LinkedIn divides your profile into four high-level sections with corresponding subsections. These sections are:
■ Background
– Work Experience
– Education
– Licenses and Certifications
– Volunteer Experience
■ Skills
■ Accomplishments
– Publications
– Certifications
– Patents
– Courses
– Projects
– Honors & Awards
– Test Scores
– Languages
– Organizations
■ Additional Information
■ Request a Recommendation
■ Supported Languages
LINKEDIN PROFILE TIP
In this age of text messaging and autocorrect, our society has become very careless about spelling and grammar. Your LinkedIn profile is a reflection of your professional image, so be 100 percent sure it is correctly formatted and free of spelling and grammatical errors.
Your goal, of course, is to populate as many of these sections and subsections as possible to give the most comprehensive picture of who you are as a professional so you stand out among the crowd. In this chapter, I’ll walk you through some of the best ways to do that, starting with what people see even before they click on your page: your profile headline and photo.
PROFILE HEADLINE
Your profile headline is the single most important part of your profile. Every day, your profile is automatically displayed to thousands of LinkedIn members in the right-hand column of their page under People Also Viewed and in search results when people search for skills and job titles.
When your name appears in the sidebar and search results, your headline must be compelling enough to make people want to click on your profile and learn more about you. You should never just include your name and company name in your headline. Bump up your discoverability with words that really show who you are.
In this section of your profile setup, you will also select your location and industry. LinkedIn has updated its dashboard so that you now see more information in the Intro section, as shown in Figure 4–1 on page 30. On my own profile, you can now see my background header, professional photo, name, headline, and location. In the right column, the gold “in” badge lets people know I’m a LinkedIn Premium member. Next you see my current company*, where I went to college, a link to my full contact information, and how many connections I have (they only show 500+ once you exceed 500 connections). On all profiles (not just mine), viewers can also see the first three lines of your summary and content you have shared in your profile.
* Note: My company name isn’t really America’s Leading LinkedIn Coach. I created a position in my Experience section and named the company America’s Leading LinkedIn Coach so it is displayed prominently in my profile. It’s a creative hack to get a tag line in front of your profile viewers.
GIVE UP THE GIMMICKS
Some people use tricks to get attention, but what it really does is show their inexperience. For example, some people like to add symbols to their headline. Some of the symbols I’ve seen include ™, ♦, #, *, ◊, and many other signs. I searched Google to see how people used the symbols, and they often just copied them from other people’s profiles or used the Insert Symbols or Insert Shapes command in Microsoft Word.
Personally, I think it’s unprofessional and diminishes your credibility. If you are really good at what you do, you shouldn’t have to trick people into reading your profile. When I see symbols in someone’s profile, I think of those restaurants with the neon signs advertising their cheap specials. You know the restaurant is a dive and the food is horrible, but they catch your attention with the flashing lights and low prices. This used to drive my father, a restaurant owner of more than 40 years, absolutely crazy. When he saw a flashing OPEN sign, he would always say, “If you serve good food and provide good service, people will know when you are open.”
I feel the same way after seeing a LinkedIn profile that contains flashy symbols. Occasionally I will take a moment to read the profile. It’s usually full of even more gimmicky symbols and buzzwords. The person typically overuses keywords (also known as “keyword stuffing” in SEO terms), overstates their experience, and uses other tricks to rank high in LinkedIn and Google searches. Eventually, LinkedIn and Google catch up with people like this and lower their rankings. They may get their 15 minutes of fame (and maybe even a few clients), but they rarely earn repeat customers or referrals.
Most people access LinkedIn through the mobile app, so Figure 4–2 on page 31 shows you what people see when they view my profile on a cell phone or tablet. Essentially they see the same information as they would on the desktop view but in a cleaner format.
FIGURE 4–1. Intro Section
When you sit down to write your profile headline, think of it as the title of an article or a book. The first two sentences of your summary are the teaser or subhead. They keep the reader interested enough to view the rest of your profile and learn more about you and your business.
Let’s look at another example. Figure 4–3 on page 32 shows us the profile headline for Viveka von Rosen, a well-known LinkedIn expert. You know exactly what she does for a living within seconds of reading her profile headline. Notice that she incorporates strong keywords into her headline.
This strategy of using keyword phrases or skills in your headline is a popular one, and for good reason. Viveka’s LinkedIn profile is the top organic search result in Google for “LinkedIn expert” out of 370 million search results (not bad!).
Also notice how she managed this powerful feat. Her public profile link, https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexpert/, contains the phrase “LinkedIn expert,” which Google sees as a keyword phrase, and it makes it very easy for prospective customers to find her on LinkedIn, as shown in Figure 4–4 on page 32.
