5 LinkedIn Tips - Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You - Sterling Career Concepts

5 LinkedIn Tips - Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You 5 LinkedIn Tips Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You Everyone is saying that a LinkedIn profile is a “must” nowadays, but what does that really mean? You set up your profile, but you’re not sure if you’ve done enough or if you included the right keywords. Common knowledge these days is that recruiters and hiring agents are keyword searching LinkedIn profiles for candidates. Here are five suggestions to be sure your LinkedIn profile is working for you, not against you: 1. If you’re in a job search or open to opportunities, you need to not only be found on LinkedIn, but be found there with a complete profile. Signing up two years ago, adding your most recent job, and accepting five connections gives a sloppy, outdated presentation and the impression that you’re out of touch. Round out your profile and aim for at least 50 contacts. 2. The litmus test for LinkedIn success is three-pronged: a professional LinkedIn picture, a strong headline, and a fleshed out summary section. Head and shoulders picture should be in professional attire with no distracting background images. 3. Claim your vanity url to help you share your link. That way, when you email it so anyone, it will look like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurieberenson rather than something like this: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3394889016 4. Your LinkedIn profile will rank highly when your name is searched. What will recruiters or industry contacts find if they click on it? This is your chance to control your online presence. Don’t be caught incomplete or outdated. Take the opportunity to write a strong headline. Your headline follows your name and picture throughout the site, whenever you are listed as someone’s contact. This is prime real estate and a great spot to include a marketing tagline rather than just “Vice President of Sales” or “Director of Business Development.” 5. Copying and pasting your entire resume is not an effective shortcut. It will lead to a disaster! Pasting your entire resume will overwhelm your profile. LinkedIn profiles are written and formatted differently than your resume. Shorter paragraphs, tighter phrases and sentences. First person is acceptable in LinkedIn, but never on a resume. Learn how to optimize your profile for recruiters, leverage your network, and identify job leads with the following value-packed eBook: Maximize LinkedIn for Job Search Take advantage of my Special LinkedIn Promotion valued at $90! Buy both the eBook and one coaching session for just $50. Email me today to schedule: laurie@sterlingcareerconcepts.com . You may also find these posts helpful: 7 ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile Will the best networker please stand up!