LinkedIn is a social network full of employers and this is why having a professional profile on LinkedIn is very important, the reason for this is because LinkedIn is used for people to become employed in certain fields of work and for those who want to find a job in any area of employment. Many employers browse through LinkedIn profiles everyday to see which candidate is appropriate for the job role they are advertising.
To begin with users should have an appropriate profile picture on their LinkedIn profile, this profile picture could just be of their face and should be a close up of their face, smiling on a photo looks more professional also. Employers will recognise and identify people easier this way. If a person had a picture of their cat as their profile picture on LinkedIn for example, employers may think that users are not being serious therefore they will not be taken seriously and maybe loose out on a job opportunity. If you aren’t a very serious person then these employers may gage that these users may not take their job seriously if they were to take them on.
A professional LinkedIn profile would display a person’s key & main skills, you should make this information easily accessible and viewable to the public eye so that when employers are looking at your profile the employer can notice the key skills easily and compare them to the job role they are offering the candidate, the employer would then make the decision on whether to contact you or not. For a LinkedIn profile to appear professional it would be a perfect idea to add previous job history to a LinkedIn profile and again this must be easily accessible on the front page of the profile for employers, perhaps this information should be written in a certain font to make it noticeable, possibly in bold letters.
Inappropriate and irrelevant information should not appear on a LinkedIn profile, this is likely to make employers change their mind on whether to actually set you on or not, or to divert their attention away from your profile. Relevant Information on a LinkedIn could be where a name is displayed and is easily accessible, current job title (if applicable), previous work history as mentioned before, education is a key part of information to display on a LinkedIn profile, for a LinkedIn profile is important that a person displays their hobbies and interests also. Qualification are very important and will make an accurate and professional LinkedIn profile as employers can match up qualifications for a job against a LinkedIn profile, employers can match up different qualifications to different jobs. This could cause a person to be employed quicker too.
A catchy headline for a LinkedIn profile is a great idea to help people become attracted to your account, users should make their headline stand out or employers may move onto someone else as there profile headline may be more interesting. It is important for a LinkedIn user to make sure that the information on their profile is targeted to the audience they want to attract, the reason for this is because, for example- If a person wanted to work in a Cafe but displayed that they were interested in working in a hair salon, this person would attract the wrong audiences and may get job offers to work in a hair salon when in fact they actually want to be employed in the catering industry.
A personalised URL is a good start to making a professional looking LinkedIn profile, you can customise your own URL to something you’d like, it is helpful if you choose something similar to your name or something that is easy for you to remember and for employers to remember also, a simple URL makes your profile look more attractive. It is vital that a persons contact details are displayed on their LinkedIn profile, how can an employer contact you further if there are no details? People who are not in your contacts can also contact you much easier if your details are findable. Many people display their email address, Twitter ID, some display their phone numbers, links to other social networking sites they have accounts on.
A professional LinkedIn profile is one that is updated daily, keeping a target audience engaged is vital, employers could be watching you for days and then see that you have stopped engaging and these employers may then become uninterested in you. To keep a target audience engaged a user could share with their connections what they find interesting and to show everyone what they are doing, upcoming projects etc. When a personal URL has been created it can then be put onto any advertisement platform you are wanting to use, it should be put across all of your social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc, this will help you gain more recognition. Users from these other social networking sites will find your LinkedIn profile, they may have a LinkedIn account themselves and they may connect with you or endorse you for your skills or even better give you a recommendation! My LinkedIn profile only displays a small summary, what I’m studying now, only one job that i’ve done in the past and where i’m from, and how you can contact me on other networks also, I will be critical of myself here as I don’t thing mine is that effective or detailed enough.
On a LinkedIn profile there is a section where you can display a little summary about yourself, this is another tool that can attract employers, this sections allows you to explain yourself, your life, or whatever you like but in obviously more detail than just the headline. It is important that this summary isn’t too long and is short and sweet, otherwise employers may become uninterested, a summary should be keyword rich so that it can be easily found in search engines. it looks and sounds better if a summary is written in first person and this is because it sounds much more personal and human.
Adding media to a LinkedIn profile can make it appear more professional too and this is because it will stand out, not all of the profiles on LinkedIn will have media, some people’s profiles who are desperately searching for jobs are plain and don’t contain much information at all let alone display media. Therefore your profile will stand out from the profiles that are basic and average. When stating past job roles and education/experience it is beneficial that a person is specific, the dates from when a job was started and when it ended are also a good aspect to include when setting up the job history aspect of LinkedIn. When including a job role in history of work it would also be beneficial to employers to state that actual roles that were carried out. For example- a cleaner- mopping floors, cleaning windows etc.
