11 Best LinkedIn Profile Tips For Job Seekers ( Easy & Actionable)
I’m going to give you my 11 Best LinkedIn Profile Tips to help you find a new career opportunity. These are job seeking tips that have helped me land high paying salary positions with no industry work experience.
By following these best tips, your profile will receive more connections and higher visitor counts. All recommended tips can easily be done in a few minutes and provide lasting results.
Here is a preview of the Best LinkedIn Profile Tip you want to learn about.
- Make Time For LinkedIn
- Sign Up For LinkedIn Premium Trial
- Activate Career Advice Feature
- Engage with Content
- Get a Custom URL
- Add Custom URL To Resume
- Upload a Professional Headshot
- Update Your Headline
- Write A Summary That Speaks For You
- Add Multimedia Content to Your Profile
- Get Recommendations
LinkedIn Profile Tip #1
Make Time For LinkedIn
Make it a habit to check your LinkedIn profile for at least 10 to 15 minutes a day, that’s all it really takes to maintain your profile and remain active in the platform. I suggest checking your profile first thing in the morning before work, during lunch or after you get off of work. The purpose of this is so that you can begin engaging with your community, build your network slowly and follow up on messages or notifications. This is your online portfolio where people who are interested in you or have something to offer will find you. If you care about your career it’s important you maximize the benefits of the platform and make time monitoring your profile.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #2
Sign Up For LinkedIn Premium Trial
Once you activate your Free Trial to LinkedIn Premium, you need to take advantage of the insights feature as much as you can. The insights feature was very helpful when I didn’t know what skills employers were looking for in the position I was applying for. By using the insights tool on LinkedIn Premium I was able to learn exactly what skills employers were looking for. If I knew I had that skill I would add it to my profile. If I didn’t have the skill listed I would then watch a course on LinkedIn Learning (feature included in Premium) and after completing the video I would then add it to my profile including the new skill I had acquired. By doing this simple technique I was able to increase my skillset with validation from LinkedIn. (Hint: You can use the knowledge gained as content for your profile as well)
LinkedIn Profile Tip #3
Activate Career Advice Feature
Sign Up for the Career Advice Hub in LinkedIn. By signing up for this, LinkedIn will search for professionals in your industry who have also signed up to give career advice to platform users. What’s great about this is that you can start a conversation with professionals and ask them for “Career Advice.” You can build connections with the professionals you converse with and ask them questions about the industry, getting started, etc. Since these professionals have been in the workforce for years, their network is more than likely bigger than yours; thus they may know someone in their network who can help you with employment.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #4
Engage with Content
As you slowly build your connections you will see more activity in your feed, and even more, if you follow hashtags. Take advantage of all this content by commenting, sharing and engaging. By taking the time to do this simple tip you are building your online presence and potentially acquiring new connections. Comment sections are also a great place to spark conversations that can be taken outside of that post. This also gives users an opportunity to view your profile and learn more about you. Users appreciate the engagement in their content and are more inclined to pay attention to you for it.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #5
Get A Custom URL
Once you create a LinkedIn Profile you are given a default URL that does not help you in any way. Make sure to edit your customizable URL to linkedin.com/yourname. After doing so you can now use this URL in your resume or email signature. This will also help you rank higher in the search results on the platform.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #6
Add Custom URL To Resume
If you have a great profile why wouldn’t you want to market it? Sometimes when you are on the job hunt, you are applying all over the internet in different job sites. Not all of them ask for a LinkedIn URL, but all of them ask for a resume. By adding your Customized LinkedIn URL to your resume, you are telling the recruiter to look up your profile. This is why it’s important to maintain your LinkedIn Profile because your profile will say more about you than your resume. The more reasons you can give the recruiter to call you for an interview the better for you.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #7
Upload A Professional Headshot
Did you know that profiles with professional headshots get 14 times more visits? I know this is obvious, but many of us still use a picture we found in our phone’s gallery or one that someone took of us. If you care about your success then you should take the time to take a professional headshot. You do not have to find a professional photographer for this and spend money. All you need to do is get a DSLR camera or a smartphone that takes portrait photos. Make sure your hair looks great, be well-groomed, smile and ask someone to take the picture. Again, your profile headshot is the first thing people see, let’s make sure you make an impression.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #8
Update Your Headline
If you have not edited your headline it will default to your current job title. However, I highly suggest you edit your headline to say exactly what you want people to know when they see your profile in their feed. Think about it, the first thing someone sees is your profile picture and your headline. This is why it’s so important to make your headline stand out and spark interest in visitors. You can be creative with this and make it a sentence, list multiple titles and even add emojis to it.
Also very important, people find you in the search bar based on what you have listed in your headline. Meaning if you want the job title “Business Administrator” then put in your headline “Aspiring Business Administrator.” This tells recruiters looking for business administrators that you are looking for an opportunity as a Business Admin and will increase your chances of being contacted vs putting your current job title that is not related to your ideal career.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #9
Write A Summary That Speaks For You
Your summary is your voice! This is a great opportunity for you to display your unique voice, qualities, skill sets, achievements and more. Here are a few template examples to help you write a summary. This is placed in the top of your profile so the chances of someone reading it is high, which is why it’s important to write a great summary. Don’t look at this as a short essay, look at it as an “About Me” section on a website. Make your summary a story the reader can follow and understand. Be authentic and true to your goals!
LinkedIn Profile Tip #10
Add Multimedia Content To Your Profile
Treat your LinkedIn Profile like a portfolio of your work and achievements, which it is essentially. Think about it, you finally got someone to come to your profile and when they get there, all they see is text and empty sections. Where’s the good stuff?
Your goal should be to keep your visitors interested in your story and in who you are. Show your visitors pictures, videos, links, presentations, articles, etc. Give them a reason to stay in your profile and read more about you. By adding your original content to your profile you are increasing your chances of being contacted for new opportunities, new connections, and exposure.
LinkedIn Profile Tip #11
Get Recommendations
Did you ever ask a teacher for a letter of recommendation for a scholarship or some type of award? Well, this is similar except this is easier, faster and more effective. Receiving recommendations from people you have worked with is a great way to show proof of your talent and skills. It takes more effort to write a short recommendation vs clicking an endorsement. Recommendations tell your visitors that you have people who will vouch for you, and their recommendation holds high value if they have a credible reputation as well. Go get a recommendation from a colleague or professor and outline exactly what you want them to highlight. This way your recommendations are focused towards the skills and experience you want to be known for.
Get Started!
I hope this was helpful and easy to understand. Pick a day and time in your calendar to begin implementing these easy steps.
I promise these steps are not difficult and do not require a lot of time to complete.
To make things even EASIER, I’ve created a LinkedIn Profile Checklist for you. This is a FREE LinkedIn Checklist you can download and print to use as a guide.
After you’ve done that leave a comment below. Let me know if you feel these tips are helpful. Did I maybe miss something that you feel should be added? Put it down in the comments, I want to hear your thoughts!
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