Tips for a Great LinkedIn Profile

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Tips for a Great LinkedIn Profile

Here are a few tips…

LinkedIn is a great way for people to get introduced to you and your brand before they approach you. These days, it can be a recruiters go to tool to do research or check that what’s on your CV matches your public profile.

In a professional environment, a poorly written or incomplete profiles can impact your credibility. You can’t afford to be invisible or have a poor presence on the world’s largest business networking site. Invest the time to create a professional presence on LinkedIn. It is worth it.

  • Keep your profile up to date
  • Make your headline standout
  • Use a great photo
  • Have a clear and compelling “elevator pitch”
  • Keep your work history relevant
  • Add any volunteer interests and roles
  • Build a strong network
  • Remember LinkedIn isn’t Facebook! – keep it professional

Lastly, don’t be tempted to sign up with an email you never check. Recruiters will often approach you via InMail. There’s no point having a great profile, if you don’t make yourself open and accessible to an approach from a ‘Headhunter’. For advice on making your next career move, contact us here 

Whilst your summary will give people a good snapshot of you and what you’re about – you can adapt your headline in accordance with your goals and your audience. By default, LinkedIn populates your headline with your job title and current company, but you don’t have to leave it that way. Try using keywords, but consider that it may come across as industry jargon. There’s loads of great examples on LinkedIn if you take the time to look, you’ll find some inspiration.

It doesn’t have to be a full blown ‘professional’ phot shoot style, but remember your audience. LinkedIn is for professionals, so a picture that reflects some of your personality will go a long way. Good lighting is essential and it will be worth investing just a little time to make sure you get it right. This may be the first impression that potential recruiters or employers get of you.

Ensure your summary lists some of your greatest achievements. You can use bullets to make this easy to read if you wish. It should be a concise summary of what you do and what you can offer to potential employers/recruiters/networkers/Boards.

You don’t need to add every single job you’ve had since you entered the workforce, remember that people are probably only really interested in your last 3-4 roles. To expand on your work history, consider sharing examples of your work – speaking events, presentations etc through the ‘Add Media’ option. Note: Adding relevant volunteer work, interests etc is a good way of supplementing your CV so you CV remains professional & concise.

Participate in both industry and function based groups through posts and commenting where appropriate. Get involved and expand your network by inviting others to connect where you can. Utilise the InMail, not to spam people but as a genuine introduction tool. Use the Status updates to share things you find interesting or are passionate about.

Following on from the previous point, do not spam people with generic requests to connect, post personal photos and clog up feeds with religious or political commentary. People want to be educated and challenged; share relevant articles, write on-topic blog posts and contribute to industry group conversations. Also, don’t blast people with profile updates – remember to switch these off in your privacy settings.