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Your 10 Must-do for Creating a Better LinkedIn Profile

Posted on July 11, 2012 by admin

The purpose for LinkedIn has changed a lot over the years with many improvements, more informed recruiters and employers now use it to search for the right candidates. As a consequence individuals are increasingly adding LinkedIn profiles to their job search strategy.

So how do you get found with all of those potential candidates now on LinkedIn?

Here are 10 must do’s to help you create a better LinkedIn profile:

Tip 1:  You’re Headshot!

Contrary to other social networks having a professional & friendly looking picture of you is expected. In fact, because most profiles have a clear picture, not having one will only differ potential recruiter’s to even look further into your profile.

Tip 2:  Your Professional Headline

So what does show up in your headline anyway? Well LinkedIn will automatically use your most recent job title for your professional headline. So a good tip here is that if you do not want this job title to show in the headline, editing your profile. And the reason you will want to do this is because this is one of the first things a sightseer will notice, so if the meaning isn’t clear or exactly right, you could lose them.

Tip 3:  Make Your Summary Meaningful

Your summary is designed to give people some tin bit of who you are just enough to grab their interest. Originally this section was designed to just cut and paste a version of the summary from your resume. But as the popularity of LinkedIn grew as social network, people now want to know you a little more. A good tip is to make is real, not too personal but real enough so your true personality stands out.

Tip 4: Key Words are Important

It is beneficial for you to have a basic understanding that employers and recruiters are now becoming better and better at searching for possible candidates. And the way they do that is through specific key words that apply to job position/responsibilities. So it might be a good idea to review your summary to see if you have included some important key words. Another area to consider is specialties; this section is a great opportunity to add some determining key words specific to your industry and occupation. These are usually skills required in job postings, like software, terms and industry knowledge.

Tip 5: Your Activity Broadcasts

So the activity broadcasts is an instant notification that is sent to all your connections whenever you do any changes to your profile. Depending on your existing job status you might want to change this notification by turning it off, as your activity change might tip someone off in your network which could affect your existing employment conditions.

Tip 6: Status Updates

Whenever you make a status update that automatically shows up in your connections network activity. This is a great way to stay “top of mind” within your network, what to update consider this activity as a building your personal reputation. Here are some examples of things you can post on your status: great article about your industry or profession, good news related to your company, or individuals in your company, etc.

Tip 7:  Your Contact Information

Updating your contact information to include all of your available email addresses is a smart thing to do. And the reason is things happen, what if you are unexpectedly asked to leave your employer and you email is no longer accessible to you this could potentially mean you could lose access to your LinkedIn profile. It’s usually something that can be fixed but it can take some time and if you can avoid it by just adding another email address why wouldn’t you!!

Tip 8:  Default Public Profile URL

Having a URL to access your LinkedIn profile is a great personal branding tool, and the added bonus is that you can customize it to only include your name. This looks much more professional and you can now easily add the link to your resume, business card, even within you email signature.

Tip 9: Your Privacy Setting

Contrary to other social networks, you do want to be visible. This will allow people to find you, also making yourself know when viewing other people’s profile. If you will be actively using your profile to find a new employment opening up your profile and letting people see who you are is strongly advisable.

To view what your settings are go to settings -> Edit your public profile -> Customize your public profile.

 

Tip 10: Getting Recommendations

Recommendations are not necessarily the golden ticket to any guarantees but it is worth a consideration. And the best way to get some recommendation is to give some, offer to write one for a colleague, partner, and manager… someone you worked with and authentically would like to share your admiration toward.

We hope you have found this information helpful, something to keep in mind with more and more employers using social media for recruitment you goal for your LinkedIn profile should be to grab the viewer’s interest.

Please feel free to add any other suggestions in our comment area.

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