5 Handy Tips for Getting the Most Out Of Your LinkedIn Profile

Are you someone who thinks LinkedIn is just an online resume? With over 170 million unique users and growing, LinkedIn is the world’s largest – and most effective – online professional networking platform that when used right, can help propel both your career and your performance figures.

Read on to find out how.

Learn How To Use It

LinkedIn is possibly the most underutilised of all social networks, and many people are missing out on opportunities because they don’t know how to make the platform work for them. If you’re not a savvy LinkedIn marketer, consider enrolling in a workshop or enlisting consultancy services from a digital agency like Market Smartly.

Browse & Update Anonymously

Whether you’re looking up the names of potential lead prospects or doing some research to try and land yourself a new position, LinkedIn sends members an alert when you’ve visited their profile. Your network are also updated whenever you make a profile change, no matter how minor. You can edit what people see when you’ve viewed their profile, what your network sees when you’ve edited your profile and more from the Privacy Controls tab. Select this through “Privacy & Settings” from the drop down menu near the thumbnail of your profile pic in the top right corner of the screen.

Upload Media

You can add a variety of rich media including images, videos, links and other documents to your profile. Doing this not only creates a point of difference that can help get you or your company noticed, but it can also boost credibility and give you an edge over others in your field by acting as a virtual portfolio of your skills and achievements.

Change The Order Of Your Profile Sections

It’s possible to edit the order of things like the category modules (Experience, Summary, Education etc.) on your profile simply by dragging them into the position you want them to appear when you’re in “edit” mode. You can also move your “Skills & Endorsements” around so that the topics you want to highlight as strengths are at the top of the list rather than the ones with the most peer “votes”.

Use Keywords

Your profile copy is not the place to be verbose – keep your writing style simple and utilise key words you want to be found by in both your summary and headline. Just as with SEO best practice, don’t be tempted to “stuff” as many keywords into the text as you can, it still needs to flow and read well. LinkedIn suggest referring to job ads for the type of positions you want to target or assimilate with for keyword inspiration.

LinkedIn can be one of the most powerful tools you have when it comes to growing business or making your next career move and with just a few simple tweaks, you can really make the platform work for you.

What’s your number one tip for optimising your LinkedIn profile?