FIGURE 4–2. Mobile View of Intro Section
FIGURE 4–3. Profile Headline for Viveka von Rosen
FIGURE 4–4. LinkedIn Expert Google Search
Take the time now to create a compelling profile headline using your target keyword phrases and claim your custom LinkedIn URL using a popular keyword phrase (if it’s still available).
PROFILE PICTURE
Now that you have your headline wording optimized for discoverability, it’s time to think about visuals. It’s very important to use a professional picture in your LinkedIn profile. First impressions are everything, and people will judge you within two seconds of seeing your LinkedIn profile photo. Save the casual pictures for Facebook and Twitter.
The best LinkedIn profile pictures are engaging and inviting. I recommend a simple head shot focusing on your smiling face. You are establishing your professional brand on LinkedIn, and your profile photo is your personal logo. Your profile will be associated with your company, so you want to present a consistent, professional image. This is why I recommend using a professional head shot rather than an avatar, caricature, or another image that isn’t congruent with the image you want for you and your business.
Never use your company logo as your personal profile picture. LinkedIn is a network where people connect with people. First, it’s not engaging and doesn’t give people a chance to get to know you. Second, it’s a violation of the LinkedIn user agreement, which can be found at www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement. Your company logo will appear in your Experience section, and you can invite people to follow your company page where they will also see your logo.
Your profile photo must meet the following formatting guidelines:
■ You can upload JPG, GIF, or PNG files
■ Maximum file size is 8MB
■ Pixel size: between 400 (w) x 400 (h) minimum and 7680 (w) x 4320 (h) maximum.
LinkedIn has added the ability to easily resize, crop, filter, and adjust your photo. See Figure 4–5 on page 34 to see how to edit your profile photo. As you upload your profile pic
ture, you can choose who will be allowed to view it using the Visibility button. I recommend choosing “Public” so people can see your picture when they search on Google and when they are viewing your profile, even if you are not connected with them.
The choices under the Visibility menu are:
■ Your Connections. Only people directly connected to you on LinkedIn will be able to see your photo.
■ Your Network. Only people connected up to three degrees away from you.
■ All LinkedIn Members. Everyone who is signed up to use LinkedIn.
■ Public. People who do not belong to LinkedIn and find you through search engines (e.g., Google, Bing).
I feel strongly that you should have a complete profile on LinkedIn, including a professional picture. I feel a partial LinkedIn profile or a profile without a professional picture is a negative reflection on that person. If they don’t take the time to complete their LinkedIn profiles, chances are they don’t take the time to complete other work tasks as thoroughly as they should. I base this on the fact that some people I know don’t have a complete LinkedIn profile and are not very detail-oriented. They finish 80 to 90 percent of a project but don’t complete it. They are not the kind of people I want working for me, and I would not recommend them to others because it could reflect negatively on me. This is just my personal opinion, and while it may not hold true in all cases, I feel very strongly about finishing what you start.
FIGURE 4–5. My Profile Photo
STATUS UPDATE
Below your LinkedIn toolbar is your Status Update section. Your updates for “Share” will appear in the newsfeed, which is in the middle column of your LinkedIn homepage. LinkedIn now lets you share a variety of content or just a status update, which is similar to a tweet, as you can see in Figure 4–6 on page 35. Your updates can be Public, Public + Twitter, or just for your Connections. Your updates might include:
■ Write an article. This is just like a blog post and can include text, embedded videos, links to your website, and hashtags.
FIGURE 4–6. Share an Article, Photo, Video, or Idea
■ Images. Upload photos or illustrations with your marketing messages.
■ Video. You can now upload native videos directly into the LinkedIn newsfeed.
You can share your status using this box, which is located at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. By selecting the Public + Twitter option you see in Figure 4–7, your status update will also be tweeted. You can prevent people from commenting on your status update if you choose.
I will go into publishing content on LinkedIn in Chapter 15. But for now, this is the basic way to do so—even if your profile setup is still in the early stages.
FIGURE 4–7. Status Update Privacy Options
EXPERIENCE
Now we’ll move into your Experience or Employment section. To add your current and previous positions, click on the + sign, as seen in Figure 4–8. Your current position and your most recent past four positions will be displayed in your profile. Five additional positions will be displayed if the viewer clicks on Show 5 more experiences. In my profile you can also click on View 5 more roles under my current company, Search Marketing Simplified, LLC.
FIGURE 4–8. My Current Experience Summary
Figure 4–9 shows you the Add Experience form. Simply fill out the form and click Save. Make sure you add a brief but clear description for each position. Use your target keywords in your job title and description, so you will be found when people search for your skill sets.
FIGURE 4–9. Add Experience Form
Notice you can create another profile headline in your Experience section, which lets you instantly replace your job title with a customized headline that appears only in this specific job. This headline grabs attention and tells people how you can help them when they view your profile. You can also upload media like a PDF, a relevant white paper you wrote, a video, or a podcast recording. This content is displayed within the job position and allows you to demonstrate your expertise.
