Is your LinkedIn Profile really working for you? If your goal for using LinkedIn is to open the doors to new opportunities, find a new career, or promote your business, products, and services, then you can do it on LinkedIn. However, if your LinkedIn Profile and activities aren’t up to par, you could be wasting your time.
Here are five easy ways you can improve your LinkedIn Profile quickly to make sure the doors to opportunity are wide open for you:
1. Lead with Your Strengths
This is the most important tip for using LinkedIn effectively. When you write your LinkedIn Profile, make sure the information that you want people to see is listed first.
Most people won’t take the time to read through your entire profile. In fact, they’ll often make a decision about you based on what they see at the very top of your Profile, so make sure the information at the beginning of your Profile tells the right story. That information should be directly related to your goals for using LinkedIn.
2. Use Keywords
Make sure people can find your Profile when they search for people like you on LinkedIn. That means you should include keywords in your LinkedIn Profile overview as well as your job titles and descriptions.
Don’t just include your title at the top of your LinkedIn Profile. Instead, describe the skills that you have which position you to reach your goals. What will other people be searching for? Those are the words you should use to describe yourself and your experiences.
3. Publish Original Content
LinkedIn is a great place to show off your expertise, so invest time into publishing original articles through the publishing option within your Profile. Make sure the content you write is directly related to your goals for using LinkedIn. For example, if you’re looking for a new job as an accountant, publish meaningful and useful content about finance and related topics.
While you might be tempted to write about unrelated topics, don’t do it. The reason is simple. This unrelated content clutters your relevant content making it more difficult for your target audience to find the information that matters to them.
4. Ask and Give Recommendations
LinkedIn recommendations are a powerful form of social proof that can greatly impact you and your business. After all, you can’t fake a LinkedIn recommendation! With that in mind, you should actively try to get recommendations from your LinkedIn connections, particularly for skills and experiences that are related to your goals.
For business owners, you can even use LinkedIn recommendations on your website to boost consumer trust in your brand.
5. Get Active in LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups provide an excellent way to network, so join groups that are related to your goals and start participating. Publish original content, share content, and comment on the content published by other group members. Every time you participate in a group, you’ve created a new opportunity for someone to find you who just might offer you a job or buy from your business. However, you should never self-promote in LinkedIn Groups!
Also, look for groups that are active but neither too big nor too small. A group that includes only a few dozen people won’t give you a lot of exposure (although it could still be useful if it’s a laser-focused, niche group), but you’re unlikely to get noticed at all in a group that includes tens of thousands of people.
How do you make yourself stand out on LinkedIn? Leave a comment and share your tips!
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored ten books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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I’ve read a few articles on improving LinkedIn profiles, but this was the first one to recommend being more active in groups. It’s so easy to focus on the Jobs board, but groups allow access to those unadvertised jobs. Befriending the right people means they’ll contact you before advertising jobs to anyone else.
When I was active on the group boards, I made some good connections with far more experienced people in my publishing field. Keeping your profile active also shows people that you are still working, and still in demand. It’s easy to find dead social media accounts online, so don’t end up another one of many!
That’s something to work on, and it’ll be easy to contribute quality posts because I’m a writer. I’ve also got to work on keywords and the profile. You’re right that most people probably won’t click the Read More button. Thanks for this article!
You’re welcome, Zahra. I wrote the book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to LinkedIn” and talk a lot about how to improve your profile in the book. Groups are so often overlooked because effective participation takes a lot of time, but if you’re willing to make the effort, it’s well worth it!