There’s been a lot of discussion this week about what not to do with your LinkedIn profile, as the company released its annual overused buzzwords list for 2012 and the internet found a bevy of posts poking fun at the memorable-yet-oh-so-humorous content seen on member profiles on the professional networking site.
While it’s easy to list the things to avoid, finding that ‘how to’ manual on creating an engaging and attention-grabbing (for positive reasons) profile is a more difficult task. Fortunately, here are five helpful, yet often overlooked, tips that will get you on your way to creating the type of LinkedIn content you’re looking for:
• Use a photo that is professional. If your job required a headshot, you’d want to use one that best represents your professional image. So, unless you’re a professional break dancer, that picture of you doing the worm or a head-stand pose is probably not what you want to be remembered for by a future client or employer.
• Check your headline - Just as The Daily Muse on Forbes pointed out, make sure your headline is accurate. LinkedIn populates the headline field with whatever is shown as your current company and title. And sadly enough, many people never realize they have the ability to change it, leaving them with a boring (and sometimes inaccurate) introduction to the world. Check how your headline reads, and make sure you change it to a snappy headline that reflects what your current professional desires are.
• Craft a message that speaks to the audience you want to attract. The objective of LinkedIn content is to get the decision-makers and key players in your industry to take note of who you are professionally. While The Daily Muse relates this point to headlines, the advice is excellent for all of the content in your LinkedIn profile. Those who read your profile should be compelled to want to learn more about you.
This includes weaving in the all-important buzzwords and keywords relevant to your professional goals. After all, many people find you through internet search these days, and what terms or skills you have incorporated into the content will likely result in you popping up as a person of interest.
• Share examples. Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s Career Expert-Connection Director, brings up a great point that showing what you can do by means of actual examples or hard data may go further than describing things on paper. LinkedIn allows members many opportunities to promote their abilities, without having to write a dissertation about such achievements. You can upload presentations you’ve created or portfolios of your work, along with list links to any publications you’ve been a part of through your LinkedIn profile. Also, LinkedIn carries the ability for people to whom you’re connect to speak about your abilities through the recommendations and endorsements. You’ll want to make an active effort in soliciting recommendations and endorsements from your colleagues.
• Inject your personality into your profile. The Daily Muse shared a real-life headline that gets at the heart of personality, while still staying true to communicating the professional objective:
Copywriter who knows how to craft web content that goes viral. Oh, and you’ll never beat me at Scrabble.
To get ideas on how other people have done it, the easy thing to do is to jump on LinkedIn and search profiles until your eyes bleed. However, you might want to start by following the leaders at the companies or in the industry you’re in, to see how they’re presenting their profiles. As Nicole Williams suggests, try targeting your searches for the leaders by joining relevant LinkedIn groups along with following companies that you admire.
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