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Career Advice for Job Seekers

On the job hunt: Optimizing your LinkedIn profile

William Frierson AvatarWilliam Frierson
August 7, 2013


LinkedIn bannerWhen it started in 2003, LinkedIn had a paltry 4,500 members. Today, just over 10 years later, the business networking site has over 225 million members in countries around the world — with two more members joining roughly every second. They’ve gone from the social site for business nerds to a site so well known and trusted that 50 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500 use LinkedIn for hiring. LinkedIn is pretty clearly working for everyone else, so do you make it work for you, too?

12 ways to show you’re a pro on LinkedIn

When it comes to making LinkedIn work for you (i.e., supply you with a near endless list of companies looking to give you amazing job opportunities), let’s not underestimate the value of actually having a great resume loaded with experience and solid connections. Above and beyond that, though, there’s an awful lot you can do to punch things up. Starting with:

1.    Uploading a nice profile picture: It’s basic, but people want to see your face. Make sure it’s clear, and don’t forget to name it something close to your name.

2.    Be thorough and honest in all content: This is your place to talk about how awesome you are, so don’t be shy about bragging. That said, make sure you can really back everything up. “Pompous liar” is not a phrase you want coming to a potential employer’s mind.

3.    Make your profile 100 percent complete: Don’t skip anything. You want your profile to have a little piece of information and another keyword sneaked in everywhere possible. This helps boost your page views because your page pops up in more places — and LinkedIn seems to favor complete profiles.

4.    Get a vanity URL: If you’re still sporting the random string of characters for your LinkedIn URL, it’s time to upgrade. Go for something as close to your full name as possible. It makes you look like you know what you’re doing, and search engines love to see keywords (in this case your name) in URLs.

5.    Show your work: LinkedIn allows you to upload files to your profile to showcase presentations, projects and publications. Don’t be shy about showing what you’ve done here, but do make sure it’s good, proofread work that shows off the best of your talents.

6.    Use those links: You get three links. Use them wisely. Professional organizations you’re in, conferences you attend or have attended, places of work, your own professional site — just be sure to link to highly relevant pages. You can also add in some extra keywords by choosing to set the link type as “other” and entering your own description. Not only does this help drive traffic to your profile page, it also helps lend your page authority.

7.    Find and use keywords: If you were looking for someone with your skills on LinkedIn, what would you search? These key words and phrases should appear in headings, links and fairly often in content, too. Compile a list of potentials and use Google’s Keyword Tool and/or AdWords to rank your keywords.

8.    Join groups: Groups are good for a few things. First, companies often head-hunt in groups to find experts. Second, groups give you more connections, both in the LinkedIn sense and in the real world. Third, the more groups you’re in, the more you pop up in searches.

9.    Recommend, and be recommended: Recommendations on LinkedIn might not hold the weight of a printed and signed letter, but under the circumstances they do just fine — and the same goes for endorsements. Soliciting recommendations might seem like a plan waiting to fail, but most people on LinkedIn know how these things work and will happily recommend you (especially if you do the same for them). This might not need to be said, but just in case: Go for good, real recommendations from people you’ve worked with or for — not “my friend is rad” ones from your buddies.

10.    Manage your connections: If you were friends with a serial killer on Facebook, your friends might feel a little uncomfortable. The same logic applies on LinkedIn. Be careful who you connect with; LinkedIn shows first-, second- and third-degree connections right next to your profile more often than you might expect. Generally speaking, though, more connections is better.

11.    Use apps: Your profile pages support little widget-like apps that can be used for a variety of things. You can use SlideShare to add more examples of your work, WordPress to integrate your blog, Twitter to keep profile viewers up to speed on your feed and much more. This is especially important for users working in online marketing or Web development because it shows you know your stuff.

12.    Interact! Post! Make new things: People and search engines alike love new content, so update, interact, post and make new stuff constantly. There’s no point in spending hours honing your profile only to leave it sitting stagnant for years afterwards.

Take your profile to the next level. You’ll be happy you did.

By Karl Fendelander

About the Author:

Karl Fendelander cut his teeth on web writing in the late nineties and has been plugged in to the newest technology and tuned in to the latest trends ever since. With an eye for design and an ear for language, Karl has created content and managed digital media for startups and established companies alike. When he unplugs, Karl can be found biking about town and hiking and climbing throughout the West.

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