Building a LinkedIn profile that is effective for networking, job search, or growing a sales pipeline, is critical for most professionals. Everyone has a LinkedIn account, but many people don’t give sufficient attention to building a genuinely excellent profile.
At MatchBuilt executive search, we’re power LinkedIn users, and we’ve connected with 1000s of professionals and job seekers over the years. The road to improving your chances of getting recruited and building a solid network begins with tidying up a few sections. In short, consider adding multimedia, watching out for canned words, and minding exaggeration. Grow your network and increase your chances of finding new career opportunities by building authentic relationships.
How do you build a good LinkedIn profile?
- Use a professional photo
- Leverage a custom URL
- Tidy Up Your Headline
- Make a Great Introduction in the “Summary” Section
- Add Multimedia to Your LinkedIn Profile
- Add Your Skills
- Manage Your Work Experiences
- Don’t Underestimate Education Section
- Ask for Recommendations
- Keep Your Status Fresh
- Avoid Canned Words
Build a Good LinkedIn Profile With These 11 Tips
1. Use a Professional Photo
Never leave your account without a photo, and pick a professional-looking one with decent quality. According to LinkedIn, profiles with professional photos get 21x more profile views, and you get 9x more connection requests.
LinkedIn suggests the following tips when choosing a great photo:
- Pick a photo that looks like you
- Use a high-resolution image
- Make sure your face takes up at least 60% of the frame
- Be the only person in the picture
- Get someone else to take the picture for you
- Choose the right expression
- Avoid distracting backgrounds
- Wear what you’d wear to work
- Take the photo in soft, natural light
- Use filters wisely
2. Leverage a Custom URL
All LinkedIn accounts have a random URL address. However, you can edit this URL to include your name instead of random characters. This makes your LinkedIn address easier to remember and share with residential homebuilding and building materials recruiters. Moreover, it helps your account to look more professional when you include it on your business cards and resumes.
3. Tidy Up Your Headline
When someone visits your profile, the first thing that welcomes them after your name is your headline. Your LinkedIn headline is key to being found amongst your network and by recruiters. Don’t waste a good opportunity to stand out and consider changing the default LinkedIn professional headline, which is your current job title and employer. Your LinkedIn headline allows you to combine personal marketing and personal SEO (search engine optimization) while leveraging the best keywords for your career.
- Consider adding your industry and a specialty to your headline
- Include what you do
- Avoid evident and intentional exaggeration
- Don’t say you are unemployed on your LinkedIn headline
4. Make a Great Introduction in the “Summary” Section
Routinely revisit your LinkedIn summary section to make sure it provides you with a crisp and professional online presence. It would be best if you used first-person, making it easy to skim and maximize the first two lines of your summary. The content should be well thought out, concise, and leverage industry keywords. Further, if you’ve recently made an employment change, announce the new job with a new post.
5. Add Multimedia to Your LinkedIn Profile
It is important to remember that we do not all like to consume our content the same way, so different media types will help you reach and engage with a larger audience. On your profile, you can add photos, videos, and presentations to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd. LinkedIn has confirmed that it increases engagement as readers stay longer on your profile and, in the process, get to know you better. In addition, it can help you showcase your creativity.
You can also use multimedia to show examples of your previous homebuilding and residential construction projects and discuss your work.
6. Add Your Skills
Currently, you can add up to 40 different skills. This means you can use 40 unique skills and keywords in your account. Most recruiters utilized these keywords while looking for candidates. LinkedIn says that users with five or more skills get up to 17x more views and more than 33x more messages by recruiters.
7. Manage Your Work Experiences
After all, work experience is what makes a real difference. Make sure you use that to stand out among the crowd. You should add detailed information about the places and all the projects you’ve worked on. In addition, you can also add a multimedia file to showcase the final results of those projects. If you’ve written any useful blogs or made educational videos, you could also include that here.
Life coach, Karen Brown, suggests the following tips for improving the work section:
- Link your job to the company
- Start with an overview
- Use action words
- Use keywords
- Keep it clear and concise
- Use the correct tenses
- Don’t overdo the bullets
- Frontload your achievements
- Check for spelling and grammar
- Don’t forget to link other sections to your job
- Ask for recommendations
- Add supporting information
8. Don’t Underestimate Education Section
Many people think that this section doesn’t matter. However, it can be more beneficial than you think. In this section, you can add all the schools, institutions, courses, and workshops you have attended. This applies to online learning as well. For recent graduates, you can also add all student activities, committees, and clubs you’ve joined. You should also add your relevant and important test scores and certificates.
9. Ask for Recommendations
Recruiters are looking for the best. If you’ve satisfied clients, managers, or even colleagues, it’d be great to ask them to recommend you on LinkedIn.
The team at The Muse suggests these 4 Tips for Scoring an Amazing Linkedin Recommendation:
- Find the “Ask to Be Recommended” Page
- Pick People Thoughtfully
- Approach With Specificity
- Don’t Ask 10 People at Once
10. Keep Your Status Fresh
LinkedIn users and recruiters can view your activity depending on your settings, and it’s a good indicator for them to see that your profile is active. That being said, you should constantly update your status regularly. If you’ve attended an online course or read an informative article, consider sharing that on your account.
11. Avoid Canned Words
Building authentic relationships is the most appropriate and least irritating way to grow your network and get business through LinkedIn. If you genuinely care, don’t use canned words like “LinkedIn marketing guru,” and you’ll be much more successful.
The Muse has a great piece about words to use and not use on LinkedIn.
Here are their ten most overused profile buzzwords:
- Motivated
- Passionate
- Creative
- Driven
- Extensive experience
- Responsible
- Strategic
- Track record
- Organizational
- Expert
LinkedIn Profile Summary
A good LinkedIn profile is necessary to grow your brand and increase your networking and hiring prospects. Utilize some of these Linkedin tips, routinely update your profile, and respond to all recruiters appropriately to make the most of this great tool.
