Be it beginner or expert, you will always need a good LinkedIn profile that stand out from the crowd.
With over 660 million users in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe, LinkedIn is today the first and biggest network in the world. So, if you want to advance in your professional career, you certainly need a LinkedIn profile that must be up to date, complete and optimized.
In fact, your LinkedIn profile is your digital identity and your ultimate chance to get your face in front of thousands of experts in your industry. This becomes very accurate if you’re actually looking for your next opportunity.
However, having a LinkedIn account is never enough, what you really need is a profile that enhance your strengths, draws attention to your profile and help you connect with professionals in your field to expand your career.
So here are 10 easy tips that will help you create a LinkedIn profile that stand out:
Create an eye-catching headline on Linkedin
Your job title or headline is positioned right below your name in your LinkedIn profile and will be the first thing that people see.
If you don’t edit this icon, the default settings will fill it with your current position and that is ok for a beginner but you can change to whatever you want.
You have 120 characters to write your description, so why don’t you write something that presents you in a unique way, think of your description as a billboard ad for you and your achievements.
So rather than just mentioning your job title, list how you benefit your customers and what is your expertise field. Write your description with your targeted audience in mind, are you speaking to recruiters, customers or industry peers.
“Senior Media Planner, helping clients create distinguished branding strategies. Over 250 successful campaign.”
With this example you have determined your job, what did you bring to the table and even gave yourself a proof of your credibility.
Add a professional Linkedin headshot
You can upgrade your LinkedIn profile with one simple step; just start by adding a professional picture or a headshot to your name.
Profile that don’t have a profile picture will always luck in term of credibility and won’t get the attention of recruiters. So be creative and upload a nice and professional picture with a light and simple background; remember this is the first thing people will see from your page beside your job title, so make it perfect.
If you don’t have a good headshot, take a new one, don’t hesitate to ask your friends help or a professional photographer help, this is a worthy investment.
Highlight your experience
Your LinkedIn profile is not a copy of your resume. You don’t have to follow the same rules, but in the other hand you have internet readers with short lapses of attention.
So, make sure to include any relevant jobs to your profile and use bullet points for each job title you included.
Actions words are the key to show your achievements, and all that you accomplished in each one of your positions. The most important thing is to demonstrate the impact of your work, the initiatives you have taken, the changes you have started and the results that were driven by your work.
Craft an interesting summary
Your LinkedIn description or summary is your best chance to tell your story.
Compared to the headline that holds only 120 characters, your summary can go up to 2.000 characters making you able to dive a little bit deeper into your path.
Don’t focus on your past experiences, but put more emphasis on what you do well and what you can bring to the table from an employer perspective.
Don’t forget to use strong key words that relates to your field or industry. Your profile visitor’s attention is usually short these days, so try to be brief and concise. Be creative and unique and draw a picture of who you are as a professional.
Use your summary to sell yourself in a smart and creative way.
Customize your URL
You should know that your LinkedIn URL is the web address to your profile, so the default URL will be composed by your name, surname and some digits or gibberish numbers.
So why want you walk the extra mile and make it personalized and more relevant?
Choose the option “edit your profile“ to customize your URL, use that option to make it neater and more concise, it will take you only some minutes so make your URL more memorable.
Ask for recommendations
This is a must have in each successful LinkedIn profile.
Think of people you have had good relationships with in your past experiences. When you complete your profile click on the link that says “ask for recommendations” and choose what you will like to be recommended for then list some people from your connections, then push the button send to get some feedbacks.
The more recommendation you will get, the stronger your profile will be, recruiters and employers want to know that your past managers and colleges have approved your work.
Pay your dues and write some recommendations for some of your connection too.
Use visual media
There is nothing more attention catching then a good visual, you can do that with your LinkedIn profile too.
Add a cover photo like what you did in your Facebook or twitter account, it is a simple way to make your profile stand out, so choose a theme that reflects your personality and profession.
You can also connect your profile with other media, like infographics, carousels, or YouTube videos. Let your creativity speak with relevant media and make your profile stand out from the crowd with appealing and catchy visuals.
Keep your page active
LinkedIn is beyond a digitized version of your resume it is a strong networking media.
This means to get the most of it you need to be active. Try to get an idea of what your networks members are posting, engage actively with comments, feedback, likes and shares of insightful information relevant to your field.
Join strong groups on LinkedIn and no matter what your professional interest is there will be always groups that will be discussing and publishing about it. Choose one or two groups and interact with its members; it is a great way to meet new people and get different ideas and perspective.
Build strong connections
Your LinkedIn profile won’t be very powerful if you don’t have a strong network, so you need to keep growing your connections as you meet new people thanks to LinkedIn system of first, second and third-degree connections helping people get more visibility to other users of the network.
With that being said, you may be tempted to connect yourself with people you don’t know to grow your network! Well don’t do that because it is preferable to connect with people you know personally or have worked with or met in a professional event.
In other hand, if you find an interesting profile to follow or an expert who may help you in your career but you don’t know directly or on a personal level you better send him or her a connection request with a note explaining who you are and why you would like to connect together.
Check your LinkedIn profile strength
If you take a look to your profile while completing it, you will notice on the right-hand side a gauge that measure your “profile strength”.
This section will inform to which extinct, you have filled or completed your profile.
So, you have to add more information and details, using LinkedIn guidelines until the gauge is completely filled, you will notice this by getting “all the stars” of the bar.
This will help you keep a track of your advancement and will make you see if you have overlooked anything.
After all that being said, LinkedIn is one strong tool that is easy to use, so you should take advantage of it to sell yourself professionally, grow your network and get more interesting opportunities.
To make the most of your profile, optimize it, fill it with your achievements, prizes, disguised skills …you want to have a profile that stand out in the ocean of candidates, so make your profile visually appealing, and easy to read so that employers or professional can understand who you really are and what you can offer them professionally.
Those tips were a starting point to create a strong LinkedIn profile. All you have to do now, is to discover how to use social media to find a job?
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