Top 20 Best LinkedIn Profile Creation Tips

1. Top 20 Best LinkedIn Profile Creation Tips Looking to be found by someone? Looking for partners or new business opportunities? Want to build your network and establish your brand? It’s only possible on LinkedIn as it’s the biggest professional networking platform. Everything on LinkedIn starts with your profile. So create a compelling profile that attracts your prospects or employers’ attention. Creating a profile on LinkedIn is free then “where is the issue”? It seems you are not able to figure out where to start. LinkedIn profile creation and optimization tips are only a few scrolls away. All you have to do to learn them is scroll down the page. Because this article shows you exactly what you need to add to each section of your LinkedIn profile. If you are a beginner you can create your profile using these tips and experienced people can optimize their LinkedIn profile.

2. Here are the Top 20 best LinkedIn Profile Creation Tips that will make your profile stand out from the crowd 1. Your Profile Photo A profile photo is the most important element for building your online persona. Profiles with photos are viewed 21 times more than a profile without a photo. People generally look for faces that they can trust and identify. Consider these best practices while adding a profile photo: •A photo should be recent, clear, and of high quality •A photo should be of at least 400×400 pixels up to 8MB file size •Take a photo on your business attire •Minimal and bright background •Headshot Make your profile visible to everyone to increase the engagement. 2. Background Photo Background photo shows your readers what is important to you. Thus it is also an important element of your profile. It should be in conjunction with your profile picture as a joint visual asset. Add a background picture that reflects your personality or interest or branding. LinkedIn recommends using a cover photo of 1584×396 pixels and should be of JPG, PNG, or GIF file. 3. Your Profile Headline Your headline is the first visible thing that people will see under your name in search results. Therefore your headline should be impressive and attention- grabbing for your readers. Add more valuable things in 120 characters to make your headline enticing. Consider these best practices while creating your headline: •Include your expertise, awards, and skills •Add your achievements and big wins •Insert keywords per your target audience It all depends on you to whom you wanna look at your profile and what’s your goal.

3. 4. Your Profile Summary After grabbing people’s attention with your headline and profile photo. Your profile summary is very vital for them as it’s an expansion of your profile headline. Profile summary shows your personality, skills, and passion in an elaborated way. Use an impressive introductory sentence to grab the reader’s attention. Write your summary in the active voice and include the most relevant details about your career Follow these three stages for writing your summary: •First: How did you move into the current position? •Second: What has encouraged you to take the current position? •Third: Where you want to see yourself soon? Include your key achievements, awards, and honors in each stage as it adds credibility to yourself. Your profile summary should highlight or answers a few questions like 1. Who are you at work? 2. What are the core features of your personality? 3. What is your experience in the industry? 4. What unique ideas or values you have brought in your present workplace? The purpose of the profile summary is to gain the trust of people so you should be true to yourself and your viewers. 5. Work Experience Work experience includes your experiences performed in different roles. Arrange them in chronological order with the recent position on top. Consider these best practices while adding a work experience •Add all the relevant experience to your current profession. •Highlight your achievement specific to each role. •Follow the paragraph pattern while writing the description. •Include keywords specific to your industry and career goals. •Link your job to the organization page on LinkedIn •Add specific job title

4. You can also include more experiences from recent years. 6. Education Section The education section gives your educational details to your potential employer. So add educational details of your schools/colleges/universities related to your profession. Consider these tips while adding a school/college name in your education section: •Include any extracurricular activities you participated in that school/college •Add any awards or certifications received during professional qualifications and work experience •You can add photos, videos, link or documents to show your proud moments in that school/college. 7. Volunteer Section The volunteer section helps you to highlight the things you care about and support. A hiring manager can learn about work ethic through your professional volunteer experience. These activities reflect that you are more than the corporate creature. Consider these best practices while adding points under the volunteer section: •Include the workshops conducted by you on any topic in your organization or outside. Add the work done for charitable trust or non-profit organizations. (Add the organization, your role, causes, and a description of the event) 8. Add skills and get endorsements Add skills to tell others “who you are” and “what you can do”. Add only those skills which are relevant to your profession. The practice of “give is to receive” works best for getting an endorsement from others. You endorse people you know for their skills and in return request them to endorse you. They will feel grateful and return the favor. Keep updating this section and keep them focused on the areas you want to recognize.

