Creating a Compelling LinkedIn Profile

We posted an article about LinkedIn a few days ago to help introduce you to the social networking site for professionals.  Now that you’ve gotten started, here are a few things to keep in mind to create a compelling LinkedIn Profile.

• A Professional Photo: I already mentioned this in the previous article but it’s important enough to bear repeating.  The ideal photo to use is one taken by a professional photographer but at the very least it should be a photo of just you, ideally taken from the shoulders up, and your appearance should be neat and tidy, just as you would want to look going into an job interview.

• A Compelling Summary: The summary is the perfect place to tell people who you are, what you do, and why you are on LinkedIn.  This isn’t the place to give a life history but instead, in a succinct way, talk about your experience and the motivating factors for being on LinkedIn.  Perhaps you are looking to build a professional network, generate sales leads through referrals, or interested in consultant or contract work-you can make all of these things clear here.  Remember: if you are looking for a new employment opportunity, it may be unwise to make that clear if your current employer is not aware of your intentions.
• Add Experience and Education Quickly: Utilize the “Import Resume” feature to instantly complete your Experience and Education sections.  Review to insure the correct information is added in the relevant section.  Add awards, activities, and interests where needed.
• Get Connected: Start with your existing contacts by letting LinkedIn scan your email address book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn. Don’t worry, LinkedIn won’t automatically send requests to your contacts; you can choose to whom you want to send a request.
• Personalize your URL: Change your LinkedIn profile URL from the default set of numbers to your name. This helps people find you when they search for your name within LinkedIn as well as in Google and other search engines.  You can also add this personalized URL to your resume, email signature, or business cards.
• Ask to Connect: Whenever you have interactions with people, ask them if they’re on LinkedIn and if they’d like to connect. I often send LinkedIn requests shortly after a business meeting in which everyone swaps cards. You’ve got their email address so it will be easy to find them on LinkedIn and you’ll be able to contact them and, considering you’ve just met with them, they likely have an interest in creating a relationship.
• The Right Keywords: As you put yourself in the mind of the people by whom you want to be found, think about what searches they’d perform on LinkedIn in order to find you. Build up a list of those keywords and search phrases and use them throughout your profile.
• Link to Yourself: If you have a professional Web site, a blog, a Twitter account or other social media profiles, include them on your LinkedIn profile.  The drop-down menu offers options such as “My Website” and “My Blog” but you’ll want to choose “Other” so you can use your own text for the link. (If you choose “Company Website” that is how it will appear and that isn’t as informative as “Mary’s Cafe and Bakery”). This helps search engines find you and helps boost your rankings in the search results.  DON’T add personal website profiles that aren’t relevant to your professional career.
• Get Recommended: Give and ask for recommendations. Don’t be afraid to ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation. Recommend those you think are worthy before they ask you to recommend them. They will often return the favor. And you need at least three recommendations before your profile completeness will reach 100%:

In this day of internet safety and privacy concerns, I understand why you would hesitate to include all of this information in a public profile.  However, LinkedIn is really a social network that is best experienced when you don’t hide. You can’t network or connect at all if people can’t find you.  Include as much information as you feel comfortable sharing and change the settings on your profile to “Full View” so your profile can be fully indexed by the search engines.  As LinkedIn is primarily used by other professionals, it doesn’t have the issues some other sites have had with inappropriate behavior.  But, as in all things with the Internet, exercise caution and never share private or financial information about yourself.

This article was written with help from: E-Strategy Blog.

In the next blog post, the third and last in this series, we’ll talk about ways to make LinkedIn work for you.