LinkedIn is a professional networking platform. Professionals use it for networking. It allows employers to post jobs and employees to create their profiles and apply for jobs. Today, LinkedIn is your online Resume or CV. If you are a professional, then it’s important for you to have a LinkedIn profile and it’s very important to have a complete and optimized LinkedIn profile (All-Star LinkedIn Profile).
There are many people who create a LinkedIn account, login for the first time and then never come back. There are many people who just consider it as a social media platform to connect with friends. It’s very important to understand the difference between LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook is a personal social media platform while LinkedIn is a professional social media platform.
So, a professional social media platform’s profile should also be professional enough to attract employers and other professionals. Your LinkedIn profile represents your professional identity and hence it is very important to have a good LinkedIn profile.
To help you find out your LinkedIn profile’s strength, LinkedIn displays your profile strength in your profile. There are different levels of this profile strength – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert and All-Star.
Steps to make All-Star LinkedIn Profile
1. Upload a decent profile picture
As LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, a professional profile picture is must. You cannot upload a selfie in which you are pouting or wearing a glittery red t-shirt. It’s LinkedIn and not Facebook. So, upload a decent picture of your face. If you have a picture in business formals, then please use it here.
As it is said “A picture is worth a thousand words”, so it is very important to have a decent professional profile picture for your LinkedIn profile. A good picture gives a good first impression to the recruiters and other professionals.
Your profile picture reflects your personality and a LinkedIn profile with picture receives more views then a LinkedIn profile without a picture. Hence, it is very important to upload a decent profile picture if you desire to make an All-Star LinkedIn profile.
2. Write a clear, concise and correct profile headline
A LinkedIn profile headline is a single line which gets displayed just below your name. It allows you to use up to 120 characters to describe your profile. Just as we see headlines of news in a newspaper, it’s a headline to our profile on LinkedIn.
Just as brands have taglines, you can have a headline in your LinkedIn profile.
A good headline attracts more visitors to your profile.Hence, you must write down a clear, concise and correct profile headline. Describe yourself in this one line. Profile headline sells you.
So if your profile headline too boring or irrelevant, then change it today and make a step ahead to an All-Star LinkedIn profile.
3. Make sure you write down a proper summary
A Summary is a detailed description of what you are, what you do, how you do and so on. It is a place where you can describe yourself and your work in the best way you can. Many people don’t write a summary and this is completely not recommended.
LinkedIn allows you to use 2000 characters to summarize yourself, your experience and your background. Utilize this space in the most creative way you can.
A well-formed summary helps the recruiter and other professionals to recognize you and your background.
We all have encountered a question “Tell me something about yourself” in some or the other interviews. Write your summary as if you are answering this question. Your summary should tell the answer of “Tell me something about yourself” to the person who reads it.
4. Add your Experience, Certification and Courses details
LinkedIn allows you to specify your work experience, the certifications and the course you have completed.
In Experience, you can add the company name, title (your role/designation) in that company, location, time period and a detailed description about your work in that company. You can add multiple experiences like this. If you are adding your current company then select “I currently work here” in the time period section.
Most of the people add the name of the company and the time period for which they have worked there. It is very important to add a detailed description of the work done. A detailed description is the key activities you did and the results fetched by those activities.
If you have done any additional courses or passed any certification exams, then please add it too.
5. Add your Education details
Education details are a mandatory part of you LinkedIn profile as they help recruiters and other professionals to know about your educational background and the places where you have studied.
Do not forget to mention the key project work done and the extra curricular activities.
6. Add your Skills and Expertise
Every person has various skills and expertise. We live in a world where skills are more valuable then the degree and certificates of a person.
So, kindly add your skills to your LinkedIn profile. Mentioning your skills help you take a step towards making your LinkedIn profile “All-Star”.
Do not just add skills for the sake of adding them.
7. Add Volunteer Experiences and Causes
There are many people who volunteer for a cause. If you have any volunteering experience or if any social causes matter you then please go ahead and specify it in your LinkedIn profile.
This will help organizations know that you are not just a good professional who works like machine, but you also are a good human who stands for some causes.
Oops, you don’t volunteer? Too bad. Life is much more then having a good job and earning money. We are here to give and not just take. Start volunteering today, not because I want you to add it in your LinkedIn profile. Do it with a kind heart to make a change, to help others and to make this world a more better place.
8. Get Connected and Be Active
Having a nice LinkedIn profile doesn’t means creating it, adding all the details and not performing any activities. Neither search engines nor humans will notice a dead LinkedIn profile. If you have a LinkedIn profile, then start connecting with your colleagues, friends or any other people with whom you have worked. LinkedIn is all about professional networking and it is entirely dependent on you. Yes, you are responsible for your professional networking. Connect with like-minded people, recruiters, join LinkedIn groups and actively participate in conversations.
Also, keep posting things related to your profession on your wall. LinkedIn doesn’t charge you to Like, Comment or Share a post. Neither it charges you to join groups of your interests and actively participate in them.
An active LinkedIn profile not just helps you making a step towards having an All-Star profile, but also helps you grow your professional network and opens a new horizon of opportunities for you.
Conclusion
These were 8 little steps towards making an All-Star and optimized LinkedIn profile. If you need any help in optimizing your LinkedIn profile, get in touch with me. Also, if you have any other ideas/tips/suggestions, please feel free to write it down in the comments section.
I have also started an initiative to educate people about LinkedIn in simple Hindi. I have created simple videos to help people understand how they can create an effective and All-Star LinkedIn profile. Find them at my TikTok profile.
Just as individuals have a LinkedIn profile, companies should have “LinkedIn Company Page”. Do not create a profile for a company, create a Company Page. Read “How to create LinkedIn company page within 5 minutes?” to understand the steps involved in creating a LinkedIn Company page.
Also, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jainishrshah/
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