LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 800 million members worldwide. Having a complete LinkedIn profile is crucial for anyone looking to advance their career and build their professional brand. But what exactly do you need to create a LinkedIn account and have an impactful presence on the platform? Let’s take a look at the key components of a LinkedIn profile and how to optimize each section.
Email Address
The first thing you need to create a LinkedIn account is an email address. This will be your username that you use to login to LinkedIn. It’s best to use a professional email that you actually use and check regularly, rather than creating a dummy account. Your email will also be visible on your profile so using an email address tied to your name looks more professional than a random one.
Basic Personal Info
When setting up your account, LinkedIn will ask for basic personal details including:
- Full name
- Location
- Industry
Make sure to use your real full name so you can be found by colleagues and potential connections. Your location can just be your city and country. Select the industry that best reflects your professional focus from the options LinkedIn provides.
Profile Photo
A professional profile photo is a must for any LinkedIn account. According to LinkedIn, profiles with a photo receive up to 21 times more profile views than those without. Your photo should be a clear headshot of just you (no groups or landscapes) and you should be dressed professionally and smiling. If you don’t have a professional headshot yet, you can add one later before you really start using your account.
Headline
Your LinkedIn headline appears just below your name and is valuable real estate to summarize who you are and what you do. This is not your job title but rather a short tagline to showcase your biggest strengths, skills, achievements or focus areas. Some examples of good LinkedIn headlines:
- Passionate Product Marketing Manager
- Storyteller | Brand Strategist | Content Creator
- Finance Professional | CFA Charterholder | Quantitative Analysis
Keep your headline concise but impactful. It should complement your name and photo to give viewers an immediate sense of who you are.
Summary
The Summary section is the first section of your LinkedIn profile and is the place to showcase who you are, what you’re skilled at, and what you’re seeking in just a few short paragraphs. This section is valuable real estate to display your full professional brand. Include a brief overview of your current role, your biggest accomplishments and skills, your professional background at a high level, and what you’re looking for next in your career. Use clear and engaging language to make your summary descriptive yet succinct.
Work Experience
Filling out your work experience is one of the most important parts of a LinkedIn profile. This is where you can demonstrate the depth and breadth of your professional background. For each role you’ve held, include the company name, position title, employment dates, and location. Then give a robust overview of your responsibilities and biggest accomplishments in 3-4 bullet points. Quantify your achievements with numbers and data whenever possible. This work experience section is critical for showing off the value you brought to each company.
Education
List all of your higher education in the education section of your profile. For each degree, include the school name, degree type, field of study, graduation year, and any honors or awards. Listing your education, especially for recent graduates, helps substantiate your qualifications and knowledge base. Even once you are more advanced in your career, education remains an asset worthy of inclusion on your profile.
Skills
One of the top things recruiters look for on LinkedIn is the skills section. This is where you can showcase your biggest professional strengths with keywords that are likely to come up in searches. Include a good mix of hard skills and soft skills that you are highly proficient in. You can also ask colleagues and managers to endorse you for skills they have seen you demonstrate. The more endorsements you have, the more your skills will stand out.
Recommendations
Recommendations on your LinkedIn profile are essentially written endorsements from people you’ve worked with. Take the time to request recommendations from previous managers, colleagues, professors, or even term project teammates who can vouch for your skills and accomplishments. Recommendations add credibility and will strengthen your overall professional brand.
Profile URL
Once you have built out the core sections of your LinkedIn profile, customize your unique profile link in the public profile settings. Your customized URL should just have your name (ex: www.linkedin.com/in/johnsmith). This is much cleaner than the default long string of random numbers and letters. The customized link looks more professional and makes it easier for people to remember and share your profile.
Profile Photo Background
In your profile edit mode, you can select to add a background photo behind your profile picture. This is a great way to showcase a passion outside of work, display company colors, or just add some visual appeal. Just select a high-quality image that aligns with your personal brand.
Media Embeds
To showcase your skills and work in a visual way, you can embed media samples right on your LinkedIn profile. This could include slide decks, videos, infographics you’ve created, or any other professional content. Visitors will be able to scroll through these embed samples giving them a better sense of what you can produce.
