12 Oct LinkedIn: how to create a good profile
LinkedIn is not a platform for sharing your CV: it can be the right social network for getting noticed by recruiters, and expanding your network.
Here are some tips from our Career experts on how to create a good profile and how to use this platform strategically.
Fill in all fields
The more complete your profile, the higher your level, and the more LinkedIn will make your profile visible. Hence the need to complete all fields: titles, location, summary, professional experiences, training, volunteer experiences, skills, recommendations, etc.
In your Experience section, don’t just say what positions you held. Detail what the company does/did, the mission carried out and the results obtained, the scope and goals of your previous job.
Pay particular attention to the Featured section in which you can highlight some of your posts, photos, videos, PDFs… In short, content that highlights your know-how.
Set your profile correctly
Make sure your profile and photo are public and that your network is not visible, not to benefit other people who are looking for a job like you are. In the same way, ensure that the functionality that allows people viewing your profile to have similar profile suggestions is disabled (otherwise this would allow recruiters to see your competitors).
Personalize your URL with your first and last name, by deleting the numbers and letters at the end. You can be striking by adding a few keywords: your profession, your sector, and the keywords your target look for on this platform. This is an interesting activity to enhance your LinkedIn SEO.
Write a powerful summary
It is essential to introduce yourself in the “summary” part which can contain up to 2.600 characters.
We recommend starting with an impactful hook to arouse curiosity. symbols and emoji could help you as well, but don’t overdo! Then, talk about your experience, the problems and the solutions you could bring to a company to solve them. In short, your added value.
A perfect profile picture
Your profile picture absolutely has to be professional. You can go to a photographer or take a picture of yourself in front of a neutral background, in a pro suit, with a straight posture, looking at the lens with a smile.
Some websites as allow you to enhance your photo by adding a background or dynamic elements.
Personalize your title
You can put in some strategic keywords that characterize your skills and a sentence to summarize what you do.
It must be easily understandable for those who discover you. The important thing is that it’s alive and kicking and that people get a glimpse of your personality and your creativity.
Work on semantics
If you don’t use the right keywords, your profile won’t appear in Recruiters’ searches: you need to be strategic.
How do you do that? Look at the job postings in your area, write down the terms that come up and use them on your profile.
Be strategic when looking for a job
You can show on LinkedIn that you are looking for professional opportunities. If you decide to share this information with all LinkedIn members, an #OpenToWork frame will appear on your profile photo.
Those who use it are on average 40% more likely to receive InMails from recruiters than before, when they did not use this feature.
Ask for recommendations
LinkedIn allows you to request recommendations from your network: a former colleague, a boss, a customer, a supplier, etc.
This helps to reassure potential Recruiters, and the more recommendations you have, the more your visibility increases.
Once the recommendation is received, you can accept it so that it appears on your profile, ignore it or ask the person who wrote it to change it.
Create your good network
Include in your network the decision-makers in the sector in which you want to work and target several people within the same company that interests you: the DG, the HR manager, the marketing manager, a manager, etc.
That way, if the hiring manager likes one of your posts, he or she will appear in the newsfeed, and you will be even more visible.
Engage
Communication is key on LinkedIn. You can do this by posting content, sharing content from other users, and liking or commenting. It’s better to search for posts to comments than likes or shares: it makes you as visible as if you were posting content.
Your expertise is not obvious to anyone: creating content shows your legitimacy. If you post by sharing an article, always add your point of view and your vision. If you are in a creative business, show your talent and the range of tools you have.
Recruiters are not only looking for a CV and skills, but also a personality!
We hope these tips can help you improve your LinkedIn profile. If you need further support, we are there for you.