If you aren’t on LinkedIn, then you are committing career suicide. LinkedIn helps generate leads, ignites excitement from recruiters and HR professionals, and is a wonderful job search tool that enables you to have or heighten your Google presence. Here are my five tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile:
Number one: have a professional picture on your profile. Did you know that the moment you post a picture on your profile, your Google ranking is elevated by 1400%? Yes, 1400%. That’s an amazing uplift. A picture will definitely help you elevate your candidacy when recruiters or HR professionals are scouting for talent.
Tip number two: customize your LinkedIn address. The reason for this is twofold. It’s more professional to have a customized LinkedIn address and it advances your Google ranking by a further 300%. Not to mention the condensed URL looks better on your resume. Now, how can you tell if your URL is not customized? Well, if there are a sequence of numbers and letters after your name, then you need to customize it.
Tip number three: complete your profile to the maximum. Today there are many bells and whistles and sections you can use to increase your profile strength. A very vague profile can suggest you don’t have too much to offer. The platform as evolved to allow to share all the facets of your career and life. Take advantage of every section that LinkedIn offers. Here’s something that’s really cool, really cool with your LinkedIn, you can use it as a platform to display all your presentations, from videos to slideshows. What a great way to entice a viewer conducting a talent search. All of these options boost your profile strength, and that’s how you become a LinkedIn all star.
Tip number four: update your business keywords to maximize your Google ranking. These are the keywords contained in the skills section of LinkedIn, and they must match your resume. Here you have the opportunity to broadcast all the buzzwords that talent hunters would use when looking to hire. LinkedIn allows you a maximum of 50 keyword skills. Think about what keywords a hiring influencer would search on, and ensure your profile comes up.
My last tip revolves around recommendations. As a rule of thumb, a decision-maker is looking for a minimum of three recommendations per job. Preferably, they’re looking for recommendations from a boss, from a vendor, a customer, or an employee. So cover all bases when soliciting recommendations from your network. That’s my five tips for maximizing LinkedIn.