Optimise Your Linkedin Profile

Optimise Your Linkedin Profile

ABOUT LINKEDIN LinkedIn continues to gain momentum in New Zealand and in the world as a resource utilized by both internal and external recruiters to find well qualified candidates. But equally, a quality LinkedIn profile is quickly becoming an essential element of a complete career marketing package. WHO would have thought THIS would be the case three years ago huh?!

Like a resume, a LinkedIn profile serves as a summary of your work history. Both your resume and your LinkedIn profile need to be well-organized, well thought out, well written and more importantly - tell YOUR story. And, it should go without saying, spelling error free and grammatically correct! Although a resume will typically go into greater detail of accomplishments, a LinkedIn profile needs to offer enough facts to drive further action by others viewing it.

THE TECHNICAL THINGS FIRST It looks a bit odd when people constantly have notifications going out announcing changes to their profile. When changing your profile, switch off the ‘Activity Broadcasts’ first until you have made all but one change, then switch the notification back on so that your contacts view only once the changes you have made – you only get one chance for people to look at your profile.

How to turn off your Activity Broadcasts (temporarily) Go to the top right hand corner where you name is Click on drop down box Click on settings Under Privacy Controls, click on ‘turn off/on your activity broadcasts’

Photo Be aware, your photo says a lot about you including not having a photo. Unless you are in an industry where casual or cool is ok, avoid this look at all costs. Photos that don’t look great; Sunglasses on head or on face, wedding photos, personal hobby shots - keep these shots for your Facebook. Ensure your photo is professional looking, in focus, good light, plain background and truly just a head and shoulder shot. You want to look good enough for people to click into your profile!

How to ensure you are found by search engines Go to Profile (found top bar) Click on Edit Profile In the first section go to where it says Public Profile Click Edit On the right-hand side half way down, click on Your Public Profile Url Click on Customize your Public Profile Url Change this to be just your name with no spaces

Keywords These little babies help you get found. If someone is looking for a person, they type in the key words associated with what they are looking for (title, skills, past companies, industry etc)
A simple audit will allow you to see which queries bring your profile to the first few pages of a search:
Go to the Peoples tab and click Advanced Search
Now enter a keyword or keywords associated with your targeted position Now enter a region
Then select an industry or multiple industries that apply to you. Understand the broader you make your search the lower your ranking will be.
Now hit Search. Can you find yourself in the first few pages of the LinkedIn results?
Look at the top few names that have appeared and open their profiles. By looking at the highlighted words, you will see the criteria that LinkedIn used to filter the search.

Recommendations It is difficult for the reader to read more than 3-4 recommendations and waters down the impact of them altogether. Stick to 3-4 goodies with all round feedback.

YOUR ACTUAL PROFILE…well, story really Did you know that when people google you or check out your profile, they quickly assess your talents based on your website, portfolio, and social media profiles. Do they resonate with what you’re sharing? Do they identify with your story? Are you even giving them a story to wrap their head around? Gone are the days of facts and figures only. What is happening now is that we try to check each other out in the relationship economy. Do I share something in common with you? How do we relate to each other? Are you relevant to my work? People work with people they can relate to and identify with. Trust comes from personal disclosure.

To help you with this, your profile should address the following five questions: Who am I? How can I help you? How did I get here (i.e. know what I know)? Why can you trust me? What do we share in common?

Your profile helps expand your thought leadership and recognition, especially online. It frames the conversation and sets the tone. It’s your job to reveal a bit about yourself and how you see the world. Do this well, and people will eagerly want to engage with you further.

To be fair, most of us never had a lesson in this essential task on how to write your own profile. Even the most skilled communicators get tongue-tied and twisted when trying to represent themselves in writing. We fear the two extremes: obnoxious self-importance or boring earnestness. It gets further complicated when you’re in the midst of a career or business reinvention. You have to reconcile the different twists and turns of your past into a coherent professional storyline - instead, share more of what you really care about.

Some Hot Tips on how to write your Profile (some of these tips we gained from an overseas article) 1. Share a Point of View Don’t be afraid to tell the bigger story. We want to know how you see the world. Show us that you have a unique perspective or fresh vantage point on the things that matter most.

2. Create a Backstory Explain the origin for how you came to see the world in this way. Maybe it was something that happened to you as a kid or early in your career. Consider your superhero origins. How did you come into these powers? What set you off on this quest or journey? What’s the riddle or mystery you are still trying to solve? When you tell the story of who you were meant to be, it becomes an undeniable story. Natural authority is speaking from the place of what you know and have lived.

3. Incorporate External Validators Think frugally here. To paraphrase the artist De La Vega, we spend too much time trying to convince others, instead of believing in ourselves. Nonetheless, if you’re doing something new, different, or innovative – you have to anchor it into the familiar. Help people see that your novel ideas are connected to things they recognize and trust. That might be your notable clients, press, publications, or things you’ve created. Just enough to show people your story is for real.

4. Invite people into a relationship Now that you’ve established you’ve got something to share, remind people you’re not so different from them. Vulnerability is the new black. Share some guilty pleasures. Describe what you like to geek out on. Reveal a couple things you obsess about as hobbies or interests. This will make you more approachable and relatable. You’re human, too. Help people find the invisible lines of connection.

To revamp your profile, start with these simple storytelling principles and questions above. In the process, you’ll discover a greater potential to shift how you see yourself and how the world sees you. Your story sets the boundaries for everything else that follows. If you’re having trouble being heard, recognized, or understood, it’s probably an issue related to your story and identity!

Don’t delay, go for it…!

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ENDS

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