Whether you are looking to be discovered or seeking new talents for your company, LinkedIn can help.
It is much more effective than other social media platforms as can be seen in this new data published by Hubspot which found LinkedIn to be 277% more effective than Twitter and Facebook.
Stand out among other professionals in your pursuit to land your dream job or connect with potential partners, investors, or customers by creating a LinkedIn profile that highlights you as a competent professional.
In this article, we have listed the top 5 ways to help you optimize your LinkedIn profile:
1. Provide a professional headshot
A suitable headshot will add substance to your LinkedIn profile. It can also help you raise your profile views by making your profile look more presentable.
Keep your profile photo public and make sure that you use a good quality picture. You can also use a background picture that represents your field of work or interest to intrigue those who visit your profile.
You can also consider using the same profile picture across other professional social media channels so you can be identified easily across different channels.
2. Use keywords in your headline
LinkedIn utilizes the words present in your headline to rank profiles. So it will be wise for you to include your company, key attributes, and your specific location in your headline.
Your headline is an important feature that is placed right under your name and it is one of the first things that people notice on your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t customize it, LinkedIn will display your current or latest profile by default.
Your headline appears whenever you engage in any activity on LinkedIn. For instance, when you comment on someone’s post your headline appears as well.
A comprehensive headline that highlights your roles and responsibilities as a professional is sure to help bring positive attention to your profile.
3. Write an effective summary
Your summary is an overview of your LinkedIn profile which makes it an important feature. To increase your visibility, include relevant keywords to your job title and industry and highlight your skills as well as career achievements in the summary.
Take this opportunity to directly address the people that land on your profile by composing a succinct summary that shares the various aspects of your professional accomplishments or contributions and effectively highlights your professional interests and career objectives.
You can extrapolate on your resume summary by mentioning significant achievements that marked your professional trajectory. In simpler words, choose the right words and statements that are relevant to your interests and industry to optimize your summary and make it an effective feature of your LinkedIn profile.
4. Build your network and join groups
Connecting with more people and joining relevant groups can make your presence on LinkedIn be felt by any potential employer or employee, so you should try and keep your profile active.
While sending connection requests, be sure to give context to your invite. If you are sending an invite to someone you know, mention how you know them and why you want to connect.
On the other hand, if you send a request to someone you are not familiar with, then mention why you are interested in connecting with them by giving your invitation context in the personal note section.
Maintain a healthy practice of participating in group activities that relate to your interest, industry, or field of work. You can actively post original content and like and comment on the posts that you find engaging.
Doing so can get you recognized by the right people in your industry of interest and raise the chances of your profile being viewed.
5. Post relevant content and industry updates
Maintain your presence by posting relevant content of high quality and any significant updates to keep your profile active and visible on the LinkedIn homepage. This can increase your chances of being noticed in other users’ feeds as well.
Ideally, you can post and share 2-3 times per day. Navigate the “share an update” section located at the top of LinkedIn’s main feed and post interesting articles by using this feature.
Make sure that every topic you post is beneficial and interesting to your audience. This is the only sure-shot way of keeping your audience engaged.
Key Takeaways
Now that we have come to the end of our article, “Top 5 ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile in 2020”, you can effectively optimize your profile by following the tips laid out in the article.
Here are some key takeaways from the above article:
- Always provide a high-quality and professional headshot.
- Frame a descriptive headline.
- Mention the highlights of your career in your summary.
- Connect with as many people as possible and stay active in professional groups.
- Share only relevant and effective content that can benefit other users.
About the Author
With a set goal to help professionals all across the globe, Aditya Sharma is a zealous entrepreneur who Hiration — an AI-powered online resume builder and platform to help job-seekers land their dream job.
