10 Easy Ways To Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is an extension of your CV, so why spend a significant amount of time updating your CV but forget to ensure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and presentable? The truth is that outdated information on your profile reflects badly on you, whether you are exploring new opportunities or not.

We know what a good profile looks like - here's how you can boost yours. Background image

In this day and age personal branding is more important than ever as this is a way to stand out from your competitors (i.e. other job seekers). It is important to show your personality and a background image is a great way to accomplish this.

Profile picture

For the sake of credibility, recognition and personal branding a profile picture is vital. 

That being said, please bare in mind that LinkedIn is a professional platform, not your typical social media account. We’ve seen it all; Snapchat filters, shameless selfies, party pictures from a nightclub in Miami...

Headline

This is where you should highlight your current position and company, as well as your area of expertise. If you are openly seeking new opportunities you might want your headline to say 'Seeking new opportunities within XXX'.

Remember to check that your location and industry is still accurate.

Summary

This is your chance to expand on your headline and sell yourself to potential connections, recruiters and employers. It doesn't matter if you write this in first or third person, just focus on the most relevant details of your career, current responsibilities and key achievements.

We live by the words 'no waffling' at Four Seasons Recruitment. Adding words for the sake of it is a big no-no; short and concise is the way to go.

Typos

This is a given; poor grammar and spelling mistakes are simply unacceptable.

Keywords

To ensure people find your profile it is crucial that you include keywords relevant to your career. What searches do you want to appear on? If you are a Marketing Assistant you might want to include words such as ‘Google Analytics’, ‘communications’ and ‘social media’. If you are a Sales Assistant within retail words like ‘customer service’ and ‘sales’ are more suitable.

Work experience

Include any significant work experience, preferably that relates to your chosen career path. Babysitting your neighbor’s 1 year old at the age of 15 doesn’t add any value (unless you are a now a professional Nanny, of course).

Ensure the logos of the companies you have worked for are appearing for visual appeal and recognition.

Include a few bullet points under each position to highlight your key responsibilities. This is the ideal place to include important keywords.

Personalise your profile URL

It only takes a second and will make your profile look a tad more professional:

Click on the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage

'View Profile'

'Edit public profile & URL' on the right hand side

Edit your URL to only include your name

Activity

Status updates, likes, shares and comments; by maintaining a regular activity you increase the chances of gaining more visibility, demonstrating credibility and potentially acquiring new followers.

An important thing to keep in mind here is that people will unfollow you if all posts you engage in is about cats and puppies. Your activity should raise your profile and again, LinkedIn is a business network - not a social one.

Recommendations

Having people you have crossed paths with in your career recommend you and your work, whether it is colleagues or clients / customers, this will increase your credibility significantly. The more senior job titles the better.

A good way to get recommendations is to give them. Don't be shy to ask for one in return. You can give and request recommendations at the bottom of someone's profile."