy, it could be worth asking a friend or taking a strategic selfie with a clean background.
Find Fresh Eyes: Ask a colleague or member of your Board of Advisors to review your LinkedIn Profile and provide feedback. What impression do they get after reading it? Getting an outsider’s perspective goes a long way.
If you need further help, a certified CareerTruth Growth Coach can help you produce an excellent LinkedIn profile showing you and your career highlights in the best light.