You’ve heard about LinkedIn, along with dozens of other social media networks. Unlike most other social media communities, LinkedIn provides a more robust professional portal that allows you to not only post information about yourself but also connect with people that could make your business or career soar!
So, how can you use this free social networking web site to bring in more relevant connections and build stronger professional connections? There are 7 easy tips that you can implement today to make your profile stand out on LinkedIn and get noticed!
- Change your name to your professional name. There is no need to include your maiden name if no one throughout your career has known you by that name. Use the space to also include any professional licenses or degrees such as MBA, AIA, PMP, etc. Do not use this field to include keywords, email addresses or contact information as that is against LinkedIn’s Terms of Service (TOS) and may result in your profile being deactivated.
- Capitalize on your headline. There is a limited amount of space in the headline field so keep it short but relevant. Use keywords for your field or specialty as well as your target customer such as small business, non-profits, etc.
- Space summary with skimming headlines. Allow for whitespace between paragraphs and text. Give each of your areas of expertise special attention by listing them on their own line with a short paragraph about that experience following. Whitespace allows people to read information quickly and keep their attention. Ensure that you are using keywords relevant to your skills, experience, industry and field throughout this area.
- Fill out all previous experience. No matter how insignificant you may think a previous employment engagement, the reader may use that experience to identify your passion, morals and beliefs. Use keywords where relevant to increase search-ability.
- Add applications to your profile. If you have an offsite blog that is relevant to those people you are trying to attract, use the WordPress LinkedIn application to push that RSS feed to your LinkedIn profile. If you are attending events found through LinkedIn, add the Events application to share your events with your connections. These applications give a deeper background about your professional goals and skills without having to list them in your summery or experience.
- Create a LinkedIn group. Search the “Groups” area to see if there is a niche topic that you can fill and create a specific group that will target those you want to find you. Groups allow for you to share call to action information about your, your website and your business. Discussions and news sharing show people that you are an authority figure in your field.
- Make your LinkedIn profile sing with keywords. Research those keywords, which speak to your industry and write them down. After you have a list of 2 – 5 keywords, see where you can include them in your profile. The more those keywords are listed, the greater chance you will show up at the top of the LinkedIn search results. Remember not to spam your audience though – you want to be an authority figure, not a spammer.
If you have any tips or recommendations, we’d love to hear them!
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Thanks for the tips! Just updated my LinkedIn profile with some of them.
Dan – glad I could help! It seems that a number of people have already seen great results by using these tips to update their profile. Would love to hear back on your results!
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