Believe it or not, but your LinkedIn profile may be just what you need to get you to excel further in your career. Interested in a promotion? What about doing project management? There’s nothing wrong in investing some time marketing yourself, and it’s far from egotistical either.
If you neglect personal branding, you’re only cutting yourself short, and you could even be missing out on some huge opportunities out there. LinkedIn is the best place to sell yourself, show off your skills, and even have a humble brag here and there.
Why is it so important to have a LinkedIn profile?
Many professionals use LinkedIn as a method of building their network, but also to get their name out there. It’s a great place to talk with other professionals in the same industry, share tips, advice, and even apply to jobs. A lot of professionals have had the opportunity to expand their careers thanks to recruiters and hiring managers finding them there. Plus, with the normalisation of LinkedIn and other social media profiles, you may come off as suspicious for not having an account. These are some excellent tips for improving your LinkedIn profile so you can work towards getting your dream job.
Choose the right profile picture
A picture is worth a thousand words, but if your picture isn’t very flattering then it may not be positive words. Your profile picture is going to be the very first impression of you, this is right before even taking a look at your profile. You want this picture to be a close-up of your face, flattering, smile, and of course, you want to wear workwear such as a suit. But the photo shouldn’t be taken with the phone either, as that isn’t going to be very flattering. Look into getting some professional headshots done by a photographer.
Take a look at your headline
While you don’t want to cram your headline with generic buzzwords like “Magical Marketing Rockstar”, you’ll also want to avoid putting just your job title on there as well. Use this for telling a little bit about your role. It may even help out to just look at other profiles and see others do their headlines. There’s nothing wrong with getting a little bit of information.
Avoid buzzwords
As stated above, you’ll want to avoid buzzwords. They’re becoming overused and meaningless. Some of the more overdone words will include
You need to demonstrate what you can do, using buzzwords isn’t even explaining what you do. Actions are far more powerful than words and this needs to be proven.
Fill out as much as you can on your profile
The more, the merrier. While you could hire a LinkedIn profile specialist, you can instead just try to do it all yourself by filling out your profile as much as you can. Empty profiles are a bad look and you want to give the impression that you’re active. Look into filling out your education, skills, summary, and even try to get feedback/ recommendation from someone on there as well. These can all make a massive difference.
