Are you building a profile on LinkedIn, but unsure where to start? Here are some easy tips to begin building a platform on LinkedIn, including tricks to enhance professionalism and push engagement!
Before learning what to do and how to use LinkedIn, it’s important to understand the goal of the platform. LinkedIn is a social-leaning professional platform meant to enhance professional connections and networking. As a result, LinkedIn is used and formatted differently than most social media platforms, and using it comes with certain norms and restrictions that you may not find elsewhere!
Profile
Since LinkedIn is a networking platform, your profile should reflect a professional quality that most social media platforms do not require. Your username should be limited to your name or brand name, so stay away from nicknames or pseudonyms unless they are pre-established. This also means profile photos should be high-quality, professional headshots or brand logos. Silly or low-quality images are not appropriate here!
When choosing a banner (background photo), make sure you’re sticking to your personal or professional brand! Keeping to a cohesive color pallet, topic, or theme can help ensure a professional quality. For personal accounts, photos representing your interests, your alma mater, or even a self-created branding image (see Canva for some great templates) are great ideas. For a brand, you can use photos from events, products, or self-created branding images. Make sure your banner represents you and your brand in a professional, honest way!
Bio
LinkedIn bios are often short and sweet. Use this space to reflect your most important professional experience(s), a relevant award or accolade, and your current position. You can also display your current employer and last place of education as icons in your bio, so take advantage of these!
About
Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn has a space dedicated to long-form, detailed biographies. This about section is where you can dig deeper into who you or your brand are; think of it as an expansion of your resume’s professional summary. Use this as a space to list your past experiences, important skills and qualifications, and current positions or projects. You may also use this place to note important accolades, awards, or events for you or your brand. Ending your About section with a quick list of specialties is always a great choice!
Experience
Use the experience section to highlight your professional experience. This is a great place to add links to websites, other profiles, or other important sources that you want to drive traffic to. If you have a personal website, link it under the relevant experience heading!
When listing experience, make sure to note important skills you acquired, events and projects you participated in, and any tangible evidence (including statistics and data if applicable) that illustrate your involvement with each area of experience!
LinkedIn can be a great way to connect with peers, other professionals in your field, relevant companies, or potential clients. However, it must be used with a focus on professionalism. If that professionalism is maintained, LinkedIn can be a very powerful tool, so make use of it!
If you’re ready to enhance your business with a genuine marketing strategy, let’s have a discussion by scheduling a free discovery call. In the meantime, please feel free to connect with me on Facebook and Clubhouse, or check out my LinkedIn!
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