Connect with Colleagues
Once your profile is looking complete, start connecting with colleagues old and new. Import contacts from your email and send connection requests. Join relevant industry and alumni groups to connect with even more professionals in your field. Connections are the power of LinkedIn, so start building out your network.
Follow Companies
Follow companies you are interested in, admire, or may want to work for someday. This will tailor your LinkedIn feed to that company’s updates making it easier to stay aware of new initiatives, open positions, company news, etc. Stay up to date on the companies that matter most to your career aspirations.
Job Postings
A core value of LinkedIn is access to millions of job postings. As you’re using LinkedIn, keep an eye on open roles at companies you are interested in. With your polished profile, you can easily apply to jobs with just the click of a button in many cases. LinkedIn makes finding relevant job postings and applying to them simple and streamlined.
Recommend Jobs to Connections
As you come across open jobs you think may be a good fit for someone in your network, recommend that posting to them. Click the listing and select “Refer a connection”. Helping make professional connections for those around you is a great way to strengthen your network.
Join Groups
Join LinkedIn Groups centered around professional topics you are interested in or passionate about. This lets you connect with a niche community, participate in discussions, establish yourself as an industry thought leader, and get known. As a group member you can also post content which has the potential to get a lot of visibility.
Publish Long-form Posts
Publish your own long-form posts to share your expertise with your network. Write posts on topics relevant to your industry and current events your connections would find value in. Include tips, advice, observations, and best practices. Posts allow you to organically beef up your LinkedIn profile and showcase your thought leadership.
Use Hashtags Strategically
Using relevant hashtags in your posts and activity descriptions makes that content more searchable and visible across the LinkedIn community. Do your research to determine popular hashtags around topics related to your industry and use them consistently in your posts.
Post Multimedia
Images, infographics, videos and presentations all tend to drive high engagement on LinkedIn. Frequently posting multimedia content alongside your written posts makes them more eye-catching and engaging in the feed. Visually showcasing your expertise and perspective is impactful.
Share Articles
Sharing articles from reputable sources is an easy way to regularly add value for your connections. Share articles on industry news, professional tips, profiles of business leaders you admire, etc. To complement the article link, add your own commentary explaining why you found the piece interesting.
Comment Thoughtfully
Engage with your connections and groups by commenting thoughtfully on posts. Share your reactions, opinions, and advice. Being an active contributor in the discussions happening around you helps build relationships.
Like and React Frequently
Take advantage of LinkedIn’s react buttons including like, celebrate, and support. React to the posts you see from your connections to show you notice their activity. Giving regular feedback fuels the social aspect of LinkedIn.
Send Messages
Proactively reach out to your connections and new contacts by sending messages. Share an article, congratulate someone on a work milestone, or follow up after meeting them in person. Connect and build rapport through regular communication.
Use Lists
Organize your network into lists such as colleagues, clients, group members, etc. You can then easily share job postings, articles or updates with just people in a certain list rather than your whole network.
Update Experience
As you take on new roles, accomplishments and responsibilities, keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date. A current and complete profile is crucial for showcasing the trajectory of your career.
Request New Recommendations
Ask new colleagues and managers to write you recommendations as you work with them. Recommendations carry weight so consistently build up this section over time.
Follow Influencers
Follow thought leaders, executives and professionals you admire to get their latest insights right in your feed. You can learn a lot from how these influencers engage and what they talk about.
Research Connections
Before meeting someone new, research their LinkedIn profile to better understand their background and professional focus. This gives context for more meaningful networking.
Keep it Current
Set a reminder to review your LinkedIn profile every few months to remove anything outdated, adjust descriptions, add new skills, etc. Maintaining a current, complete and dynamic profile should be an ongoing initiative.
Conclusion
Maximizing your LinkedIn presence requires dedication but the investment pays dividends for your career and professional network. The above components give you a comprehensive checklist of what you need for a robust LinkedIn account. With your complete profile, active engagement and relationship building, LinkedIn can introduce opportunities you may never have found otherwise.
