How to Jazz Up Your LinkedIn Page
Improving Your LinkedIn Page in 2020
If you’ve been in the workforce for the past few years, you know just how powerful a presence on LinkedIn can be.
Making a professional LinkedIn page is so important that there are literally businesses built around creating them for clients. If you’re looking for help with your LinkedIn page or your resume, click here to schedule a free consultation with a professional resume writer.
If your LinkedIn page leaves a lot to be desired, add some of these things to your profile to make a stronger page to give yourself more of a professional image!
Use a Professional Photo
All too often I’ll be on LinkedIn and see someone use their senior portrait from high school as their LinkedIn profile picture. Sure, it’s a nice picture, but it’s a picture of your from when you were 18.
Also, people tend to use pictures from other points of their life such as an event or a photo from their wedding. Your picture should be of you wearing professional attire, or a recently shot professional photo.
If you don’t have anything like that, throw on your nicest suit and stand in front of a solid colored backdrop and have your friend take your picture.
Make Your Summary a Story
Your summary is so much more than the basics of your work history. You can turn it into an intriguing story that goes over your professional career in a way that intrigues hiring managers.
Even though you are telling a story, you should refrain from using language that paints former employers in a harsh light. Remember, your job is to make you look good; not to make your former employers look bad.
Go into detail about how you got into this field, what your journey has been, how you faced adversity and how you overcame it. Your competition will include people who just throw the basics into their LinkedIn profile, so make sure that you prove that you stand above them!
Make Your Headline More Than a Job Title
Let’s say you are an accountant. If you are looking for jobs as an accountant, you are going to be competing with other LinkedIn users who are also touting that they are an accountant in their headline.
Instead of just throwing out your basic job title, add some information to make it pop! You could say “Professional Accountant with 10+ Years Experience” or “Expert Accountant with Experience Working for Fortune 500 Companies!” If you can add a bit more pizzazz to your headline, it will pop and hiring managers will notice!
Endorse and Ask for Endorsements
If you don’t have a ton of connections on LinkedIn, you need to get started on that first. Start searching for classmates you remember from school, former coworkers and supervisors, former professors and basically anyone you worked during your career.
Once you have connected with them, endorse the ones that you worked with closely, and go into detail about how they shined as a professional. Once you publish their endorsement, ask them if they’re willing to return the favor and endorse you as well.
Endorsements are essentially built-in references on your LinkedIn profile. They’re people who have worked with you, and are advocating for your and your skills!
Be Active!
One of the most important things that you can do on LinkedIn is to actually use the platform! Like and comment on posts from your peers that relate to your field! Post articles about what is happening in your field, and even write some from time to time.
Also, look for jobs! LinkedIn is a great place to find jobs and send out applications! You can get a good idea of what is happening in your industry, and what you can do to keep up to date.