LinkedIn: Is Your Profile Up To Scratch & Are You Getting Noticed?

Being on LinkedIn as a professional is inevitable, whether you like the social world or not. But are you making the most of it?

Whether you use it for job hunting, to gather leads and build business development for your company or purely as a networking platform, it’s crucial to have your profile up to scratch.

LinkedIn is the largest professional network on the planet. Its reach is global and has over 260 million active users per month!

LinkedIn is an integral part of our job (to be honest, I don’t know how recruiters worked without it before 2002.) But too often we see minimal profiles, that can leave us second guessing whether it is worth the approach, meaning you could be losing out on that opportunity you could only dream of.

Having an eye-catching LinkedIn profile is key. Filling out a profile isn’t difficult, but the content and information you use is pivotal.

Profile photo:
This is always a funny one, as personally I don’t think you need a suit & tie, professional one. But a clean cut, smiling picture is just fine. Some profiles don’t have an image, which makes the profile impersonable. Your first impression will be your photo, so keep it smiley and clean.

Headlines:
Your headline will be your job title and current company. But within this you can also add your speciality. For example, if we were to search for candidates who may specialise in SEO, a generic Digital Marketing Executive may have that exact skillset (just a different title) – add your skillset and you will see a difference in the activity on your profile.

Summary (About):
Your summary should be a brief overview of your experience and the specialities of your skillset. A great use of this part of your profile is to add documents and media files, this is perfect for the more creative candidates who want to showcase some of their best work.

Filling out as much as you can:
Your experience should have all of the past projects, and roles you have that create your professional profile. Keep your work history relevant and keep it up to date. If you have worked on an exciting launch or project add this in! Here’s a few more quick tips to fill out your profile:

• Ask for recommendations! People like to hear of others good work.
• Add links to relevant sites and projects which may get you noticed.
• Certifications: Make sure these are added and also share them as a post – be proud of the hard work you’ve done.
• Ensure your skills and endorsements are up to date, this helps when us recruiters are looking for the perfect candidate.

Build connections:
Building connections takes time, but the more you do this, the more you network your profile out there and possibilities start to arise. Take some time out each week to connect with like-minded people or industries that excite you.

NETWORK!
The whole point of LinkedIn is to share, comment, like, talk, basically anything you can do to network. Recommend people you’ve worked with previously, share articles that mean something to you and ask for honest opinions.

Use LinkedIn to every advantage you can, it’s there to promote your profile in the professional world. It’s your online resume, your business portfolio and a way to get your name out there!

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