Is Your LinkedIn Profile Complete?
As social media becomes more important in our professional lives, LinkedIn grows in necessity. If you’re looking to build your network, considering a new job (especially in a professional sector), or establish credibility in your industry you need to be on LinkedIn. You need to be using it to the fullest extent, so let’s start with building out your profile beyond.
The Basics of a LinkedIn Profile
Profile Picture
LinkedIn is not Facebook or Twitter. This is not the place for your selfies and cute couples pictures. Ideally, a LinkedIn profile picture is a professional looking head-shot. Now, not everyone has a head-shot and that’s understandable. What you’re looking for in a good profile picture is a clear, recent photo of yourself and only of yourself. It’s always best for someone else to take the photo, selfies are always obvious. If you need to you can set a timer and take it yourself as well. Make sure you’re dressed professionally and the photo is cropped from the chest up. Profile photos on LinkedIn don’t display in large sizes so you want to avoid the full body photos that won’t make your face more recognizable – which is really what LinkedIn is about.
Job Description
Do not just list your jobs, the job descriptions are what really matter. There are a lot of jobs individuals often don’t feel are necessary to fill out a description for because it seems obvious, but they’re wrong. Like a lot of students, I waited tables in college. These jobs are all listed on my profile with fully fleshed out descriptions. At first glance, all serving jobs are the same, but when I worked at it harder I was able to write descriptions that showed what the take away from each job was. I learned a lot about being a professional when waiting tables, and I show that in the descriptions. Put in the effort and show everyone where you come from, it’s worth it.
Beyond the Basics of LinkedIn
Now, you’ve filled out what a good portion of members have on their page. To get the most out of your LinkedIn though, you need to put more information out there. Look at this like you’re showing your best self, any professional accomplishment should be listed on your page. It will never hurt you to put an accomplishment, project, or award on your profile, it could hurt you if you skip it though.
Skills and Endorsements
This one is really easy. Add any of the skills you find relevant to the type of work you want to be known for and are proud of being good at. Here’s the key though, if you don’t want to wait tables anymore, don’t list that as one of your skills. Often times I see people put skills on their profiles that they don’t want to be utilizing anymore. Skip these, why advertise that you’re good at something if you don’t want to do it anymore?
Keep these up to date. Also, it’s definitely fine to ask people in your network to endorse you, as long as you’re willing to do the same for them. This is how you help each other out.
Recommendations
This one is more tricky. If there is someone in your professional life that would be willing to write a recommendation letter for you, consider asking them to post a recommendation on your profile. It’s a permanent recommendation letter that a company could see even before you’ve applied, much less been asked to supply them. Recommendations boost your profile and lend to your credibility and reputation.
Accomplishments
Any project, award, or honor can and should be listed on your page. You made employee of the month? List it. You planned and completed a big project, list it. The nice thing about projects on LinkedIn is that you can link to it if it’s something online. This has come in handy for me a few times because as a web designer, I can link to the websites I’ve created. I can actually show someone my portfolio through LinkedIn. If you worked with a group of people on the project, you can link them to the project as well, show everyone that you work well in a team environment.
Summary
Do not skip the summary at the top of your profile. This is more important than most people realize. Having a complete summary will improve how often and how high you show up on search results for people in your area/profession.
Think of the summary as the cover letter for your profile. A summary also displays your communication skills when working with something longer than a bullet point on a resume. Communication skills are necessary in almost every position across the board, take any chance you have to show that you are skilled.
Write more than just a few lines, this should be three paragraphs at least. Discuss what you’ve accomplished and your career goals. This is your chance to tell the story beyond the resume bullet points, take the opportunity to make it personable but professional. A lot of other people on the internet have much better tips than I do on writing your LinkedIn summary, so I won’t do a poor job of rehashing their words here. I highly recommend reading this article when it comes time to writing your summary.
Time to Interact
Your profile is complete and distinguished. Now it’s time to start interacting with people online. Add people you know, post regularly, and comment, like, and share the posts of people in your network. LinkedIn isn’t the be all end all in a professional setting, but if you use it correctly, it’s a marvelous tool in helping you meet your career goals.