Nowadays, whether you like it or not, your digital image is paramount. Career success can be determined by how we present ourselves on social media.
Enhancing your brand can open doors you weren't aware existed. A well-crafted LinkedIn profile is the key to finding these doors.
Your profile can broaden your network by displaying your experiences, skills, and accomplishments.
LinkedIn is a top resource for recruiters looking for potential candidates. More than 95% of recruiters use LinkedIn's tools to find the right candidate for a job. More than 57 million companies post jobs on it, and more than 15 million companies post jobs.
For your brand to receive a significant boost, ensure that your LinkedIn profile looks great.
You can use the following guide to build a compelling LinkedIn profile to spotlight your most critical professional skills.
We will focus on the following key points in this post:
- Your profile headline
- Your profile pic
- The profile background
- The summary section
- Skills
- Education
- Vanity URLs
A Linkedin profile is ideal for personal branding.
Your LinkedIn profile is like the outfit you would wear to an interview or a business meeting at an upscale restaurant. Your profile should make you stand out and look your best.
It's on a par with a well-written resume. With LinkedIn, you can create an appealing profile to ensure your brand is engaging and enticing. Use these features to your advantage.
A complete LinkedIn profile is in line with LinkedIn's algorithm. Having a complete profile increases your chances of showing up in search results. According to LinkedIn, profiles are given strengths based on their completeness, and those who use all the bells and whistles give themselves a huge advantage.
Use a compelling profile headline
LinkedIn uses your current job title as the headline by default. Nevertheless, customizing the headline can highlight your expertise or vision for your brand. Consider your headline as your brand's motto.
Make sure your headline stands out to potential employers and network connections.
LinkedIn headlines are limited to 120 characters (including spaces). That's roughly 18 words.
Here's a formula for a gratifying headline:
- Position title/area of expertise
- Name of the company
- Achievements/selling points
Choose a professional profile picture
To enhance your brand on LinkedIn, you should have a professional profile picture. If you have your photo taken by a professional photographer, the lighting will be perfect, and the picture will be flattering.
If you do not have the budget, you can use a decent camera and soft lighting. Ideally, the picture should reflect how you currently look. Take a new picture if you took your old one several years ago.
Dimensions: 400 x 400 pixels, under 8 MB in size. Make sure the image is high resolution. Additionally, your image should occupy at least 60% of the frame.
Your expression should be friendly and professional at the same time. An open-mouthed smile with teeth visible is often preferable to a closed-mouth smile. Avoid over-filtering your photograph. Using a natural-looking filter will enhance your photos.
You should wear clothing that matches your brand. Wear an outfit that you would wear to work.
On average, a professional photo will get a user 14 times more views than other profile pictures.
Don't underestimate the background section
Many new LinkedIn users and those just starting in their careers use the stark blue default background image. If you utilize this space wisely, you can build your credibility and showcase your skills.
This is where you can share information relating to your job or a side gig. An attractive background picture will enhance your brand and make your profile stand out.
LinkedIn recommends the following:
- Images are long and narrow, with a file size under 8 MB and 1584 x 396 pixels resolution.
It is easy to include a photo as a background.
- At the top of your homepage, click the Me icon.
- Click “View profile.”
- Next, click the camera icon in the top right corner of your intro section.
- After that, click “Open” to upload your background photo.
- Then click “Apply.”
The summary section
Visitors to your profile check out this section first. Recruiters will look at this section in a job seeker, so make sure your summary emphasizes your hard skills.
The latter is a line for a summary that is far more attractive to recruiters.
Additionally, your summary should include:
- Providing dollar figures, percentages, and numerals will verify your accomplishments.
- Increasingly, readers aren't able to read long blocks of text in today's digital world. Research suggests websites with white space are more eye-pleasing. Your paragraphs should be concise and to the point to keep their attention.
- By incorporating keywords from job descriptions into your summary, you can increase your chances of getting noticed by potential employers.
- You want people to know about your personality. They're looking at your profile for that reason. There is nothing more compelling than your personality to convey your brand.
In the “Summary” section, you can describe your professional and educational background, as well as all the skills you have acquired.
Stand out with your experience, education, and skills sections
You can see how your brand reflects your experience, skills, and education. Your profile will be lacking if you don't focus on these sections.
Experience section: Don't repurpose your resume here
Don't just duplicate your work experience from your resume into the LinkedIn “Experience” section.
The LinkedIn Experience section gives you more freedom. Adding experience beyond what is typically included on the “relevant experience” resume is an option. You can include freelance work or side jobs. It shouldn't be as important as your resume. You can also use the first person, using “I,” and a perfectly acceptable conversational tone.
Don't go into detail about every position. Highlight and summarize your most significant accomplishments.
Education section: Don't omit any colleges and universities
A neat feature of LinkedIn is that it tells you how many school alumni are applying for a job when you browse their jobs.
If they influence hiring, you can talk to alumni who work there and mention your interest in the job. You should therefore add all higher education institutions you've attended.
If you don't have a college degree, mention any formal training you've received. Displaying that you've taken the initiative and completed a course is worth mentioning.
Skills section: Showcase your skills and don't forget to endorse others'
The “Skills & endorsements” section will add much flavor to your brand on LinkedIn. A healthy section will include 10+ skills. But don't add skills that you aren't truly familiar with. The skills you select make you more searchable.
After adding the skills, you can click and drag them to arrange them in whatever order you like. Ideally, place the essential skills regarding your brand at the very top.
If you want to get endorsed, do unto others. When you're endorsed, it increases your credibility. People will trust your brand.
To endorse someone else's skills:
- Click on their profile and go to “Skills & endorsements.”
- Find the skill you wish to endorse and click the plus sign.
- Use the form that pops up to rate the person's proficiency and explain how you've been able to see the skill in action.
Create a LinkedIn Vanity URL
Whether you like vanity plates or not, it would be best to consider a vanity URL on LinkedIn. Branded links are more concise than LinkedIn's default URL.
You will attract an audience to this because the message is clear. Your brand is displayed in a condensed, focused way through a vanity link.
A LinkedIn vanity URL with your personal or company name makes it easier for networking contacts to find you, plus Vanity links display your brand's condensed, focused message.
You can now change to a vanity LinkedIn URL and change that messy string of characters and numbers:
- Select the drop-down arrow next to the Me icon on your LinkedIn homepage
- View your profile by clicking “View Profile.”
- Click “Edit public profile & URL.”
- The Public profile settings page will open
- Click the pencil icon on the right sight under “Edit your custom URL.”
- Enter what you would like to be in your custom URL
- Don't forget to click “Save” to edit your public profile and URL. Click on the “Edit public profile & URL” link.”
Your LinkedIn profile has just been given a significant upgrade if you've followed all the above steps.
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