How Do You Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile?

LinkedIn has grown tremendously from a great place to display your resume to a comprehensive social media platform that's useful for many different things.

If you are a marketer or growing your own business you can use LinkedIn to find suppliers, build partnerships and important relationships with industry experts, and even find leads and customers for your business.

Here are some of the top ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

1. Use a profile picture and a nice banner image
2. Perfect your headline - make sure that it describes who you are, what you do, and what type of people you want to connect with.
3. Describe all of your various work and volunteer experiences
4. Display your projects and achievements
5. Collect a few recommendations from your co-workers and managers
6. Message your connections regularly
7. Comment on influencers' posts regularly
8. Post consistently several times per week
9. Invite your connections to follow your brand to gain more visibility
10. Attend LinkedIn events

What makes a good LinkedIn profile?

Here’s what makes a great profile on LinkedIn. You need to be able to skim it in under 30 seconds and get a good grasp of the strengths, skills, and experience of the person. It should have a well-balanced combination of professional experience, skills, interests, talents, and volunteer experience.

What should you put in your LinkedIn profile?

The eight most important things to include in your profile are:

• Professional photo
• Summary of qualifications & experience
• 3-5 relevant positions and short descriptions for each
• List of skills
• List of endorsements (the more the better)
• Volunteer / mentoring experience
• A strong headline (use emojis and make it catchy)
• PR articles + latest projects you’re working on

Should I add a job description to LinkedIn?

Your LinkedIn shouldn’t be as formal as your resume. It’s better to have a short paragraph summarizing your experience and then a bullet point list with some of your top accomplishments in your career. It should be personal, written in the first person, and should invite the person visiting your profile to reach out and connect with you.

Now that we’ve covered all the various things you should include in your profile, let’s talk about the big no-no’s.

What should you not include in a LinkedIn profile?

There are several things you should not post on LinkedIn.

• It’s best to leave political and personal stuff off of LinkedIn. Don’t post pictures of your family and discussions about the political issue of the day.
• Work experience that’s not relevant to your current position or career path, like if you were a barista in high school.
• Don’t publicize your job search. LinkedIn has a feature that makes sure to keep your job search confidential and only show it to profiles that are hiring.
• Always double-check everything you post, and make sure there are no spelling mistakes.