LinkedIn is undoubtedly the best place for you to market yourself to customers and future employees.
And to help you do this, LinkedIn has added many new features to help spruce up your profile. Here are a few which you may not know about - but they are all worth doing to help you to stand out.
1) Let LinkedIn Help You
If you haven't used LinkedIn much and have no clue where to start, just use LinkedIn's automated editing tool.
Here's how it works:
Login to your account (of course!)
Next, click on Profile at the top of the screen
Then, click on Improve Your Profile Strength.
LinkedIn will guide you step-by-step on how to fill in the various parts of your profile.
This is definitely the easiest way to 'beef up' your profile but here are a few more ideas.
2) Make a Good First Impression
Beside your profile picture, there is a space to state your name and job title. Many people stop there but there is so much more you can do!
Instead, try to make better use of this space. Give yourself a headline or a catchy one-liner that gives viewers a better idea of you and what you do.
Be creative and make yourself more memorable than all the other LinkedIn profiles.
3) Give Yourself More Visibility
Did you know that your LinkedIn profile can be found just by searching on your name on Google?
This is great news if you're job hunting, recruiting, using LinkedIn to sell, or just to make yourself more visible.
In order to make the most of this, you need to first view your public profile and then make changes.
To do this, click on 'Profile' as above and then you will see the button 'View Profile As'. Click on this and you will see the option to 'Manage public profile settings.'
Then, on this page, you can edit the sections that people see when they find you on a search engine.
4) Avoid All Text Summaries
In the summary section, many people paste their whole resume there. Again, not the best thing to do.
Did you know that LinkedIn lets you to add photos, videos and even slideshow presentations to your profile summary? Indeed they do. And so you should make use of this.
If you're a designer, for example, showcase some of the works you have done on your profile instead of just writing it out.
To do this just follow these steps
Click on Profile again but hold on look in the drop-down for 'Edit Profile'
Click on 'Edit Profile' and scroll down to Summary
There you will see a place where you can Add Media including videos and presentations.
5) Avoid Buzzwords
Many people swamp their profiles with buzzwords. Don't do this!
It makes you sound out of touch and does not distinguish your profile out of the thousands upon thousands of other profiles that uses the same buzzwords. And some of these buzzwords may surprise you they are ones which are used in business a lot.
According to LinkedIn, the most overused buzzwords are:
creative
effective
track record
innovative
problem solving
communication skills
dynamic
results-oriented
team player
self-starter
multitasking
So instead of using buzzwords, use action words to show your accomplishments. Here's what I mean:
Instead of 'team-player' you can note that you 'Assembled a team of three coders that built, tested, and delivered a prototype of a financial calculations tool in less than three weeks.'
Instead of 'results-oriented', tell people that you 'Reduced operating expenses by nearly $1 million through performing careful audits of vendors.'
And, instead of 'self-starter' say that you 'Launched a product singlehandedly which increased sales revenue by $1.5m over 5 years.'
6) Display Your Volunteering Experience
Times have changed. Employers look out for well-rounded candidates who contribute to society by other means other than their jobs.
Think about what you have done over the past year and update your volunteering information with all the new activities you have done.
LinkedIn has section that lets you highlight the organizations and causes that you care about and support.
To fill this out, click on edit profile and scroll down to find this section.
If you did not have opportunities to volunteer in the past year, you can consider starting now! A good place to start in Singapore is https://www.sgcares.org.
7) Spruce Up Your Skills List
One of the most popular ways recruiters find people is through the Skills section.
In the past, LinkedIn had a system called Skill Search to help you find the right skill word but it is now replaced with Endorsements. The more endorsements you get for a skill will cause that skill to show up higher in your skills list.
That does not mean that new skills or skills without endorsements (or little endorsements) will not show up in your list. They will still show up, just at the bottom. So you should constantly update your skills list.
And, of course, don't ignore the skills you use when you volunteer. For example, if you have helped mentor small children, then you should add mentoring to your skills!
8) Follow Thought Leaders
Two years ago, LinkedIn gave people the opportunity to follow executive influencers. Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates and Virgin Group's Richard Branson are some of these influencers that regularly write columns for people to view on LinkedIn.
When you follow these influencers, their posts will show up on your home screen and associate you with their strong personal brand.
More and more people are writing articles and columns for articles as well. Follow those whom you find influential and feel that you can learn from.
Read a few articles a day and you may find little nuggets of information that could help you greatly with your profile, your job, or your life in general.
9) Get More Recommendations
Most people only think about recommendations when they start their job hunting.
But, when you scramble for recent recommendations from friends, it is can be hard to get them in time and easy for recruiters to see that you're filling your profiles with bogus recommendations.
The most impressive lists of recommendations span months or even years.
LinkedIn's Browne said, it's easy to ask a friend to write you a recommendation. It's much more meaningful if they come from executives, managers and clients or suppliers.
And be careful of the number of recommendations you try to get though.
'Too many recommendations will usually turn me away from a profile faster than zero. You could be awesome, or you could be trying too hard,' warns Bret Reckard, head of recruiting for Mozilla.
Keep Updating!
There are many different ways to brighten up your LinkedIn profile – and you should try most of them in order to get the most out of the system.
Some of the ways of updating are difficult to find – but the more hidden they are the more advantage you will have by using tham.
Try all the steps or start with a few to start making your LinkedIn profile more visible and better than the rest.
Good luck!