5 Things You Can Do Today For An Impactful LinkedIn Profile
I'm going to walk you through five steps for what you can do today for a more complete and compelling personal brand on LinkedIn. What you put in your profile can profoundly affect how others react to you on LinkedIn. If you only do these five things to create the most well-written, detailed, and informative profile, then you will attract fellow LinkedIn members. This can result in increased connection requests and even job opportunities. Isn’t that worth your time?
Get a Better Profile Picture
I recently did a people search on LinkedIn with all my connections with the first name “Michael”, a common first name. I then went and looked at the profile picture. Here is what I saw:
Pictures where the face of the individual was challenging to see. If you have a full torso and arms in the shot, then yes, your face will appear tiny. Remember that the viewer only wants to see your face; we don’t care about anything below your neck.
Busy backgrounds.
One where the person appeared to be in the lobby of a hotel or office building, with plants, windows, and people in the background.
One where the person had two houses in the background (and they were not in construction).
One where the person had a background of boats docked behind him (and his occupation had nothing to do with boats).
Your profile photo should be all about you. The viewer shouldn’t be looking at what is behind you.
Poor lighting. In many of these photos, the individual’s face was in full or partial shade. Because of this, sometimes I could not even make out the eyes of the individual. In one, I saw the opposite issue. The light was too harsh, and the person had a bleached-out face.
Now take a look at your profile photo. Are you guilty of any of these mistakes? If so, then update your image. If you have a better one, switch it out. If not, take a new one. This does not mean that you have to get a professional headshot. You can if you want, and professional photographers do a fantastic job of capturing the real you. But if time and money make this not feasible, find someone with a good phone camera, and take an up-close one before a neutral background and well-lit with light sources in front of you.
And please smile. It will make you more relatable if you do.
Your Banner Is a Great Branding Opportunity. Use It.
LinkedIn gives you a default banner to start.
It is boring and tells nothing about you. Yet many people keep this on their profile. Don’t be one of these people.
Did you know you can make a custom banner? Yes, and it is pretty straightforward.
First, think about what you want to be known for on LinkedIn. This can be your profession, what industry you are in, or what you are known for professionally. Some people have banners that speak to who they are on a personal level. How you want to brand yourself will depend on your goal(s) for being on LinkedIn. For many, it is to professional network or find a job. If that is the case for you, I would keep your branding to your professional persona.
With a banner that reflects your personal brand, readers of your profile will immediately get an idea of who you are as a professional. This helps to get people to read your profile and connect with you.
Then go to a free graphic design program like www.canva.com or www.create.vista.com. You can search for LinkedIn Cover or Banner, and you will see many free templates. In these programs, you can add images, headlines, text, and elements or icons. It is as easy as drag and drop. You also can add your own colors to create brand awareness (those that follow me know that my brand color is purple). You can also create your own banner from scratch.
Here are some examples of banners that provide a good brand identity.
Here are the specifications you need to remember for your banner.
Size: 1584 pixels wide by 396 pixels long
File Type: JPG, GIF, or PNG
Maximum File Size: 8 MB
Note: Your picture will appear in the bottom left corner, so do not put any text or images that are important for your branding there, as they not be seen.
To add a background photo:
Tap the Profile icon.
Tap the background photo section > Tap CHANGE from the Add Background Photo page.
Follow the prompts to take a new photo or upload one.
Change the position and size by dragging the photo.
Tap SAVE on the upper right corner.
Make Your Headline More Robust
First, let me remind you where your headline is if it has been a while since you looked at your profile. You will find the field right under your name.
You also see the headline as you post or comment on LinkedIn.
Having a prominent field, like the headline, and having nothing in it was not desirable to LinkedIn. So they created a default, <job title> @ <employer>. And most people stick with this formula. But as you can see, you don’t have to. And you don’t want to.
