Building your Linkedin profile...
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In the UK alone, LinkedIn has 27 million users and it is the largest professional network worldwide.
LinkedIn is highly effective in helping professionals get and stay connected across all sectors. It represents an incredible opportunity to quickly and easily get your name in front of hundreds of professionals and recruiters. LinkedIn is your shop front to showcase your skills so it’s vital that you have a strong profile.
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LinkedIn is all about connecting, but before we can connect, we look for what we have in common. That’s the key to putting together a profile that jump starts conversations. Think of your profile as a way to promote your brand, a fixed point on the web to promote your skills, your knowledge, your personality. Brands build trust by using an authentic voice and telling a credible story. Here are top tips to help you do the same:
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1. Don’t cut and paste your CV - LinkedIn hooks you into a network, not just a human resource department. You wouldn’t hand out your CV before introducing yourself so don’t do it here. Instead, describe your experience and abilities as you would to someone you just met. Write content for the screen, in short blocks of copy with visual or textual signposts.
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2. Borrow from the best marketeers - Light up your profile with your voice. Use specific adjectives and colourful verbs (“managed project team”, not “responsible for project team management”). Act naturally; don’t write in the third person unless that formally suits your brand. Picture yourself at a conference or client meeting. How do you introduce yourself? That’s your authentic voice, so use it.
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3. Write a personal tagline - That line of text under your name? It’s the first thing people see in your profile, it follows your name in search hit lists. It’s your brand. (Note your email address is not a brand). Your company’s brand might be so strong 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.
4. Put your elevator pitch to work - that 30 second description, the essence of who you are and what you do, is a personal elevator pitch. Use it in the Summary section to engage readers. You’ve got 5-10 seconds to capture their attention. The more meaningful your summary is, the more time you’ll get from readers.
5. Point out your skills - Think of the Specialities field as your personal search engine optimiser, a way to refine the ways people find and remember you. This searchable section is where that list of industry buzzwords from your CV belong. Also; particular abilities and interests, the personal values you bring to your professional performance, even a note of humour or passion.
6. Explain your experience - Help the reader grasp the key points; briefly say what your company does and what you did or do for them. After you have introduced yourself, how do you describe what you do, what your company does?
7. Distinguish yourself from the crowd - Use the Additional Information section to round out your profile with a few key interests. Add websites that showcase your abilities or passions. Then edit the default “My Website” label to encourage click throughs. Maybe you belong to a trade association or an interest group, help other members find you by naming those groups. If you’re an award winner recognised by peers, customers or employers, add prestige without bragging by listing them here.
8. Ask and answer questions - Thoughtful questions and useful answers build your credibility. The best ones give people a reason to look at your profile. Make a point of answering questions in your field to establish your experience, raise your visibility and most importantly, to build social capital with people in your network.
9. Improve your Google PageRank - Get recommendations from colleagues, clients and employers who can speak credibly about your abilities and performance (think quality not quantity). Ask them to focus on a specific skill or personality trait that drives their opinion of you. Make meaningful comments when you recommend others and mix it up - variety makes your recommendations feel authentic.
10. Build your connections - Connections are one of the most important aspects of your brand; the company you keep reflects the quality of your brand. What happens when you scan a profile and see that you know someone in common? That profiler’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.
11. Your profile Photo - Make sure you have a good head and shoulders shot wearing professional clothes. The photo should be only of you, not cropped with other people in the background. No need to have a professional photo taken, the photo can be taken simply on a good quality camera phone, ideally against a plain background e.g. a wall. You can also change the banner (called the topcard) that sits behind your photo if you wish, this can help your profile stand out. Keep this professional and ensure your photo still stands out.
12. Your Network - Ensure that you connect with your offline professional network on LinkedIn – think about people you work with now, people you worked with in the past and people you have met at networking events plus friends in relevant industries. The more people you connect with (who you genuinely know) the better to increase your profile and reach – you never know who your contacts may know! When asking people to connect with you, always include a short personal note e.g. "I really enjoyed working with you / meeting you at x, it would be great to connect on LinkedIn".
13. Dashboard - Complete the Career Interests section. This allows you to indicate to recruiters that you are seeking employment, detail info such as job titles, preferred location and size of company. From this section you can link through to the jobs area where it will list jobs similar to those you have looked at on LinkedIn and start to feed you opportunities that match your interests. Regularly view the Dashboard in your profile. Look at who is viewing your profile, how many views you are getting, your search appearances and what kind of people are searching. That will start to give you an indication of whether you are being viewed by recruiters in the right field etc.
14. Ask someone neutral to review your profile - A second pair of eyes on your profile is always useful. Ask a friend or colleague who you trust to review what you’ve written to see if you’ve missed anything and whether you have given a true reflection of your best professional self.
15. Use it - Get socially active! Start to regularly comment and like other people’s posts, share interesting content that is relevant to your field and even consider writing your own article to help raise your profile. The more you engage with your connections content and updates, the more likely they will be to share and support your activity which will help you reach not just your network but their extended network too. At interview / application stage, LinkedIn can be invaluable for researching the people who are interviewing you as well as the team you would be working with.