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With more than 1 billion users in 200 countries worldwide, LinkedIn is currently the largest platform for professional networking. Whether for professional networking or job hunting, it's more important than ever to customize and optimize your LinkedIn profile. Much like advertising, visitors to your profile page are likely to spend just a few precious seconds forming an opinion, so it's imperative that everything is clear, concise, and to the point. Thankfully, LinkedIn has a robust feature set that offers plenty of customization options. Unfortunately, many on the platform overlook important parts of their profile, in some cases not including them at all, and often fail to optimize what's there.
When creating your LinkedIn profile, you should generally state four things clearly and concisely in a way that is easy to understand: who you are, what you do for a living, what you've done, and what you're looking for – especially for those looking for a job. You should remove anything that doesn't contribute to any of these points.
Related: Learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and land your dream job
Below are six important considerations and configurations to optimize your LinkedIn profile:
1. Your profile picture
When you see someone's profile on LinkedIn, they'll have a background image right at the top. It's shocking how often this important space is left blank. It's easy to customize, so be sure to upload a cover photo. Anything is better than nothing, but I really recommend you make the most of this space. Don't just put a solid color image or pattern there. Make the most of this important space by choosing an image that conveys some sense of understanding and ideally even validation for you (for example, check out mine, which shows an interview in progress), or at least conveys a sense of something you care about.
2. Get a verified checkmark
Below the cover photo, there should be a verification checkmark next to your name. This is a free service provided by LinkedIn and assures prospective employers and partners (as well as recruiters for job seekers) that you are who you say you are. Fraudulent profiles are created frequently, so this verification gives your visitors additional assurance that your profile is genuine. If your profile is not currently verified, look for a way to verify it (or do it next time if you can; it's important for the future even if you can't have it now). Understandably, you may have privacy concerns, and in reality, these privacy concerns are relevant to everything you do online across your desktop and mobile phone. Just remember that this is an important verification for your career.
3. Formulate your headline
Almost everyone on the platform has entered a headline. Many of them are in dire need of improvement. This is a small space to communicate some extremely important information. Avoid extra words that don't add to your definition. Avoid using lots of symbols. Avoid broad, general language. Be precise, be concrete, and use this space to clearly express what you are, do, and/or want.
4. Present your work on your “personal poster”
LinkedIn offers a featured items section that you can add, but many people don't use it at all. Featured items can be posts, newsletters, articles, links, media, or featured content from your profile. You can also sort the list, which is important because visitors typically only see the first two to four of your featured items (depending on the viewing platform) without scrolling.
5. List your skills – and recommend the skills of your colleagues
LinkedIn allows you to list your most important skills and others can recommend you for those individual skills. Often, people over 50 have skills linked to their profile and some of them are recommended. Are you aware that visitors to your profile page only see the first two in the list (unless they click “See more,” which most don't)? And did you know you can sort the list? Be sure to sort your skills so that the top two reflect the most important things a business partner or potential employer would want to see.
Related: Learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and land your dream job
6. Present your experiences
Crucially important is the Experience section, where you list all the companies you've worked for. The first mistake many people make is using the description to describe the company. Think of this page as your resume. This is where you should describe your role at the company. A line or two about the company is fine, of course, but also consider using bullet points to highlight key roles and accomplishments you've had while working there. This is especially important for your most recent experience, or the last few if the most recent was short-lived. Often overlooked is that you can associate skills with each experience definition. You can also add media, such as press releases, white papers, interviews, or any other media related to your time at that company.
By the way, if you subscribe to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you have a tool on the platform called the Social Selling Index that measures your social selling efforts. This tool evaluates your overall brand, relationships, people, and insights. The brand part of your index relates to your profile.
Some say LinkedIn is the resume replacement. I wouldn't necessarily go that far, but it is undoubtedly an important professional networking tool and worth investing time in configuring and optimizing. In some cases, it is literally used in place of a resume. In some cases, you will never be asked for your resume if your LinkedIn page doesn't tell the right story in the first place. I recommend exploring each section, trying each configuration, arranging each arrangeable list to highlight the most important, and being careful with the images you use.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
