Create a good professional LinkedIn profile with these 10 steps

With the new digital media you have to differentiate yourself from other professionals and for this there are professional social networks such as LinkedIn. Having a perfect LinkedIn profile is key to achieving your professional goals. Either to look for work, to attract potential clients, to improve your personal brand or the image of your business.

If you are here, it means that LinkedIn is a network that really interests you and that you know can be of great use to you.

So in this post we will give you tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile and get the most out of your personal brand. Learn how to create a powerful and differentiating professional LinkedIn profile in 10 easy steps:

Tips on how to make a good LinkedIn profile.

Having a well-made profile can open many doors for you. First impressions count, if you have a powerful and differentiating LinkedIn profile, you will surely get more and better results.

# 1: Custom profile

It is very important to make it clear that LinkedIn is a professional social network, so it is not a Facebook or Instagram and it is not a CV. The most common mistake is to insert an exact copy of the resume in the profile, missing the great opportunity to communicate a message beyond professional experience.

In addition, you cannot forget that your LinkedIn profile must always be updated, so each achievement and job position has to be added as it happens.

# 2: Profile photo

The profile photo is the first impression that a person or company will have of you. So you have to take care that it looks as clean as possible and that it represents your true personality, giving your best image.

What should your LinkedIn photo look like?

• With a plain background, preferably white and without distractions
• With a smile
• With you as the protagonist, your face should occupy the most space
• Posing facing the camera
• With professional clothing, according to your profession

What do we mean by the last point? That there is congruence with what you do. That is, if you are an artist, it is useless to put a photo dressed in a suit that gives seriousness.

# 3 Background photo

Don’t forget to add a background photo or banner. In this section you can put something that has to do with your work or, failing that, a slogan related to your profession and your contact information.

In this blog: Image specifications for your LinkedIn and employment pages you can find the measurements that this photo must have to be 100% readable.

# 4: Headline

The headline is one of the most important factors to improve your profile and increase your chances of appearing in recruiter and professional searches. That is why in addition to your position, you must include keywords, because SEO exists on LinkedIn. Think of strategic words that are related to your industry that can increase your visibility.

Thinking strategically about the words you will use will help optimize your profile and increase your presence. The headline is 120 characters long, so find the best way to summarize what you do to give a clear picture of who you are.

# 5: Excerpt

The extract is the part that goes under your headline in which you put a brief description of your professional profile. This section is also essential if you want a good LinkedIn profile.

In this section, a space of 2000 characters is offered, however, people will only see the first two or three lines; so you must work on creating an original and engaging text.

Some things you can put in this section are:

This is a kind of cover letter, where you have to sell yourself. Think about your goal and who you want to read it. Find a way to write a description to impress your potential clients or recruiters.

And don’t forget: keywords come into play here too. So be sure to include relevant words for businesses to find your profile.

Example: If you work in the marketing area, you could put words like SEO, link building, digital marketing …

This might interest you: A Practical Guide to Powerful Keywords in Your LinkedIn Profile

# 6: Professional experience and education

You can also add your experience and education to your LinkedIn profile. Here you can take the opportunity to explain in detail the tasks and responsibilities of your jobs, as well as the achievements and topics in detail that your studies include.

Try to add information that adds value and keywords. Another important factor of this section is that it allows you to add photos, documents. So for example, if you work in a law firm, you can add your business card to add formality to your descriptions.

LinkedIn also gives you the option to “link” to institutions and companies if they are also on the page, so if you have this option, do so as it adds professionalism.

# 7: Achievements

More important than education and professional experience are achievements. Because they indicate how much you meet your goals and all the additional things you do to enrich your professional profile.

In this section you can put the following:

Do not forget to describe what you achieved with what you want to add to your profile and attach evidence if possible.

# 8: Skills

Although this part is not very relevant, since in the end other contacts have to validate them and they may not be 100% true, one point that you have to take care of is including skills that are related to your work.

That is, if you are an event organizer, include, for example, logistics, personnel management, time management, budgets, etc.

Remember that only the first 3 appear in your profile, so be careful which ones you want to come out first.

# 9: URL

If you already have a LinkedIn profile, you may have noticed that when you create it, you are given an automatic URL consisting of your name + some random numbers. And this may not look entirely professional.

Ideally, in the settings part, change your URL and customize it to say what you want. Just removing the numbers and leaving your name is more than enough.

# 10 Contact details

If you want someone to contact you by any external means once they find your LinkedIn profile, it is important that you leave your contact information. You can add it in any of the sections mentioned above, but it is important that you have them somewhere visible.

Final revision

Finally, give a final review of how your already complete profile looks and keep the following points in mind:

• Does the information match your CV? Otherwise it could be interpreted as that you are lying. Remember that LinkedIn serves to complement.
• Grammar and orthography. Check that it is impeccable, otherwise, you will give a bad impression.
• Language: Try to have a professional language but at the same time simple and more personal. Do not copy and paste your CV sections in your profile.

And those were the 10 steps to having the best professional LinkedIn profile!

And remember, it is not enough to have a perfect profile if you do not constantly review it, you have to take care of it and update it. Likewise, don’t forget to network and constantly add contacts to increase your visibility and opportunities.

We hope that this guide helps you to get the most out of this professional social network and that you get very good results from creating a good profile.

Originally published at https://wordstylers.com on September 3, 2021.