In the past two months, I have found myself optimizing other people’s Linked In profiles.
These clients are former corporate executives making a career transition by launching a business or looking for a new opportunity.
Since the same issues keep showing up, I thought I’d write a short blog post on making the most of your Linked In profile.
Here are 3 Tips for Maximizing Your Linked In profile:
1—Include a picture. People want to know see the person to whom they’re connecting. If you don’t have a professional headshot you use in your other social media profiles then have a friend or family member take decent snapshot of you. Make sure it portrays you in a professional manner.
Not having a picture shows you’re not serious. I once saw someone (not me) post on a Linked In group a question to the effect of, “Would you ever do business with someone who didn’t have a picture on their Linked In profile?”
2—Your headline is prime real estate. Right beside your picture and under your name is the place for your title. Don’t put a title such as owner of such and such.
Make it a headline using a good keyword so you’re more apt to show up in search. (Yes, Linked In profiles can be search engine optimized).
For example, if part of your job includes business development and you want to do more of that, yet your actual job title doesn’t reflect that role then don’t use your job title. Use “business developer” in the headline. You get 120 characters so make it punchy, memorable and keyword rich.
3—Include status updates on a regular basis. Don’t neglect the opportunity to connect with people. Share an interesting article or your own blog post. Change it every few days or daily.
Whenever you post something in the status update area, you have two opportunities to connect with others. One, when they come to your profile and second, in the Linked In newsfeed that showcases recent activity.
Plus, if you’re a Twitter user, you can click the Twitter icon so it flows over there too.
See how easy that was?
In the next post I’ll share 3 more ways to harness the power of Linked In to help you grow your business.
If you want help with your Linked In profile, please let me know.
