Ten Tips for LinkedIn Success

My Top Ten LinkedIn Tips: 

1. Have a professional headshot taken for your Profile Picture. This is a professional site and NOT the place for a wedding or holiday snap! Also, add a banner image that reflects your chosen industry or specialism.
2. Write a catchy Headline that showcases your unique selling points. The default setting inserts your job title and present company which we can see as we scroll down through your profile.
3. Write a compelling Summary. This is the area to showcase what you’re doing now, what you love about it and what your aspirations are for the future. Convey your personality! Write it in the first person, avoid jargon and corporate speak and include a call to action.
4. Fill in all the boxes and sections! Help LinkedIn to match you with the most appropriate people and opportunities by filling in all the relevant sections of your profile. You’ll know when you’re doing it right because vacancies resembling your dream job will appear! Take advantage of all the areas where you can add media like photos, videos and .pdf files to add colour and interest to your profile.
5. Sync your Contacts. Ensuring that you’re connected on LinkedIn with the people that are already in your address book means that your network on LinkedIn has a head start.
6. Join LinkedIn Groups and Follow Companies. Networking within groups is very powerful. Be careful though; use the same etiquette that you would if you were joining a joining a networking group in the real world! Follow companies that you would love to work with in order to understand their culture and keep up to date with their news (and vacancies!)
7. Endorse and Recommend Others. Be generous! Endorsing your contacts for their skills is super easy. You’ll make them feel good, remind them what a great person you are and who knows, they will probably endorse you right back. Recommendations take a little longer and are much more powerful than endorsements. Take the time to recommend a friend, colleague, client or associate on LinkedIn, when they deserve it. Having received a recommendation from you, they are more likely to return the favour. Ask for recommendations but don’t wait to be asked! Here’s an example of a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile:
   

   “Having been registered on LinkedIn for some years, I’ve never really taken the time to understand it fully and was probably actually a little wary of it.

   Louise came highly recommended as a LinkedIn coach, so I decided to book a one to one tutorial with her. I was blown away by her knowledge.

   However, I was particularly impressed that she took the time to understand [me] and what I wanted to achieve using LinkedIn.

   Above all, she was extremely patient. I came away having a much clearer understanding as well as a clear strategy moving forward. Thank you Louise! – Catherine Sneade

8. Share Relevant Content on LinkedIn. Stuck for content? Not sure what to post? LinkedIn provides some great material that is relevant to what it knows about you so: read it, like it and share it!
9. Comment Positively on LinkedIn. Comment positively, on your connections’ posts and feel free to share them. They’ll be thrilled! After all, they want their content to reach as many people as possible. Press the thumbs up sign to register your approval.
10. Write Articles on LinkedIn. Click the pencil icon to write and article on Linkedin and use this opportunity to publish your own unique content. This is a great way to develop your professional reputation as a ‘thought-leader’ in your industry and to catch the attention of your dream employers.

Finally, keep at it. Like all good things in life, you get out what you put in. So, download the LinkedIn app on your smartphone and check Linkedin on a regular basis. The more active you are the more visible you are to your prospective employers and customers. The more visible you are, the more likely someone is to mention you or recommend you when a suitable opportunity comes up.

“In my opinion there has never been a better time to conduct a career change than right now. LinkedIn and other online platforms make leveraging your network so much easier than it ever was in the past. 

Hundreds, if not thousands of people are a just a click away.

Remember, when you’re looking for a new opportunity, it’s often not what you know but who you know that counts!”

Louise Jenner, The Dream Job Coach