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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