Your LinkedIn profile is the foundation for your personal brand, and no matter what stage of the job-search process you're in, you'll always need a LinkedIn profile that stands out.
With more than 600 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is easily the largest professional network on the planet. Having a LinkedIn page is not enough, you need a captivating profile that draws attention, says the right things, and helps you really connect with the right people.
If you're serious about your advancing your career and landing your dream job, you need to ensure that your LinkedIn profile is optimised and up to date. There are regularly new features added to increase its capabilities as a personal marketing platform and give you new ways to promote your skills and motivations.
If you aren’t getting the attraction you want from LinkedIn, you might want to work on your personal brand.
LinkedIn is becoming a key part of how we present ourselves to potential employers. A good LinkedIn profile is equivalent to putting on a neat outfit and giving a good performance in the interview room – so making your LinkedIn profile look appealing increases your chances of getting noticed by recruiters.
Appearances and first impressions are everything, even in the online world, but this has nothing to do with what you look like, and everything to do with how you present yourself. Here are a few tips on how to go about building your LinkedIn profile.
Having a good profile photo helps you stand out from the crowd and increases the credibility of your profile. Users with a profile photo on LinkedIn can get up to 21 times more profile views than users without a photo. Think something with slightly more personality than a passport photo, but that still has an air of professionalism.
To personalize your profile even more, you can add a background image too.
Your headline is created when you add your positions to your profile. You can either re-write it to promote an area of expertise or to let your personality shine through. The key is to keep it short and simple.
The About section of your profile is where you can add more detail about yourself and should express your mission, motivation, and skills. Try to limit the text to one or two paragraphs while filling this section. While keeping your language clear, you should say who you are and what you have done or achieved - let your individual skills and experience do the talking.
You should keep your profile updated with all your professional experiences that align with your current career goals. You can also add a portfolio or media samples to provide quick access to your work.
A list of relevant skills on your profile helps you showcase your abilities and helps recruiters understand your strengths. Once you add your skills, your connections can endorse them, and if someone endorses your skills, it will increase the likelihood of you being discovered for opportunities related to the skills you possess.
A recommendation is written to recognise or commend a connection, such as a colleague, business partner, or student. There’s no limit to the number of recommendations you can request for. Once you accept a recommendation written by a connection, it becomes visible to your network by default. You can also hide recommendations that you think don’t suit your professional goals.
LinkedIn allows you to add lots of little details to your profile to help you stand out from the crowd. Take advantage of these.
For example, you can add your volunteer history for recruiters to see. This is definitely worth including alongside your previous work experience as it shows you’re a well-rounded person who cares about others.
When your profile is in good shape, you can start growing your professional network. As you begin following people relevant to your career interests, the site’s algorithm will keep suggesting others for you to follow and connect with.
You can also follow hashtags to see posts relevant to that topic. The more you work on curating your feed in this way, the better LinkedIn will know you and suggest jobs, contacts and posts to you.
While it is certainly possible to get hired without having a LinkedIn presence, your chances of being found by a recruiter or someone else in your industry are increased if you are on the professional networking site.
Once you're flexing the full advantages of your LinkedIn profile, you’ll be surprised at what a difference it can make for you and your future career. Don’t wait for 2023, make it happen now!
Resources:
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/advice/7-tips-to-build-the-best-linkedin-profile-possible
https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/10-ways-to-create-a-winning-linkedin-profile