31 tips to create your LinkedIn Profile more Appealing

 31 tips to create your LinkedIn Profile more Appealing

 

In this day and age, the most important weapon in a job seeker’s arsenal is LinkedIn.

Yes, your resume and your network are important too. But LinkedIn is even more relevant by the cause of being the platform that combines the two.

Here, you can share anything and everything about yourself from your experiences, skills, qualifications to your interests, thoughts and opinions. On LinkedIn, you can be seen by prospective employers as well as build your network and grow your personal brand.

When you’re looking for new opportunities in the job market or just to connect with people on a professional level, LinkedIn is the place to be.

 

Why LinkedIn?

1.   LinkedIn is much more flexible when it comes to including the information your prospective employers might want to see. It can fit information you can’t dream of cramming into your resume.

2.   It is a prime sourcing tool used by a vast majority of recruiters.

3.   Even if you are not actively looking for a new job, you may come across positions and openings that might be relevant for you.

4.   You can find potential clients for your venture on LinkedIn.

5.   You can discuss and share professional content.

 

In this article, we have put together a list of 31 top tips on creating an appealing LinkedIn profile. Whether you are looking for a job or trying to establish yourself as an expert in your field, we have got everything you covered.

 

Tips for your overall LinkedIn Profile

1. Build your Personal Brand

Your LinkedIn profile should be a reflection of your personal brand. It should answer questions such as: Who are you? What do you want to be known for? What is unique about you?

Express your personality, in a professional manner, through your LinkedIn profile.

Give a narrative, almost as if you are telling a story about yourself, to your diverse strengths, work styles and experiences. The broad range of elements of your brand will provide a greater chance of establishing a connection with the viewers.

 

2. Know Your Audience and the Keywords that make them tick

While creating your profile, you need to keep in mind the audience that is most likely to read it: Professionals and recruiters in your specific industry.

Once, you establish your audience, it is necessary to understand their requirements. What skills do they want to see in a job candidate? What experiences do they consider relevant?

To answer these questions, you would have to follow the same old steps used in creating a resume.

Find job descriptions for the kind of role you want to be chosen for. Take a deep look at them and pick out elements that the prospective employers consider most relevant for those jobs. Ponder upon what characteristics apply to you, and which keywords the recruiters use to describe them. Chances are that the same keywords are repeatedly and commonly used when looking for people like you.

For instance, if the companies are looking for a programmer, they would use the phrase “Proficient in JavaScript” to describe their requirement.

If you are struggling with this, look for people with the same jobs on LinkedIn. Observe the skills and experiences they highlight on their profiles.

 

3. Use Keywords everywhere

Once you identify your keywords, sprinkle them smartly in your whole profile: headlines, summary, experience, skills, and anywhere useful.

But make sure that they don’t sound forced, rather they flow with the narrative. Also, don’t overdo lest you sound desperate or unconfident.

 

4. Avoid Buzzwords

Buzzwords are the really common words used by anyone and everyone on LinkedIn, but that don’t necessarily mean anything in the professional world because of how easy they are to boast of.

For example, innovative or hardworking or driven or motivated. All these are buzzwords. These don’t mean anything on their own and they are nothing special as these qualities are expected from professionals.

If you find yourself using buzzwords on your profile, think about how you can add more context to it. Use buzzwords with specific keywords so that you are able to get your skills across strongly.

For example, it is much better to say you are a hardworking ERP Consultant than it is to say that you are just hardworking.

 

5. Complete Your Profile

LinkedIn’s algorithm favours complete profiles. You will show up in more search results if you have a complete profile. This is because LinkedIn assigns different strengths to profiles based on their completeness.

Another advantage lies in making a good impression on recruiters. Even if you don’t apply via LinkedIn, recruiters check profiles at times to learn more about the candidates. A half-hearted, weak profile will not make a memorable impact on the recruiters.

Besides, more keywords open doors to more opportunities. So, it is better to take full advantage of LinkedIn while looking for a job.

 

6. Focus more on the Top Sections

Recruiters are busy people. You may get lots of advantages of having a full profile but it is incorrect to expect everyone to read everything. No one has that kind of time or need.

Hence, you would have to hook the recruiters in from the start. Place your most important skills and experiences in the top rather than revealing every piece of information section-wise.

Your profile photo and headline are even more relevant because these are the two of the most visible things of a profile, seen even before a person clicks on your profile.

If you have won any huge award, have a key certification or have worked in a big corporation, mention them in the headline or summary. The same goes for your keywords.

 

Tips for Specific Profile Sections

7. Get a Custom URL

LinkedIn automatically assigns you a string of numbers as a URL of the profile.

But it is possible to get a custom URL too. Your URL should be easy to remember, as you would need to share it a lot in your professional life, and should have your name or initials in some format. Even better, you could include the short form of any key certification that you might have received, such as CPA or CFA.

 

8. Add a relevant cover photo

The cover photo is displayed on the blank banner above your profile picture. Being the very first thing seen on your page, it should be impactful.

