How to create good LinkedIn profile?

Fill in your profile in 100%

Filling in your profile will take only few minutes and thanks to that each potential employer or recruiter will know at glance all important information about your professional career. Remember, that your profile is your business card, so make sure that you are emphasizing your best accomplishments and experience. LinkedIn has “profile completion meter” to make it easier for you – you can go through all sections and be sure that you hadn’t skipped anything.

Important: make sure that your profile has only real information. You can be sure, that recruiters after receiving your resume, will check also your LinkedIn profile. Important, that these information match, to make you reliable and trusted Salesforce professional.

Add your photo

In many places you can find the information stating that appropriate photo will boost your profile views N times. Regardless of the number, which you will replace with N, truth is really simple – it does work. A good photo will show you as confident, trustworthy and reliable professional. Don’t forget to smile!

There a few simple rules:

• your photo should have a good quality and be made by someone (or with usage of auto trigger) – LinkedIn is not Facebook, so you should avoid selfies and blurred photos
• there should be only you on the picture – joint pictures with friends you should leave for more social occasion
• adjust your picture to your work position. You don’t need to wear a uniform, but pictures in “PARTY KING” T-shirt may be not appropriate as well. However…
• … be creative! Small detail, which will bring some attention, is more than welcome.

Personalize your profile URL

After account creation, link to your profile will have strange numbers and will look like https://www.linkedin.com/in/name-surname-xj28fxao0d/. You can change it! Leave just your name and surname – it will look much better than random string of characters at the end.

Set your header

By default your header will be name and surname plus your job title. If you want – you can change it. Think about some catchy phase or keyword, which will improve your profile views. Additionally, you will distinct yourself, if you update the header with additional phrase or emoji.

Summarize your experience

Few statements about your work experience and capabilities is something, which is not always included in traditional resume. Outlining your professional career is like elevator pitch – it should be concise and emphasize your best abilities. Say why you are the best man to this job – it may not be easy, but it’s beneficial to put few simple, precise statements.
Use keywords to highlight your industry, experience, technologies you know and certificates.  

Collect recommendations

You can add various skills to your profile. What is more, other LinkedIn users can give you feedback to acknowledge such skills. It is very important feature, because the more people will do so, the better you will be perceived by recruiters. It demonstrates your actual knowledge and expertise in the given area. 

How to get feedback? First of all, focus on few of your most important skills – don’t be jack-of-all-trades. Next, confirm skills of your coworkers and friends. They most likely will do same for you. Thanks to that, you can get significant number of recommendations, confirmed by people from your contact list.

Build your professional network

Your contact list is yet another section, you need to care about. First of all, with vast number of business contacts, your profile will be viewed more frequently. Also, you will get a feedback and recommendations from people you used to wok with. Lastly, you can add recruiters to your network – do not hesitate to invite them! It will increase number of offers you are receiving and, overall, your profile visibility.

How to care about your network? Don’t forget about your friends from high school or university and coworkers. Add people you have done networking with on conferences, courses or trainings. People you are doing business with are another, which should be in your professional network. If you are adding people you do not know in person, add few words about yourself – it is better than sending an invite without any message at all.

Join various groups

Discuss and follow experts from interesting areas. Join group to share ideas and meet new people. Also, leaving some expert-a-like comments will demonstrate your expertise.

Create content and post it regularly

Apart from being active it thematic groups you ca also add or share articles, news and post directly on your profile “wall”. It is good to share some insightful materials from time to time or post a comment. It will help you to build your own brand and show you as a domain expert. It will impress your recruiters.

Ufff, you can see that setting up an account on LinkedIn is just a beginning. However, if you do all these steps now, there will be much less in the future – just remember to keep it updated and up-to-date. Your profile is your business card, remember?

PS. Even if you are on the beginning of your professional career, create an account. The sooner – the better. Initially, you may not have much experience and business contacts, however everyone has started someday. You will be surprised how fast your profile (and career) is growing.

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