LinkedIn Profile Tips for Professionals
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From creation and set-up to continued maintenance, your LinkedIn profile demonstrates who you are as a professional, which is why it’s essential to handle it with care and consideration.
Professionals using LinkedIn don’t need a high-end account to reap the rewards. They just need their basic accounts to read as more than basic. So, in order to make the most out of your profile, you’ll want to freshen up your LinkedIn strategy.
Make yourself known as a professional in the working world regardless of your employment status or title with these LinkedIn best practices:
How to improve your LinkedIn profile with the perfect picture
Now this one might sound obvious to some, but it isn’t uncommon to find unprofessional pictures on this platform. Don’t even have a photo? Get one! Photos are important when it comes to professional networking and LinkedIn will tell you why:
“Members with a profile photo on LinkedIn can get up to 21 times more profile views than members without a photo.”
Putting a face to your name is useful for more than just views. The right profile picture will help promote your professional and personal brand, which job seekers and those who are gainfully employed can benefit from further along their career paths.
You don’t need to be a pro when it comes to professional profile pictures, but not just any picture will do when it comes to your LinkedIn account. And believe it or not, some of the most critical guidelines are often ignored, like using a recent photo and being the only one in the frame.
Other guidelines to keep in mind include: avoid distracting backgrounds, use lighting that best illuminates your face, and pick facial expressions wisely. But to be recognized on a virtual workforce platform like LinkedIn, your profile picture should be unapologetically you, as if you were meeting someone new in person.
How to make a good LinkedIn profile summary
LinkedIn describes summaries as a space that “should express your mission, motivation, and skills to people who view your profile.”
If your photo is the first visual introduction to professionals across the platform, then a summary is your chance to explain a little bit about who you are and what your career goals may be. Fresh faces joining the workforce and wanting to get recognized by recruiters or potential employers can really shine in this area if there’s not much to show when it comes to their work history.
Sprinkle in some personal character when it comes to your bio to spice up the humble ingredients or the feast you’ll be bringing to the table of a new organization. Adding your own voice, style, and just a pinch of personality will make your summary stand out amongst others.
The key to a balanced bio isn’t simply being yourself. Honesty and authenticity are great traits to start with when filling the short space available, but then go one step further and include the potential, will, and capabilities to do and be more.
How to build and maintain your LinkedIn community
Growing your network through LinkedIn isn’t as simple as clicking the “connect” button. Well, actually, it is. But! There’s an even smarter way to go about it to ensure the community you’re building is beneficial to your standing in the professional world.
There may be a variety of pathways that lead toward your career goals, knowing what those alternative trails are will give you insight into your next step. Smart community building will help you find people that will open the door to greater opportunities along your career path.
Follow and connect with people in roles you hope to achieve yourself one day and scan the paths of where they started to where they are now. Sending a personalized message with each connection will help build strong and memorable first impressions. Or join a group of like-minded professionals and see what you can gain from the courses they’re taking and certificates they have or are interested in.
The networking potential is vast but can get crowded without upkeep. A LinkedIn profile tip for community care: Be picky. Vet people before accepting connections, clean up requests left pending for over a few months, and move on from profiles and influencers that no longer align with your career goals or mindset.
Up your LinkedIn strategy with endorsements and recommendations
The community you’ve surrounded yourself with, through your connection making, is invaluable when strengthening credibility through affirmations regarding your talents. Even the smallest gestures of recognition amongst users can significantly impact career paths.
There’s no limit to the amounts of recommendation requests you can make, and the reasons to do so are plentiful. Request a recommendation when you feel like your involvement resulted in a successful project with a team or colleague. Better yet, if your peers recognize a certain quality about you and express it to you often, ask that they share it on your LinkedIn profile by endorsing a skill you have listed.
Giving is a whole different story regarding endorsements and recommendations. Instead of waiting for a request, scan your connections and give them willingly and as often to those you feel genuinely deserve it. Who knows, they may even return the favor.
When in the giving mood and endowing your connections’ page with recommendations or endorsements, consider the optics of how this may look to others in their LinkedIn community. Keep your praise light and tight by choosing specific skills, services, or successes you want to commend.
LinkedIn best practices for intentional engagement
Start interacting with your network to build professional status and trust. Becoming an active participant in the exchange of valuable and engaging content and dialogue takes a little added effort, but you may already be putting in the work without realizing it.
Read anything that impacts the industry you’re interested in? How about you pick the brains of professionals in your network by starting a poll about the latest workforce trends.
Commenting and starting conversations reinforce the image of an emerging thought leader and can even help you get on your own company’s or a prospective employers’ radar.
It may not need to be said, but responsibility and accountability are expected when engaging on a professional networking platform. Even in the face of the inevitable overselling, scams, intimidation, etc., that may occur, a LinkedIn professional must maintain their integrity and respect.
LinkedIn isn’t just about finding a job. It’s about building a professional network because that’s what it is, a professional network. So, whether you’re considering a career change, just starting your job search, or comfortably employed, a well-maintained LinkedIn profile will help keep your network strong and your best foot forward in the working world.