You could try using a picture of a favourite place or landscape or something that reflects your personal brand. Make sure it’s nothing offensive. You can also customize your banner with words. You can add a personal website URL, main strengths and services offered. If you want to have a picture of yourself, one idea is to show yourself doing your job.

If you wish to design a cover photo, you can use Canva, which has a number of free customizable banner templates for LinkedIn. Free photos can also be found on Unsplash.

 

9. Set a Professional Profile Picture

Your profile picture should be a formal one, exuding professionalism. Make sure you are appropriately dressed. Don’t use any cropped images. Use a good quality picture. Also, according to LinkedIn, your face should take up 60% of the image.

If you don’t have an old picture, you can take a new one. Just get in front of a blank background and take a picture. Other things you could do to make a good, friendly impression are facing a natural light source, smiling and looking into the camera.

10. Write an impactful Headline

Your headline is much more than your designation. It is a space to communicate the crux of who you are in just a few words or phrases.

Be specific.

Highlight your past roles, particular skills, and what do you aim to be. Don’t put too much information in the headline but make sure whatever you do put in is absolutely the best of yourself.

 

11. Include a Current Job Entry

When recruiters peruse LinkedIn for potential candidates, the platform uses your current position, among other things, to return results. It may happen that if you currently don’t work anywhere, you may not appear in the list and hence, may lose out on the opportunities.

So, if you do not have a job, you should add the position you are hoping to work at, but also add a line in the spot reserved for the company name that makes it clear you are not employed, like “Seeking new opportunity” or something like that. You do not want to lie or appear dishonest right from the onset.

 

12. Complete your Introduction

You should try filling out some miscellaneous details of your profile section too. Some of the fields required are:

1.   Former name: As per your comfort, you can use this section to be found by names you no longer go by, maybe your maiden name. You have the option of choosing who can see your past names.

2.   Name pronunciation: First introduced in its mobile app, this feature of LinkedIn will allow you to add the pronunciation of your name. You should use this feature if you have a long, uncommon or complicated name.

3.   Location: You should try adding a metropolitan area in the location section instead of a smaller city that you might be based in. Having a metropolitan location will help you show up in more searches. If you are relocating, you can add the target city in this option.

4.   Industry: In this option, you can pick only one industry. So if you are involved in different industries, you can talk about the additional ones in your summary.

5.   Contact info: It is recommended that you should add your email address so that the recruiters can reach you. Phone numbers and addresses are commonly given by the ones selling services on LinkedIn rather than individual job seekers. It is not recommended to give out your personal cell phone number on LinkedIn. As to adding links social media pages, include them only if they are relevant to your job and professionally organized.

 

13. Write a Good Summary

The “About” section is where you have a great chance of making an impression by showcasing your personality.

Here’s how you can organize it:

Introduce yourself:

Who are you as a professional? What work do you do? What value have you bought to the organizations you have worked for?

Strengths:

Highlight your key skills, experiences, and achievements. You can write them in a paragraph if you want to keep it short. But if you have a lot to say about this, create a bulleted list.

Interests:

Talking about your interests outside of the professional life is optional. It is not that important but you never know what might resonate with the viewer and grab their attention.

Call to action:

Urge the reader to take an action by asking them to connect with you or contact you.

Beyond this format, make sure you use the first person and maintain a personal touch to the section. You can use as many ways as you want to write your summary, as it is an extension of you and should reflect who you are.

 

14. Put your Best Work in the “Featured” Section

After the “About” section, there is a section titled “Featured”. In this section, you can show off the articles, posts or media that are some of your best works at the top of your profile.

Sharing your work or mentions is a great opportunity create a good impression on the viewer right from the start by showing the evidences of your skills. For example, if you have an online portfolio, you can add it in the “Featured” section to make it easily and quickly visible.

 

15. Tailor Your Experience

LinkedIn allows you a lot of flexibility when it comes to adding details about yourself. In a resume, you have to include information relevant only to the particular job you are applying for. On the other hand, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to tailor your profile according to the broader industry you work in or want to work in.

You can stress on the elements of your past experiences that you consider most important to the kinds of jobs you are searching for. You can include any volunteer work and school projects in your profile too.

 

16. Focus on Accomplishments

LinkedIn can be most effectively used when you describe your accomplishments too, rather than just your past roles and responsibilities. Your accomplishments should be modestly flaunted.

You have the freedom to describe not only what you did in your past jobs, but how you did it, what the results were, what value you created etc. Utilize keywords to show your vital skills.

Include numbers as they will help the recruiters see the scope of your work and make your accomplishments more concrete.

 

17. Add Links and Media to your Work Experience

You can add links, images, files etc. to the entries in your “Experience” section.

This is another chance of showing off your good work. You can add proofs of the projects you have worked on, reports you have published or anything else that you want the recruiters to see.

 

18. Make Sure Your Resume and LinkedIn Match

The two don’t have to be exactly identical but the facts should match. The dates and periods as well as experiences, positions, degrees, certifications should match on both platforms otherwise, it could give an appearance of dishonesty, which you definitely don’t want.