The headline allows the reader to know more about you quickly. It is like a mini elevator speech. Now, if you were talking to someone and giving your elevator speech, would you just give your title and employer? Of course not. You would tell them about yourself using words that convey what they would find of value or interest. Your headline should not be any different, so do not treat it that way. Provide keywords that will pique the interest of the reader. Tell people about your knowledge, skills, or experience. You can even add how your get results or why you do what you do.
Additionally, you want to optimize your headline to land you at the top of search results when someone searches for people with specific attributes. If you know Python, work in logistics, or have a CPA, the algorithm looks at the headline to determine relevancy for a search, so make sure your headline has these words.
You have 220 characters for your headline, so you have a lot of space. Note that when commenting, viewers will only see the first 70 or so, so frontend your most powerful keywords.
Here is how you can change your headline.
Tap your profile picture, then tap View Profile.
Tap the Edit icon (the pencil) in your introduction section.
In the Edit intro page, make the applicable changes in the Headline field.
Tap Save on the upper right.
Give Us More Than Your Title and Employer in the Experience Section
As part of my job as a career coach, I read a lot of LinkedIn profiles. One common misstep I see people make is not filling out their Experience section. They put in a title and employer and leave it at that. With the Experience section, one of the most looked at areas of a profile, you are not maximizing the opportunity to tell more about your professional self: what you do and how you do it.
This hurts you in two ways. The first is providing context around what you do. Not all Account Managers or Project Managers are equal. The content of your job, the type of organization you work in, the projects you work on, and the number of people you supervise will vary. This may be important information for your reader to help decide if they want to employ you or even network with you.
The second way it hurts you is that you have not taken advantage of the opportunity of putting keywords into your profile. The algorithm uses many factors to determine who appears in search results and in what order. Having relevant keywords in your profile can help get your profile ranked higher in a search.
One mistake I see many people make is to take their job description and cut and paste it into the Experience section. While this is better than leaving this area blank, it still is not the best strategy. In the Experience section, you should provide information about the scope of your job but also include eye-catching achievements. Also, since the format of your Experience is less prescribed than in a resume, you can use the section to explain the challenges you faced and overcame, what you have learned, or even what inspires you. Make it interesting, and people will want to read it.
Actually Tell Us About Yourself in the About Section
No one likes boring. Let’s face it, do you read boring writing? Then why have a boring About section? I often see information about years of experience, maybe roles and industry, and a bunch of adjectives describing themselves. And yes, this is boring. You can do so much better with only a little effort.
I recently wrote an About section for a college senior. He had little work experience to talk about, but he had a terrific story about how he learned chess on his own and was able to get to the expert level. It was a story about motivation, using readily available resources, and learning from mistakes. The reader learned more about who he was in that story than a list of adjectives. Also, the story was captivating and helped draw the reader into wanting to learn more about him. That is what a good About section will do for you.
Some will say what about keywords? Yes, they are important and can be strategically added to a story, so they seem natural and not forced. Here is an example of the first paragraph of an About section I wrote. See how I have added keywords to the story.
How often do you come across a strategic sourcing/supply chain manager with product management experience? My experience helps me provide more value to my employers. As a Senior Trader, I get an even deeper understanding of the markets and what customers want and need when collaborating with my buyers. I then take that knowledge to help my company on the supply side, where I am responsible for over $100M in healthcare purchases alone.
You have great stories, even if you do not consider yourself a great writer. A good strategy is to start outlining potential stories and look at what value it shows in you. Pick your best story(ies), and start writing in your own voice. You will then stand out from most LinkedIn members and get more interest from people to connect and interact with you.
Conclusion
So there you have it—our five easy steps to an awesome LinkedIn profile. Simply work through each, then add other details and elements that tell your unique story. The more time you spend and effort you put into it, the more impressive your profile will become. And the more likely you will receive new opportunities in your personal and professional life.
Shelley Piedmont is a Career Coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. I help job seekers prepare for interviews. You can engage me to help you prep for any type of interview. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.
