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Have you heard of the phrase “It’s not what you know, but who you know”? Now let’s imagine a website where both concepts are true; a place where you demonstrate what you know and see the power of who you know. That’s one way to describe LinkedIn, one of the top websites where you can network and so much more.
According to LinkedIn, “LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the internet. You can use LinkedIn to find a job or internship, connect and strengthen professional relationships and learn skills you need to succeed in your career”.
If you are a student or school leaver, you might think that LinkedIn is a job-related platform that does not apply to you yet. However, LinkedIn is so much more than a place where people list their latest job achievements. By ignoring it, you could be missing out on important opportunities!
Here are some LinkedIn stats:
- LinkedIn has more than 800 million members, and has carved out a niche for itself among giants like Facebook and Twitter, connecting job seekers and employers across the globe
- 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find and vet candidates
- 93% of hiring managers will look at a candidate’s social media profile before an interview
- Only 15% of jobs available are ever advertised, this means that the other 85% of jobs can only be found through networking and LinkedIn has become an essential networking tool
How LinkedIn can help you
Consider LinkedIn as a virtual CV where you can showcase your education, skills, work experience and achievements in a structured CV style format.
But, unlike your CV, your LinkedIn profile promises an unparalleled opportunity to:
- Build your network with like-minded people and expand your chances of discovering interesting career opportunities.
- Connect with your alumni from college/university
- Gather ‘social proof’ of your capabilities in the form of recommendations from colleagues or previous employers
- Research employers and industries that interest you and use company information to prepare for job interviews
- Apply for your dream job. As a LinkedIn user, you can search for the latest vacancies on the platform
- Get found by employers and recruiters; your profile, unlike a CV, can appear in searches by recruiters who are actively searching for specific roles
Getting started on your LinkedIn profile
Step 1: Upload a professional photo
Step 2: Add a background banner
Step 3: Add your pronouns
Step 4: Add your industry and location
Step 5: Customise your LinkedIn URL
Step 6: Create Your headline
Step 7: Tell your story
Step 8: Complete experience and education sections
Step 9: Connect and interact
Step 10: Add your skills
Step 11: Go public
Step 12: Follow your interests
Step 1: Upload a professional photograph
A photo increases profile views by 14X. Just like a job interview, first impressions count. You don’t need to hold a professional shoot or have an expensive camera; your mobile phone will take a sharp image.
To take a great picture you should have good lighting and keep in mind your audience and the brand you are trying to convey. Ensure you appear approachable, smile, dress appropriately and use a plain, non-distracting background.
How to pick the right profile picture on LinkedIn – but here are some quick tips to start with:
- Create a headshot — it should show your face from shoulders to the top of your head. Your face should take up to 60% of the total space
- Clear and not blurry — no use of stickers or filters that cover your real face
- Create a professional photo — not a selfie. The goal is to look like you are at work
Step 2: Add a background photo
Your background photo is the second visual element at the top of your profile page. It grabs people’s attention, sets the context, and shows a little more about what matters to you. If you’re a freelancer working from home, for example, you might include a picture of you in your office hard at work. If you’re a professional fitness instructor, you might opt for an action shot of you in the gym. More than anything, the right background photo helps your page stand out, engage attention, and stay memorable.
Step 3: Add your pronouns
Pronouns are an important part of the remote and in-person work ecosystem, and by adding them up-front you can avoid any awkwardness later. Whether it’s she/her, he/him, they/them, or another combination that best fits your identity, including your pronouns on your LinkedIn profile is always worthwhile.
Step 4: Add your location and industry
It is important to specify your industry and location as these are two of the most important filters that recruiters use. Location is one of the top 5 fields that LinkedIn prioritises when doing a keyword search. The five most searchable fields in LinkedIn are Name, Headline, Location, About summary and Experience.
Step 5: Customise your LinkedIn URL
If you have a LinkedIn account, then you have your own unique internet address, called a URL. This address is what browsers use to find you on the internet out of the other millions of LinkedIn members. Your address is unique to you and if you haven’t customised it will likely consist of your first and last name followed by numbers, letters, and dashes.
Customising your LinkedIn URL will make it much easier for potential employers to find you and a much better link to add to your CV or cover letter. To do this click on “Edit your public profile” Here's how.
If your first and last name aren’t already being used by another person on LinkedIn, then I would use them. Keep in mind that this is a professional site so stay away from any “Facebook-like” customisation and modify your name with a middle initial or add an educational or a professional designation.
Step 6: Create your headline
There’s no rule that says the description at the top of your profile page must 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. Your headline can also help boost your profile impact.