 

19. Add Licenses, Certifications, Projects, Volunteer Experiences, or Languages

After your education, there are additional spaces. Here you can add lots of miscellaneous but worthy information about your background and qualifications like languages learnt, awards received, licenses, and volunteer experience.

You can use keywords here too and show off your uniqueness in this section.

 

20. Add your Skills everywhere

You should boast your skills not only in the “Skills & Endorsements” section but everywhere. Use them with the proper context in your “Experience” section, include your most marketable skills in the summary and try to get recommendations on them too.

In the “Skills & endorsements” section, you can add up to 50 skills, but viewers can only see your top 3, so choose the most important ones for the top.

 

21. Seek out Relevant and Recent Recommendations

Recommendations boost your credibility. You can ask people you have worked with closely for recommendations. Be sure to help them include the points that particularly work for that skill and support your professional goals. You could ask them to highlight skills and experiences that you want to be emphasized.

Another thing to keep in mind, is the time period of your recommendations. Make sure that your recommendations are current. For this you can set calendar reminders to secure new recommendations, preferably twice a year.

 

22. Give recommendations to your connections

It is a favourable practise on LinkedIn to help out your connections. So be sure to offer to give a recommendation to some of your connections. Plus, this way you have more chance of securing a recommendation for yourself.

23. “Interests” Section

The “Interests” section is overlooked often as it lies all the way to the bottom of your LinkedIn profile.

Nevertheless, it’s a good opportunity to include some interesting and shareable content on your LinkedIn feed. LinkedIn will show you posts about topics in your “Interests” section. You can share these, comment on them or use them to find more like-minded professionals.

 

Tips on Profile usage

24. Be mindful of your Profile Settings

You can adjust your profile settings on LinkedIn to let recruiters know you are seeking new opportunities. This will help in your job search.

If you do not want your current employer to find out that you are seeking another job, you can adjust your settings further to prevent anyone working at the same company as you from seeing this information. It is also possible to adjust who can see your updates related to jobs, education, certifications etc.

 

25. Link to your LinkedIn on your Resume

It is important to share your LinkedIn profile with people. You can direct people to it by adding the URL of your profile to your resume. If you resume is a softcopy, you can add a hyperlink to direct any viewer to your LinkedIn Profile.

 

26. Become an Active User

After creating your profile, don’t just abandon your account until the next time you need it for a job search. You will have more success on the platform if you engage with it.

Actively take part in discussions, sharing or creating posts and updating your information. This will help you grow your network, be more visible and learn about new opportunities and your industry.

 

27. Request Connections thoughtfully

Build your professional network online by connecting with people you already know and request connections from people you may not know personally but would like to know, learn from or those who can help you grow in your career.

LinkedIn provides the Alumni tool which can help you find professionals who went to the same college or school as you.

You should also request to connect with people who work at the companies you want to work at, or have the same jobs that you would like to do someday. You can look for people by searching keywords in the search bar.

It is a favoured practise to personalize the connection requests by including a message. For a suitable message, observe what the potential connections have in their profiles and what value you hope to create from connecting. Also, give people an out and don’t take declined connections personally.

If it seems useful, go one step further and start a conversation. Maybe set up an informational interview to learn about their work or industry. Connections are able to see each other’s posts in their feeds, so you can like or comment on their posts too.

 

28. Use LinkedIn as a platform to Learn

LinkedIn, in addition to being a networking resource, is an excellent place to share one’s knowledge. Users can talk about their insights through posts and they can start a discussion around them similarly. LinkedIn is quite interactive when it comes to discussing new topics or developments.

You can also use LinkedIn Learning to develop a range of skills by means of courses provided by LinkedIn. You can identify which courses are relevant to your industry by going through the profiles of people who have the same type of work and looking at the courses they have done. It will give you useful insights into what skills and experiences you might need for working in the same field.

 

29. Start Posting

Every LinkedIn user can create posts on the platform. These posts are instrumental in building up your image as an expert. Instead of just informative posts, you can add your perspective and personal opinions and start a discussion around them. You can even share relevant articles you’ve come across elsewhere online.

If you feel apprehensive about writing your own posts or don’t have any inspiration, start slow by commenting on others’ posts.

Select relevant interests in your profile in the “Interests” sections. Follow experts, leaders and speakers in your field from whom you’d like to learn. Engage with their posts. This way you will learn, gain connections and be inspired to create your own posts.

 

30. Join LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups will help you find compatible professionals in your industry or areas of interest. These will help you engage more in your field in a dedicated setting. In addition to being areas of knowledge and fruitful discussions, these groups provide a large pool of possible connections.

 

31. Gain the Full LinkedIn experience

LinkedIn is not just a platform for searching for jobs. It is a place where you can foster relationships with others in a wide variety of industries and fields, learn new skills and grow as an individual. Staying active on LinkedIn even when you are not seeking a job will make it easier to find one, if you need it in the future.

Grow your network and establish your brand and tap into it every time you need to switch jobs. Being active on LinkedIn will also help you stay on top of the new developments happening in your field.

Building meaningful connections on LinkedIn will benefit you in the long run, as these connections would become relationships you could depend on in the future.

 

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