3 LinkedIn Tips to Optimize Your Profile
LinkedIn is a powerful tool. It can help you with personal branding. It can establish you as a thought leader in your field. It can attract recruiters to your professional background. It can assist you in setting up networking chats with professionals in the field or companies you’re interested in.
Most of us, however, aren’t using the tool to its full potential.
Here are 3 tips to optimize your profile and get noticed (by the right people.)
1. Update your heading with the job title you want
The heading is searchable. So, why wouldn’t you brand yourself with the title you want? If you’re currently a Product Manager but want a Senior position, put Senior Product Manager in the title.
You can also expand your title to include a short snippet of how you approach your work. Pick tropes you see in job descriptions. For Product Managers, words like “user-obsessed,” “data-driven,” and “collaboration” are often seen in job descriptions.
Therefore, your heading would look something like this:
Senior Product Manager | User-obsessed, data-driven, and collaborative
In addition, always put what you want people to see first. Only the first line appears on the main feed and in searches. Your heading can be longer than one line, but make sure the most important information, like the job title, is the first thing people read.
2. Make sure the most important information about you is listed in the first 4 lines in the About Section
Along those same lines, make sure your first 4 lines in the About Section contain the most important information about you.
This is because the reader only sees 4 lines before they have to click more.
In most cases, an overview of your background is enough. Think about how you would answer the “Tell Me About Yourself” question in a job interview. That’s what you should include in the About Section.
You can, however, let your personality shine through a little bit. A client of ours tells a story about her dad recognizing her sales strengths even from a young age. It’s a great anecdote that captures the attention of the reader and lets them know a bit more about her. It is also relevant to her career.
So, you can definitely include those types of anecdotes in your About Me section. But, make sure they’re not the first thing the reader sees.
3. Respond to posts using anything but the like reaction.
Be active on LinkedIn! React and comment on posts from your connections and from people you’re not connected with. The more you participate, the more you’ll show up in searches.
To optimize your views, however, use the celebrate (hands clapping,) support (hands with a heart,) love (heart,) insightful (lightbulb,) and funny (blue smiley face,) reactions instead of the like button.
Who knows why this will get your profile more attention, but it will.
There’s much more information to share. The Resume Rehab can help you with your LinkedIn profile during two 30-minute sessions. We will teach you how to optimize your profile, help you write your heading and About Me section, give you networking scripts so that you can expand your network, and give you ideas and structure on how to establish yourself as a thought leader.
Sound like something you need? Contact us to schedule your consultation.
👉What we’re reading and listening to:
Erika Taught Me has a great interview with The Job Doctor and her insight on how to answer the “Tell Me About Yourself” question is insightful
Barak Obama shares his No. 1 piece of career advice for Gen Z and it’s not that complicated
Do you have a mentor? Finding one might help “supercharge” your career, according to Business Insider.
