Eight ways to make the most out of your LinkedIn profile

By HGB , Jun 18 2019

LinkedIn – it’s like Facebook for business. Providing a common ground for professionals to come together, share learnings, wisdom and commandeer an audience – without the airing of dirty laundry, memes and day-to-day moments.

Most people view LinkedIn as an online CV, which yes, is true, but it’s so much more! It’s a professional network that allows you to interact with business folk, online. Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, HGB is here to share our top tips on how to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile.

Where to start

To put it simply, your LinkedIn page should be viewed like a website, an opportunity to showcase your personal brand as an employee.

1. What’s in a profile image? Hint: it’s more than just your pretty face

Your profile image is the first thing people see, providing the all-important first impression.

To make the most of the space, your profile image should have a photo of you, using no less than 60% of the frame. Your photo should be presentable and have a neatly-constructed balance between looking competent, likeable and – because influencers are everywhere, even on LinkedIn – influential.

PRO TIP: Want to see how your image ranks on LinkedIn? You can use online tools such as “Photo Feeler” to help gauge how people feel your image translates to the community.

2. Set the scene with a cover photo

The banner image behind your profile is prime branding real estate – it’s like the Times Square of LinkedIn: high value, centrally located, and well populated, with extremely high foot traffic.

Whether personal or business focused, this image provides a banner-length area to communicate your values, or your company.

3. To summarise, you are more than a blank space

A summary, by definition, is a short synopsis you would like your audience to remember. On LinkedIn, you can show, in 2000 characters or less, how amazing you are and create a narrative around what you do.

But the summary is so much more than this – it also serves in LinkedIn’s search function. When writing, ensure you’re including keywords that your ideal reader would search for, ie. digital marketing, administration experience, sales etc.

PRO TIP:Best practice is to open with a mission statement, fill that with some context, and end with a call to action. i.e., tell people what you want them to do. And don’t forget your keywords!

4. Experience: it’s more than a list of companies

Yes, this is the hard part – selling yourself and telling people about what you do on a daily basis. Roughly, the experience section is broken down into the different roles you’ve worked in. Here you can showcase some of the exciting experiences you’ve had. (But maybe leave out the paper run you had when you were 12).

Inside of your experience you will need to write a ….

5. Role description: describing what you do to people who don’t know what you do

When describing your role, you have 120 characters to explain what you’ve done throughout your role to really sell your experience to your audience. Show some personality, sell your capability and highlight, highlight, highlight those achievements and milestones.

PRO TIP: Be original and creative, yet also clear and informative. Include relevant industry keywords (it will make you easier to find when people are searching for professionals in your field).

6. See contact information – it’s right under your name and headline

To contact or not to contact, that is the question. Why should you personalise your URL and add in your email address? So potential recruiters can contact you! Got a website, blog or a side gig you want to display? Here’s your opportunity. Stop people from sliding into your DMs, and direct them towards a (professional) mailbox you will actually check.

PRO TIP: Customising your URL under this section will help optimise your profile for LinkedIn. Basically, it’s another tool for SEO.

7. Conditional, blank, special, restrictive or qualified – endorsements are a thing

Did you know you get to choose your top three endorsed skills? Furthermore, it’s super simple. When you’re in the edit function, you can pick and rank the endorsements others have given you – irrespective of how many votes they have.

8. Best practice

Some final food-for-thought. Like other social media platforms, LinkedIn has an algorithm and your goal is to be searchable. There’s no silver bullet to propel your profile to the top of the search engine, but there’s plenty you can do to make yourself more visible:

• Include relevant keywords in your headline (this is the tagline underneath your name)
• Add your city into your profile (to give yourself a geographic location)
• Insert impressive work samples. LinkedIn gives you the capability to upload attachments, videos, photos, articles and website links. It’s quite literally your walking, talking online portfolio (and it’s free)
• Showcase volunteer or charitable interests – it highlights your extra-curricular activities
• Join industry-centric groups
• Remember who your ideal ‘buyer’ is and speak to them
• Funny usually fits better on Instagram (unless you’re actually a comedian…)

With the information above, you can’t go wrong in updating (or creating) your LinkedIn profile! If you need help, we’ve got a tonne more tips to get you to the next level.  Get in touch – our Hamilton based digital marketing agency has the right digital marketing team ready to launch your LinkedIn profile. 

Ever wondered what happens at a Linkedin Local event?