LinkedIn

Tips on making a better LinkedIn profile

Thought I would throw together a few tips to help you make your LinkedIn profile even better, even if it’s for networking, keeping an account of your work history or if you are out there looking for your next job.

• Take a clear photo of yourself with good lighting, you should be dressed professionally (or suitably for your industry) and should be the only one in your photo, party shots are best to be avoided here.
• Any writing you do, you should always run a spell check through it (so important) and check for grammar. Use a service like Grammarly to make sure none of your text is plagiarised, the spelling is correct, correct grammar is used and that punctuation is in the right place.
• Use plain english, don’t bamboozle your reader with information that they just wouldn’t understand. Make your summary clear and to the point, sell what you do, what you believe in, and where you want to be heading.
• Pick great titles that grab the reader’s attention. Play around with it, fine tune it all the time, don’t just set and forget. This is a great place to start to get the reader interested in you, so making it stand out is important.
• Add work that you have created, something to entice the reader and that they can visually see, use the ‘Portfolio, Presentations, Photos and Videos’ options within LinkedIn, a great tool to show off your work and stand out from the rest.

• Make sure your LinkedIn account is 100% complete by going through the wizard. On the right of the main screen, you will have “Profile Strength”, once your profile is at maximum strength you will be able to Tweet and Facebook your profile.
• Connect with peers & colleagues and get them to write you a recommendation.
• Add a few personal titbits to your LinkedIn account like blogs you run, social media sites, maybe even create a simple about you page with your name as the domain name. Link it all here.
• Customise your public URL, make sure you have your name as part of your LinkedIn profile au.linkedin.com/in/nikkingsman/ Try and get your name as one word, if you can’t because someone else has taken it,try another variation like adding your middle initial or hyphenate it.
• When you have complete your profile add it to all your social networks, feel free to tweet it and add it as a status update in Facebook.

So here’s to a great looking LinkedIn page, hope these few tips gave you something to think about or even action. Get onto your LinkedIn account and update, update, update!

Got some tips to share? Why not leave a comment and share it with the rest of us!