Some people on their profiles contain links to work they have completed, this should be easily accessible by employers and explained as to what these links actually are, where they were completed and why. When an employer has had a look at your profile they may want to find out more and to do this an employer can click on these links and see your previous work, these could lead to them having further interest in you as a candidate. Getting endorsements for your skills is very helpful as it can improve your LinkedIn search ranking, to get endorsements people display their skills on their LinkedIn profile and then hopefully if a persons connections agree with these skills endorsements are created, it is important that a person displays relevant and realistic endorsements otherwise other users may not endorse you for your skills as they may not think that they are true.
A person should get people to recommend them on LinkedIn this is very impressive for employers to see, the two most recent recommendations can be seen next to the corresponding position. To give your more recognition on LinkedIn you should join groups, ‘A person can join up to 50 groups and this will improve their visibility’ (Hebberd and Hebberd, 2013). This also allows any user the ability to search and contact any groups they feel are relevant to their field of work or interests. When your connected to a group, these groups show up in your profile.
Connecting with others can make you more known on LinkedIn, it is important to only invite people who you know well and who know you also, LinkedIn will then ask you how you know this person and will give you some options to click on. When you connect with other people on LinkedIn you can gain more knowledge, if you want to know about upcoming events in your area you can find this out on LinkedIn. As you gain more connections more useful information will float around that can be easily accessed.
‘Bullet points can look appealing on a LinkedIn profile’ (Newhouse, 2014). With all of the fields you can fill in a profile can become quite detailed and appear like there is too much information which some people may just ignore. So it is advisable to bullet point the key points about yourself, so that an employer can scan through your profile for a quick read. It will also make your profile appear more organised. Whether your employed already or searching for work it is beneficial to think of your LinkedIn profile as your own website promoting yourself and your skills to all of your connections, someone out there is bound to be impressed by your work!
Posting professional LinkedIn status updates can show everyone that you know what your talking about, which means greater chances of employment, always make sure your spelling is correct also. Sharing your own blog posts will give you further recognition. It is important that you keep engaging on LinkedIn and don’t just simply stop posting, post things that are relevant to you, and what your trying to advertise your self as to employers. Inappropriate content on your LinkedIn profile could drive employers away. If you run out of things to post, share news stories and perhaps state your opinion on them, if you are passionate about something talk about it, others passionate about that subject are likely to join in.
“While sharing a summary of your past education and experience are important, it’s more vital to illustrate your value and what you can bring to the table.” (Daisyme, 2014). It’s important that an employer knows what you can give to them and their business/company and what skills you can deliver through working a job role. An employer will be searching to identify a specific type of person when looking to take on a candidate. Spelling and grammar is a crucial part of a LinkedIn profile also, the reason for this is because a LinkedIn profile can be seen as a form of online active CV, if your summary, education and experience etc displays information that is not correctly spelt or correctly written employers may view you as unprofessional.
There is a huge benefit of LinkedIn when it comes to social networking sites, LinkedIn has no competition, for example- the two social networking sites Facebook and Twitter are in competition with each other. LinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals therefore is full of employers looking for candidates and of corse candidates looking for employment. Adding a slide share to your LinkedIn profile will be a huge benefit to you and this is because a slide share can describe simple but effective information about you but quickly, and the slide share will be straight to the point, just how employers like it. You can then post your slide share and LinkedIn will also post your slide share on all the other social networks you use.
Overall in conclusion as I mentioned above, I believe that a LinkedIn profile should include a profile picture of a head shot of yourself, preferably smiling to show that you are an approachable and cheerful person. Include education, experience and work history, an effective summary will attract employers to your profile, but it should be kept short and sweet. I think bullet points are a fantastic idea for a professional looking profile as I said earlier not only does it look organised but employers can easily pick key parts of information about you which is important and relevant to them. Remember a professional profile attracts more employers which equals more job opportunities which then leads onto more options of employment for you to choose from!
Bibliography-
Hebberd, L. and Hebberd, L. (2013). How to Create the Perfect LinkedIn Profile [INFOGRAPHIC]. [online] Undercover Recruiter. Available at: http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/perfect-linkedin-profile/ [Accessed 14 Dec. 2014].
Newhouse, C. (2014). 8 Secrets to Building a Stunning LinkedIn Profile. [online] The Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-newhouse/8-secrets-to-building-linkedin_b_4710151.html [Accessed 12 Dec. 2014].
Daisyme, P. (2014). Why LinkedIn is Important to Your Career in 2014 – Search Engine Journal. [online] Search Engine Journal. Available at: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/linkedin-important-career-2014/95883/ [Accessed 16 Dec. 2014].
Thanks for reading!
Emi Hall.
Emi Hall 