5. Consider these best practices while adding skills to this section: •Add only industry-related skills •Reorder the skills such that the most important skills should be on top •Ensure to use high volume search phrases when selecting skills 9. Get written recommendations Request people for recommendations with whom you have worked earlier. Write a recommendation to someone and expecting the same in return from them. The valuable recommendation for others should help you to get better recommendations back. 10. Add accomplishments Post your accomplishments to show who you are and what you do on your LinkedIn Profile. LinkedIn offers accomplishments that you can add in 9 different sections. These are: •Certification: Add any certifications you have earned •Publication: If you have published any books or articles on famous websites. Add the title of the book or article •Patent: Add the patent if you own? •Course: Add the courses you took to develop your skill •Awards: Add the projects list in which you participated •Language: Add the languages you know. •Project: Add the projects •Test Score: Mention the score of any competitive examination •Organization: Add organization name if you are part of any non-profit organization. This is the place where you can show others all your hard-earned accomplishments to date. 11. Create a personalized URL A personalized URL makes it easier for others to connect with you. This also enables Google to index your profile on top of the search results. In addition to that personalized URL looks professional and can be easily used in your CV, email signatures, name cards, brochures, websites, etc. The default URL assigned by LinkedIn is a combination of your name and numbers. It looks like as shown below

6. You can change this as per your preferences. Let’s now see how you can change it. 1. Click on your profile 2. Go to edit public profile and URL Edit your custom URL as shown below While customizing the URL, you need to stick to http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname URL structure. If your name is already in use then you can add a middle initial or middle name. If all versions of your name are in use then you can try your last name followed by your first name. Or you can also add location or numbers behind the name. 12. Write amazing articles for LinkedIn Writing articles/posting content is a great way of increasing your professional credibility. You can grow your influence, increase visibility and get new followers. Whenever you publish a new article, your existing connections will get notified. In fact, new people can also discover your posts via search. So while writing articles, you should keep in mind about your target audience. You can highlight your expertise and interest by publishing articles on niche topics. Ensure the appropriateness of your posts for the 60 billion professionals using LinkedIn. Provide value to them. 13. Keep your profile up to date The information listed on your LinkedIn profile should be current. Thus you need to spend time on LinkedIn on a regular basis and ensure that everything on your profile is current. This will help you to provide the most accurate and recent information to your connections. 14. Build your network Networking helps to connect with your friends, alumni, recruiters, and new professionals. Networking gives exposure and access to important people, helps you attract new prospects, and keeps you in front of influencers, existing clients and

7. vendors. You can get more endorsements, generates more introductions and referrals, provides invitations to speak at events or conferences, and uncovers media or press inquiries and much more. 15. Use LinkedIn groups All LinkedIn members can make new connections by joining different LinkedIn groups. As per LinkedIn, your profile visibility increases when you join and are active in groups. Do your research and join the group related to your industry or niche. Later you can start the discussion, ask questions, and send messages to other members. Don’t use LinkedIn groups for marketing yourself. Instead, share your knowledge with people in your groups. This way you can develop your professional network. 16. Personalized invitation to connect When you invite someone, personalize your message and send the connection request. Your message should be simple and engaging. This personal touch will increase the chances of accepting your request. Consider these elements while writing a message: •Standard Introduction – including your name and what you currently do. •The reason you are connecting – what piece of work has admired you to connect with him/her. •Conclude your message by inviting him or her to talk further or even meet in person. 17. Connect with new people LinkedIn is a great platform where you can make a connection with people you know to people you don’t know yet. This enables you to expand your network with new professional contacts. Many people fail to send or accept requests from people they don’t know or never met in person. Don’t hesitate to send an invitation to the mentor in your field or that person you would love to have a chat with. Follow a certain standard of etiquette while sending an invitation to a new person. Please provide the reason to a new person where you saw him or why you want to connect with him.

8. 18. Leverage keywords in your profile Keywords are important as it attracts profile visitors based on the words you select. Using the correct keywords in your profile increases your visibility. Target the words for your profile analyzing people’s search on LinkedIn. Use those keywords in various positions like headline, summary, and profile. Using the right keywords will increase your reach, as a result, you will be exposed to more potential connections and opportunities. 19. Find People through search and advanced search LinkedIn search is another great way to expand your network. Journey for people by name, organization, or aptitudes. But you can go a lot further. LinkedIn’s move request encourages you, secure people, by position title, school, relationship, area, industry, back and forth movement/past organization, profile language, and charitable interests — with extra mission decisions for premium people. 20. Feature your professional memberships If you are attached to any professional organizations or industry associations, then you can highlight your membership and the particular position you hold. This is another chance to optimize your profile for keywords. Conclusion Use the above LinkedIn profile creation tips while creating your profile. Your profile will have a great impact on your personal brand. To increase visibility, you need to optimize your profile. So, optimize your profile to attract more attention and get better results in business.