EDUCATION
Once you’ve added your current and previous positions, you’ll move on to your education. Simply click + Add Education to enter your school, degree, field of study, grade, activities and societies, years attended, and a description. Figure 4–10 on page 39 shows the Add Education form. Note: The only required field is the school name; all other fields are optional.
You can also add multimedia content and links to articles on websites, as shown at the bottom of the form.
LINKEDIN PROFILE TIP
Should you choose the Share With Network option when you update your profile? When I’m making a lot of changes, I leave the Share button turned off until I make the final update. If the Share button is on, your network will be notified every time you click Save, which can be annoying. I like to Share only when I’m finished updating, so my network is “pinged” with a notification that my profile has changed. The result is a lot of congratulatory messages from my network, which puts me back on their radar. I often reengage past clients with this strategy.
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Why does LinkedIn ask you to share your volunteer experience if the goal is professional development? Because it’s a holistic view of who you are as a person. Adding volunteer experience shows people you contribute to your community by volunteering with organizations that are important to you. For example, when I was working as an IT director in the 1990s, I was working 80 hours a week and traveling a lot. I was an MIA father and husband, so I quit my job to spend more time with my young children and wife. This allowed me to drive on school field trips (I was the only father there most of the time). The best part of being my own boss was that I coached my son’s baseball team with my sister, Connie. She was a tomboy growing up and the best baseball player in the neighborhood. We coached Little League against fathers who played college and minor league baseball, and we won the championship three out of four years because we focused on the basics of throwing, catching, swinging the bat level, and having fun. Sharing this story lets people know that family and community come first for me. To add your volunteer experience, fill out the form shown in Figure 4–11 on page 40.
FIGURE 4–10. Add Education Form
FIGURE 4–11. Add Volunteer Experience Form
SKILLS AND ENDORSEMENTS
Now that you’ve added your volunteer experience, you’ll move to your skills. You can add up to 50 skills to your profile, and I recommend you use all 50 of them. Skills are used as keyword phrases in the LinkedIn search algorithm, so it’s important to add as many skills as possible to increase your findability. Once you populate your profile with skills, people can endorse you for those skills. The more endorsements you have for each skill, the higher you will rank when people search LinkedIn for that skill. If you are an independent patent attorney, how great would it be to appear at the top of LinkedIn search results?
Let’s add some skills to your LinkedIn profile. Click on Add a New Skill in the Skills & Endorsements section of your profile. As you see in Figure 4–12 on page 41, LinkedIn will suggest some skills based on your profile. Click on the appropriate skills, and they will be added to your profile automatically. You can also add more skills by typing the skill in the box next to the magnifying glass in the form. As you start typing, LinkedIn will autosuggest skills that already exist in their system. I recommend using these skills, since they are used in the search algorithm. Of course, if your skill is unique and not already in LinkedIn’s database, you can certainly add it.
FIGURE 4–12. Add Skills to Your Profile
After you enter your skills, you can re-order them by dragging them up or down while in edit mode (see Figure 4–13 on page 42). You want to feature your top three skills so they appear prominently in your profile. This will result in more people endorsing you for those skills, which, in turn, moves you up the search rankings for those skills. The more endorsements you have for each skill, the higher you can rank. Your skills will be categorized as:
■ Top Skills
■ Industry Knowledge
■ Tools & Technologies
■ Interpersonal Skills
■ Other Skills
RECOMMENDATIONS
I will cover giving and receiving recommendations in greater detail in Chapter 10. For now, I’ll provide you with some important pointers to get started. Most important, it is critical to request recommendations personally. I know that I rarely recommend someone who sends me a mass request and doesn’t take the time to write a personal request. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I will reiterate it numerous times throughout this book. Do not use the tools in LinkedIn to send mass requests! LinkedIn is about building strong personal connections, and using automated tools is not the way to build a strong connection with others. If you want a good recommendation from someone, take the time to write a personal message, and you will receive a much better recommendation than you would from a mass request.
FIGURE 4–13. Re-ordering Your Skills
You can Request a Recommendation in this section by clicking on the link. Fill out the form shown in Figure 4–14 below, and a recommendation request will be sent to the contacts you choose.
FIGURE 4–14. Recommendation Form
FIGURE 4–15. Some of My Recommendations
Make sure you include personal details about how you met, projects you’ve worked together on, and other details about your working relationship. Specify exactly what you want in the endorsement, such as focusing on a specific project you worked on or highlighting a certain skill set. Some people even prefer that you send them a brief endorsement you’ve written about yourself they can edit or modify to save them time.
Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business Page 5