Why not take it a step further by adding a bit more detail about your current role, what it means to you or what you’ve accomplished.
Example:
“Creative and passionate, results-driven marketing professional that helps brands think outside the box.”
Step 7: Tell your story
The first thing to say about your LinkedIn About section is – make sure you have one! It’s amazing how many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile. Your summary is your chance to tell your own story – so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had. Don’t be afraid to invest some time, try a few drafts, and ask others’ opinion of your draft. This is your most personal piece of content marketing – and it’s worth the effort.
People come across your profile in a variety of ways. They might be searching for employees at your company or in your industry or look you up after an interview to remind themselves about you, or simply want to learn more about your accomplishments.
No matter how or why they end up on your LinkedIn page, there’s a shared and simple goal: Your LinkedIn profile needs to capture — and keep — their attention.
When considering what to write, ask yourself these questions:
- What led you to your current job. Why?
- What are you looking for next?
A great strategy to get your profile to appear more on searches is to optimise it with the use of keywords. Keywords are powerful so use them wisely. If you want to be discovered by recruiters or potential clients you need to include the words they search for in your profile’s headline, summary, work experience, and skill section.
For example, if you’re a programmer, you want to talk about your skills by using good keywords that highlight your overall experience. This includes listing all the programming languages you know — Java, Python, C++, and so on.
Step 8: Complete experience and education sections
One of the most important aspects of your LinkedIn profile is the list of positions you’ve held, including your current role. This is especially important if you’re using LinkedIn to find a new or different career. Hiring managers want to see your relevant work history to know what skills you offer.
Your education also says a lot about you, especially to potential employers. In this section, you can also add any courses or certifications you’ve gained.
Step 9: Connect and interact
One of the common mistakes of LinkedIn users is that they create their account, complete their profile, then just forget about it. To make the most out of LinkedIn, you should find connections and interact with them! LinkedIn allows its users to “Connect” or “Follow” other members on LinkedIn.
While many connections occur organically on LinkedIn, there will be situations where you’ll want to reach out and make specific connections. For this to be effective, you should create a customised invite that provides a snapshot of your profile highlights — who you are, what you do, and why it matters — along with a personalised message about why this connection matters to you.
With so many users and so many requests, it’s important to stand out from the crowd.
Step 10: Add your skills
One of the most important parts of your LinkedIn profile is your skill list. The platform makes it easy to search and select skills that match your experience and expertise, but this comes with a word of caution: the sheer number of skills available on LinkedIn makes it easy to go overboard and inundate your profile with talents that are only tangentially related to current or prospective work.
While highlighting your skills is critical, make sure they’re relevant. You can order and prioritise your skills. When someone looks at your profile, they will see your top three skills before clicking ‘see more’, therefore ensure your top three skills are on show. Here’s how to re-order your skills.
Step 11: Go public
If you want connections to find you and recruiters to track you down, you need to make your profile public. It’s an easy process: head to your LinkedIn page and click on the “Me” button under your profile picture at the top of the page, then select “View Profile”. Now, you’ll see an option for "Edit Public Profile and URL" — select this option and you can toggle your public profile status on and off, and control who can see your profile picture.
Step 12: Follow your interests
LinkedIn serves a huge variety of professionals with lots of passions, meaning there’s something there for just about everyone. To ensure that you’re both engaging with the platform at large and connecting with the right people for your career and brand goals, it’s worth finding and following people who share similar interests. Even if they don’t directly align with your job role or prospective positions, cultivating a broad interest base can help boost the impact of your profile.
Following your target companies or interest groups also helps to populate your newsfeed with useful information about companies you’d like to work for and can help you to prepare for an important interview or meeting.
Finally
Don’t let your profile sit idle for too long. In addition to regularly interacting with the site to make new posts and engage with new connections, it’s a good idea to regularly update your profile with new information about your current job or job-seeking status, new skills you’ve obtained, or projects you’ve completed. Not only does this demonstrate consistency, but it also shows that you’re continuing to grow and learn — something prospective employers are always looking for.
Without a doubt, LinkedIn is one of the best platforms to reach professionals. Like other social media platforms, LinkedIn is a place to connect, share, and grow a community. It can also be used to find job opportunities, showcase skills, and join meaningful discussions.
The better your LinkedIn profile, the better your chances of connecting with employers, capturing the attention of other professionals, and finding new opportunities. And while there’s no such thing as a “perfect” LinkedIn profile, you can get close to the mark with these tips.
Get started on setting up a great LinkedIn profile and grow your network!
