8 tips to better your LinkedIn profile

Did anyone ever tell you how to write an effective LinkedIn profile? Chances are, probably not… in the same way nobody told you how to effectively right your CV, or build your personal website.

Your LinkedIn profile is a professional gateway in who you are, but all to often it is a platform that we create and forget to update or maintain when life gets hectic. We strongly feel that your LinkedIn, CV and personal website (if you choose to create one), should work together in harmony. Sharing similar, but not exactly the same content. Teasing the viewer, making them want to see more, know more and explore more.

But how create a profile people want to view?

LinkedIn’s results algorithms have two primary goals:

·         To prioritise relevant content

·         To promote engagement

The tips we will cover throughout this article will not only help boost your profile in line with their algorithms, they will also help increase how your profile is viewed when someone clicks on your name, making you stand out as a professional in your industry. The first six will be focused on when someone clicks on your profile and the last two will be towards LinkedIn’s algorithms.

Use the right profile picture

We won’t tell you what the ‘right’ profile picture is, as this is highly subjective to what image you want to portray of yourself. You may opt for a clean head shot, whilst others might choose to use an image from a talk they have given.

Your profile will send a message about who you are as an individual and what you represent, bear this in mind and craft the right profile picture for you.

Cartoon characters or having no profile picture altogether are also fine, but it will also send a message, and to some a message if distrust.

Create a memorable headline

Your headline is the phrase just below your name. Some will opt for a job title whilst others go for something a little more memorable (we choose the more memorable!).

We often hear from developers that they use the job title as they feel it makes them more searchable for recruiters and HR professionals. Note a good recruiter will not search on job titles, they use Boolean strings to identify your relevance and approach based on that, so get creative!

Some of the best we have seen have been: ‘Lord of Payments’ (Product Manager in Payments), ‘Just your friendly neighbourhood software developer’ (developer) and our own Founding Partners ‘Professional People Connector’.

Create a story in your summary

The summary section is one of the most prominent features on your LinkedIn page and usually one of the first things people are drawn to.

This section is a great place to share a story about your career, your background, interests or proudest moments.

Try to avoid simply listing buzz words or skills, tell the viewer something unique about you, make them want to know more and reach out.

Spotlight any services you offer

Services is a relatively new tool in LinkedIn and is a great feature for freelancers, organisations and consultants. It will help you to clearly show your viewer what you offer as an individual and as it is a new tool, LinkedIn are ranking profiles better to help incentives individuals to use it.

Recommend and be recommended

The vast majority of your profile will be your own words, it is subjective to how you want to portray yourself. However, the recommendations you receive are the words of others, aiding your profile with each one you get.

A strong list of recommendations will help increase job prospects and potentially streamline processes if hiring managers know the referees on your profile.

Don’t forget to write recommendations where you can for those you feel deserve them, giving back to others will pay forward long term for you.

Complete skills Assessments

Another relatively new feature is the ‘Skills Assessment’ LinkedIn implemented. Skills assessments allow you to demonstrate your knowledge in a certain area, once the assessment has been completed it will be added to your profile for others to view.

These assessments were created inline with LinkedIn Learning and cover technology, business and design. They will likely not replace a coding/design challenge in your process but they are a great conversation starter with future employers and a way to validate your knowledge on your profile from another source.

Full list of skills assessments: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/111413

Now you know several ways to improve your profile for when someone clicks on it, let’s look at two ways to boost your ranking chances to ensure that happens.

Feature original media and posts

If you remember earlier in the article the first point regarding LinkedIn’s algorithms has to do with prioritising relevant content.

Many will tell you that content is king, but original rich content is best. Creating your own articles, posts, documents or videos and sharing them on LinkedIn on a regular basis will boost your personal rankings in search and allow others to find you easier.

Not only this, you can feature posts on your profile, they will appear just below your summary and above your experience in a carousel fashion. You can add multiple posts here but the most recent two will be seen most clearly with the others hidden behind the user having to click through.

This feature is great if you want to highlight a specific personal project you are working on, or a certification you have received (an image of the certification is usually more impactful than just listing it in the certifications section).

Comment, like and share

The second point regarding their algorithms is to do with promoting engagement. It is not enough to only create your own content, LinkedIn is a community and they actively incentivise their users to comment, like and share to boost their rankings.

We advise that you comment and share more than like as this will allow you to be involved in the conversation, not just be an onlooker. Remember, comments should be relevant and add to the conversation, they can be disagreeing but in a respectful manner.

You are now armed with an increased awareness of how to enhance your LinkedIn profile and search rankings. Take this new found knowledge to update your profile today or bookmark this article for another day.

Here at Peritus Partners, we actively review LinkedIn profiles for all our partners alongside their CVs and personal websites and advise on ways to improve them on an individual basis to increase your chances of employment, if this interests you, reach out today.