Hi There! I recently gave a webinar about how to build a winning LinkedIn Profile. Below you can watch the video of my webinar. I thought I’d add to the webinar with some additional thoughts about building a LinkedIn Profile that will work for you and help you with your career whether it is getting a new job or just improving your networking.
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools out there. Its utility is almost unlimited as it can
accomplish so many different things.
Among it’s potential uses are:
- Be your address book
- Act as a messaging tool
- Serve as an On-Line resume
- Gives you the ability to shape how people view you
- Be an online advertisement for your services
- Get you consulting gigs
However, you can’t reap these benefits if you aren’t
actively using Linked In. Before you can
do this you MUST have a good profile.
Below are some of the ways you can create one.
1. Add a Picture
This is the single most important thing you can do for your
profile – bar none. This is for two
reasons. First, it personalizes you –
people like to know who they are talking to.
More importantly, people have begun to expect it. If you don’t have one, people wonder why…
However, beware that adding a picture has its pitfalls. You can’t just add any picture. Remember that LinkedIn is a professional
network and your picture should resemble this.
Don’t have that awesome picture of you at the tailgate with a beer in
your hand, in most cases beach pictures should be avoided too…On the other hand
don’t rush out to your nearest Glamour
Shots to get a professional headshot – just have someone take a picture of you
in a suit or at least something with a collar on with their phone and upload to
your profile. You get the picture.
2. Typo’s, Grammar Errors and Text Typing Makes
you Look Stupid
Here’s the deal. You
need to treat your LinkedIn profile like you would your resume. If you spend five minutes putting it together
it will look like you did so. Follow
these tips in this area:
- Check for spelling and grammar errors – it just looks sloppy
- Don’t assume that everyone knows what your acronym means – take the time type it out
- Don’t type like you text. Anyone that uses u instead of you or anything like this sounds like a sixteen year old girl – unless you are one – this is not what you want to look like on Linked In
3. Add Lots of Information
This one is really important. I teach the people that I work with that a
resume should be brief, easy to read and a highlight of your experience. The goal of a resume is to make people want
to learn more about you. The purpose of
your LinkedIn profile is the same.
However, when someone reads a resume you have six seconds as you are
competing with the 9 Million other people competing for the same job. On LinkedIn people are going there for extra
information about you – perhaps they saw your resume and want to learn more –
maybe you left them a message and they are deciding whether to call you
back. Regardless, in this medium it is
acceptable and recommended that you put as much information as possible in
there. Still, keep in mind that it needs
to still be easy to read and scannable.
By far the most important aspect of this is to make sure you
have a ton of keywords. The best way to
increase visibility is to increase the likelihood that you show up in a
search. Add every keyword that you can
about your industry so that more people see you. Additionally,
I suggest that you add every school you have attended from high school
on up – LinkedIn is about common denominators and the more chances you have to
have something in common with someone the better.
4. Take Advantage of the LinkedIn Apps
LinkedIn offers a variety of applications that allow you to
share additional information about you.
They range from sharing work product, to linking your blog (valuable for
me), to the books you are reading and where you are traveling. This stuff is pretty cool and gives you
another opportunity to show off. One of
my favorite settings is that no expert calls themself an expert – instead they
are branded one by their peers. Using
these apps can make you look like an expert.
So… That’s all I’ve got on this subject. Take a look at the webinar and let me know your thoughts. Have a great week and as always don’t
hesitate to leave comments or send me an email at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.
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