How to Boost Your LinkedIn Profile

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And when it comes to LinkedIn, the same is true for your profile and background photo. Your profile image is critical to showcasing your personal brand, while the banner helps you provide more context about what you do. By simply having these on your profile, you can get 21 times more views and 9 times more connection requests. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that any pictures will do. It is also important to ensure that they represent you and are most recent, allowing people who have never met you to recognise you easily.

Remember that your profile picture is the first thing people see when you appear on their search results and click on your profile. So, ensuring your photo is up-to-date and looks exactly like you at present is imperative. We suggest changing it once in a while and making it a part of your networking and job search strategy. While there is no definitive time as to when and how often you should change or update it, you can do this whenever you feel like there’s a significant change to your appearance, when it no longer represents you, or when there’s a change in your career. This will help you maintain your brand and make a positive first impression in an effective way.

The first piece of information that comes up when a potential employer or recruiter conducts LinkedIn searches apart from your name is your headline. So, just letting it say you are a “Director at ABC Company” is a wasted opportunity. You are missing out on a great chance to tell them that your profile is worth checking out, and learning more about you can be in their best interest. So, it is important to customise your headline to serve as a call to action for your target audience to click through to your full profile.

 

LinkedIn allows you to tailor your headline in 220 characters. So, make sure to take advantage of it to create a powerful headline statement about your personal brand and the true value you can bring as a potential employee. Align it with your current career direction by adding relevant keywords. This can be your target job title, industry-specific expertise, and skills requirement of your desired role. Doing this can definitely help you appear higher in LinkedIn search results, attract more profile views, and convince your target audience to connect with you.

Have you considered adding visual media elements to your LinkedIn profile? If not, we highly suggest that you do so. Relevant visual media allows readers to better understand your content, increasing the likelihood that they’ll view your profile in a positive light. However, keep in mind that they are not meant to replace the content in your profile but only to supplement it and add another sophisticated dimension. This can enable you to attract a wider audience who prefers to see a different element in one’s profile than just the typical bullet points or a big chunk of text.

 

Some of the media elements LinkedIn allows are images, videos, presentations, slideshows, audio files, and links to your personal website or any external media. You can add media in several places of your profile, from your about section to your experience and education. Not only will these make you stand out, but they will also help you provide solid proof to back up your claims of being an expert in what you do.

Professional networking is one of the most proven and effective ways to find and land your dream job in today’s competitive market. So, connecting with people and continuously growing your network is key. However, don’t focus on the number of connections you have because having a large network alone isn’t enough to ensure success. It also needs to be targeted and relevant to your career goals.

To build a targeted and high-quality network, avoid sending or accepting connection requests with just anyone. Take some time to learn more about your prospective connections to ensure you are connecting with the right people who can actually help you further your career goals. For example, you can connect with professionals in your field with impressive experience, holding positions you aspire to have in the future, or outside your industry but working in your dream company. This way, you can definitely broaden your horizons and increase your exposure to new opportunities that you may not have otherwise discovered on your own.

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about LinkedIn is that having a great profile is enough. It’s not. In fact, it’s just the beginning of the process. Because building a strong network is not just about making connections but also maintaining them. And how do you do this? Simple – be active and engaged.

 

By staying active and engaged on LinkedIn, you’re allowing yourself to be found and remembered by relevant people and potential employers who may not be actively looking but may be interested in working with someone with your expertise. So, when you log in to your LinkedIn account, don’t just browse your news feed. Take some time to post some updates about yourself. This can be a short post or an article you’ve written yourself. When doing this, consider using relevant hashtags to expand the reach of your content and increase its findability. You can also curate existing content relevant to your network, like the posts of some of your connections, answer questions, or share insightful comments. This way, you could also be perceived as a thought leader in your industry.

LinkedIn’s skills & endorsement section is another important part of your profile that, when used right, can significantly boost your online presence. The first thing you must do is to ensure your list includes only the skills that are most relevant to your target role and industry. These will serve as keywords that are most likely to be used by potential employers when searching for candidates. Then, spend some time reaching out to your connections to ask for endorsements. Use a tailored and polite message when asking, and don’t forget to return the favour by endorsing a few of their skills as well.

 

The higher the number of your skills endorsements, the higher your chances of ranking more highly in LinkedIn search results. So, make sure you get endorsed for the skills that really matter. Lastly, take advantage of LinkedIn’s new feature, the Skills Assessments. Doing so will allow you to show and prove to potential employers that you actually possess the skills they’re looking for.

Getting recommendations from your connections is another effective way to demonstrate that you’re good at what you do. However, even though you have a lot of recommendations from your colleagues or past managers, not all of them are equally helpful, as generic recommendations aren’t as valuable. So, make sure to go through and review your recommendations list and display only those that add value based on your goals. This way, potential employers will only be able to see the ones that can serve as evidence of your contributions most relevant to the position they’re currently seeking.

As we all know, once you’ve created a profile, LinkedIn automatically creates a URL for you with a combination of your name and random numbers. However, it can be long, cumbersome, and hard to remember. That is why it is also important to go the extra mile to customise your profile URL. Not only will it look polished and professional, but it will also make it easier to recall and share with your contacts and prospective connections. While its overall benefits may be minimal, it can definitely help you maintain your personal brand, improve your discoverability, and get identified easily if a potential employer or connection searches for your profile.