Tips to Perfect Your LinkedIn Profiles

Whether you are looking to gather leads or increase your business profits, having an eye-catching and professional looking LinkedIn profile is an excellent way to make sure you are found by the right person at the right time. LinkedIn is a social networking media which is more focused on business networking and provides the best list filtering out on your search basis.

If you are an entrepreneur or a businessman and you are looking to transform your business digitally, your linked profile matters. The way you have set up your profile needs to look professional and impressive. When you are setting up your profile remember who your audience is. With each statement you are writing, you are hoping someone to read it and take something from it. Provide authentic information and don’t overkill with every small detail.

Filling out the profile is not a big deal, but there are some of the best practices available that could come handy for you so that your profile is powerful and professional as possible:

1.    Add a professional looking photo

This obviously looks like an obvious tip, but you’ll be surprised how many people use casual photos, blurry, vacation photos or no photos at all. LinkedIn stats show that your profile is 14 times more likely to be viewed with a photo that without, so why miss out on getting discovered?
You don’t require headshots taken by professional photographer, just stay clear or selfies or vacation shots. If you don’t have a professional-looking photo, ask a colleague to take some quality smartphone picture at your desk or in a conference room.

2.    A detailed profile is a strong profile

Don’t take up your LinkedIn profile as a Resume, it is not but the resume is a part of your LinkedIn the profile where you are provided with space where you can display your past education information, work experience, and projects, skill, and interests.
Jot down a proper headline, what your role is, what describes you the best. Your headline works as a keyword in Google search and anchors you out when they search for headline associated with you. Provide a proper summary of yourself, don’t make it a long paragraph, 2-3 sentence is maximum.

3.    Be authentic

Yes, filling up your profile with your details are important but write only the authentic and valuable details. The summary section is where you can get beyond experience and education. You get to write about what you want your profile viewers to know about you. Talk about yourself, the field you are currently working in, and your problem-solving skills.
Write a summary of your experience working in a tacky situation and how you solved it. Give potential customers and client’s chance to what you can provide them working with them.

4.    Proofread your entire Profile

What do you do after writing an article or a blog? Yours proofread it, right? So that you don’t have any grammatical, spelling errors or typos. Proofreading is the best tool, a writer possesses.
Similarly, you don’t want your LinkedIn profile to have errors mentioned above.  You should place your words carefully so that your sentences provide a definite meaning and is communicated to the reader without confusing them.
Read your profile as a profile visitor and see if you understand what your profile is trying to speak about. Basically, treat it like how you would treat a job placement CV.

5.    Customise your profile URL

Public profile URL are those URLs and links those are used by visitors to view your profile without signing into LinkedIn. By default, LinkedIn provides with a public profile URL which consists of random alphanumerical characters. However, you can choose to have it customised so that it is easy for interested parties to view your profile.
•    Sign-in into LinkedIn
•    Go to your profile and on the right side, you will get the option to view your public profile.

•    Click on the section “Edit your Public Profile” and the page will redirect you to your public profile, the way the not-signed-in user can view it.
•    On the right side, you can see the section with your public profile link and edit symbol denoted by the pencil symbol.

•    Click on the edit symbol and from there you can customise your public LinkedIn profile URL, the way you want.

•    Click Save.

Make sure you pick out something sensible as it will represent you. You can likewise take it a step further by making sure that your public URL is similar all across every social network, for added coverage.

6.    Be active in LinkedIn groups

Groups in LinkedIn are a great way to connect with the like-minded people with similar interests and views. One can find various groups sorted to their area of interests, specific profession from all over the world.
Being active in groups can lead you to make a new connection and maybe land a new job. Similarly, you can have a discussion on various related topics which can present you with a new conclusion on a research or a topic.

7.    Use LinkedIn Application

LinkedIn has various applications that you can use to enhance your profile in different ways. For example, if you are a blogger, then you might want to add WordPress application to your profile which in turn lets you sync your blogs with your linked profile. Or if you make great YouTube videos you can use the SlideShare or Box.net app that allows you to embed videos in your profile.

8.    Get Personal, but not too Personal

Apart from business and educational stuff, add some details about your hobby, your favorite sports or describe your leisure day or volunteer works. Make customers want to relate to you. Research shows that profiles with volunteer experience get more profile views than others.

Personal information lets clients view your human side, behind the professional and may offer you common ground to engage better in conversation. But don’t overboard with personal data, that can distract the viewers.
In recent years, LinkedIn has become the breeding ground for Job seekers and businesses and is keep growing as a social media giant. With various changes brought in its overall visual layout in early 2017, LinkedIn is attracting users from all the world and will continue to do so.

Join Prabin Gautam in upcoming workshop “LinkedIn Success Masterclass” on Wednesday 27th September 2017 and be a part a LinkedIn community like never before. In this workshop, you will learn how you can leverage the power of LinkedIn and turn it into an unstoppable referral machine. For event and ticket details, follow the link.  See you at the event.

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