How To Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile

As marketers, we invest a fortune of time as well as resource into building brands. We’re trained in it – and we’re very good at it. However, how often do we apply those skills to establishing our own personal brands? For many of us, it’s not anything like as regularly as we should.

When we ignore personal branding, we don’t just sell ourselves short – we also miss a huge opportunity from a marketing perspective. The effect of employees who share content on LinkedIn is huge. And the most successful employee sharers are those people who’ve established their personal brand on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn profile page is the basis for your personal branding. Regularly add features in order to increase its capabilities as a personal marketing platform and to give you new ways to signal your skills as well as motivations. If you haven’t checked your profile page lately, you might well find new ways to build your personal brand.

Complete Every Section Of Your Profile

It’s very important to make sure every section of your LinkedIn profile is complete, with no blank spaces or gaps. You should treat your LinkedIn profile as your online CV.

At a minimum, your profile should list the following:

• Your industry and location;
• A current employment position;
• Two past positions;
• Your education information; and
• A minimum of three skills.

In order to enhance credibility, it’s also wise to have at least 50 connections.

Use A Professional Picture That Represents Your Industry

Including a profile photo may result in 14 times more profile views. This also creates a sense of familiarity as well as trust. Typically you should utilise a quality, well-lit and professional-looking headshot which has a simple background.

It is also wise to have the same picture across your other professional social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc.); firstly to build your personal brand, and secondly to ensure you are easily identifiable across multiple channels.

Your Headline And Summary

In your headline, explain what you do in 120 characters or less. Be original as well as creative however clear and informative. Make sure that you include the most relevant keywords in your headline as it makes you easier to find when looking for professionals in your field of specialisation in LinkedIn.

Keep your summary as brief and interesting as possible, pay attention to keywords and also update your summary regularly in order to make sure that it’s as accurate as possible. The summary-section also allows you to add high-quality media, such as images, videos, documents as well as links.

It is a clever idea to take advantage of this opportunity and include relevant media in order to introduce the visitor to your work, brand or thought-leader pieces such as a speech you gave or a link to a news piece which introduces your work.

An Emerging Trends

One key trend emerging in LinkedIn is that individuals are starting to focus on future goals as well as ambitions rather than only listing (past) achievements.

Consider using this technique and rather than giving a narrative of your past (“15 years of experience in social selling…”). Give a glimpse of your future or what it would be like to work with you (“In ten years, I plan to be running the largest consulting company regarding the health and maintenance of parrots. With care and with passion – the Parrot Whisperer”).

This is also a great idea, if you are still at the early stages of your career, or if you are in the process of changing careers, as you are able to shift focus to your future instead of your past.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

If you would like to discover more information about social media marketing then you need to do our Social Media Marketing Course. Find out more here.