Quick Reference Guide Creating/Updating Your LinkedIn Profile 1

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1 Quick Reference Guide Creating/Updating Your LinkedIn Profile 1 Setting up your LinkedIn presence for maximum results. Having a strong profile with right targeting strategy is the first step in reaping the benefits from LinkedIn. This guide includes tips on: Crafting your message, headline, and key profile elements Making your profile stand out from the competition Increasing your LinkedIn visibility Dealing with endorsements and recommendations Utilizing rich media on LinkedIn effectively ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Overall think of your LinkedIn profile as your biography, not just your résumé. It should describe why you are special, what differentiates you. What types of work do you do? What are your areas of expertise? What type of clients work with? Whenever someone in business meets you, they are likely to look you up on LinkedIn or do a Google search on you. If they do a Google search, your LinkedIn profile is likely to be the first search result. Therefore think of your LinkedIn profile as your store front window; what should people see to understand you professionally? Increasing your visibility by 40 times 2 Have everything in the top box populated, including photo Have at least two job experiences listed Have at least five recommendations Having all these things triggers the LinkedIn algorithm to give you higher visibility if someone does a search. For example, if someone searches on Performance Management and this is one of your key skills and it s a key word/phrase you have used in your profile, your profile will appear higher in the list of search results than if you didn t have all the things listed above. Before you start updating or editing your profile Two tips. First, turn off the publish updates button until you are done making changes. The option to do this will appear once you click on a section of your profile to edit. Look to the right of the page for a red/green toggle switch that says Notify your network? Make sure it is the NO position so your network isn t notified every time you save your changes. 1 This reference guide was created based on a webinar that was held for PrōKo Consultants in 2015, hosted by guest speaker, Husam Jandal, Chief Digital Marketing Officer and Social Media Trainer at WSI Academy. 2 LINKEDINSIGHTS.com Why You Should COMPLETE Your LinkedIn PROFILE you should complete your linkedin profile/

When you are done with all of your changes, switch it back to YES. (You probably don t want an update going out every time you add or change something if you are doing a lot of updates.

2 When you are done with all of your changes, switch it back to YES. (You probably don t want an update going out every time you add or change something if you are doing a lot of updates.) Second, write all text in a word document so that it is easier to see, edit, spellcheck and proofread. Then copy/paste the content into the appropriate fields on LinkedIn. This will help avoid mistakes. The Top Box Your Profile Summary This is the most important section! Most of the info here is what shows up in a LinkedIn search. For example, if someone were to search LinkedIn for digital marketing or performance management. It is also what appears in a Google search (minus the photo). This is why a good headline is so important! Your Headline [PrōKo calls this your tag line.] Your headline has the same function as the headline of an advertisement; its primary purpose is to get the target audience to want to read on and find out more. Sadly most LinkedIn members think headline = job title. This is probably because if you don t write a custom headline, LinkedIn uses your current job title as the default. The problem is that most job titles are likely to be too generic to distinguish you from everyone else with your skill set. To have your headline work for you, it should say what you do and entice people to learn more about your services. The second crucial function of the headline is to serve as an online magnet. If you want to be found in a search, you have to pack your headline with the keywords for which you want to be known all in just 120 characters. Note: Calling yourself a Management Consultant or Founder of Jane Smith Consulting isn t very descriptive. Husam s headline in the screen shot above is a bit sales y but it s better than just Digital Marketing Expert. Here s another good example (according to an article published by Forbes): 2

3 Gordon (Gordy) Curphy, PhD: #1 Leadership Author Coaching & Consulting Leaders, Teams & Organizations on Improving Efficiency & Effectiveness Also, consider putting your address in your headline to be as accessible as possible. Your Photo You must have one! Having no photo at all makes you seem mysterious, untrustworthy and definitely unprofessional. Not having a photo on your LinkedIn profile will make others assume that you're either "really ugly" or you don't know how to upload a picture. 3 You re seven times more likely to have your profile viewed if you have one. Like a house that s on sale, the assumption is that if there s no photo, something s wrong, says LinkedIn Career Expert Nicole Williams. 4 Make sure it is a professional looking photo! You ll benefit from investing in yourself with either a professionally created headshot, or a photo taken in a neutral setting. All you ll need are professional clothes, a camera bearing friend (even a newer model iphone will work), and a confident smile to boost your opportunities on LinkedIn. Do not use a photo from an event where you have cropped out your date or partner; this will definitively detract from your professional image. The headshot you choose is an important part of your personal brand. Potential clients will form an opinion based on the message sent by your photo before they even read your summary box. Don t discourage them by presenting your private, non work persona. A professional headshot is worth every penny. (Note: JC Penny does professional portraits for about $100.) If you are camera shy, spend the extra money for a professional photographer who can bring out the best in you. When you upload the photo, zoom in and crop it so that your face uses about 80% of the space. Use Key Words Use them in your top box summary and throughout your profile. Think of what a potential employer or client might search for and/or what you are particularly skilled at. If you don t know, look at the endorsements section of your profile for ideas. However, don t just list key words all over the place. Make it seem natural. For example (key words emphasized here in italics): I have more than 12 years of extensive experience in Business Consulting, Digital Marketing and Social Media. or My strengths include: Marketing strategy Marketing planning and execution Product messaging and positioning Sales and partner enablement Boiling technical speak into customer language Product launches 3 Miriam Salpeter at U.S. News & World Report: photo less linkedin page meansyou either dont know how to upload a picture or youre ugly The 5 Most Important LinkedIn Features You Aren't Using Correctly: 5 most important linkedin features you arent usingcorrectly/ 3

Note: When you go in to edit your summary, LinkedIn will suggest key words: (This may be a feature for Premium LinkedIn users but it s possible that every user has a free 30 day Premium trial.

4 Note: When you go in to edit your summary, LinkedIn will suggest key words: (This may be a feature for Premium LinkedIn users but it s possible that every user has a free 30 day Premium trial. Click on Upgrade in the top right corner of your profile page to find out.) Your Professional Summary This is your elevator speech ; this is what makes you different. In this section expand on your headline and remember to use your key words. To make your profile more interesting, use rich media. You can add videos, a flier, a PowerPoint presentation 5, a white paper, a client case study practically anything! You can add things to your main summary or to a specific job or position. For example, if you list your consulting projects or clients in the Experience section, you may want to add a case study, white paper or lessons learned document there instead of in the Summary section. From Forbes contributor William Arruda 6 in his article, The 5 Most Important LinkedIn Features You Aren't Using Correctly 7 : LinkedIn allows you to integrate images and video directly into your profile, yet most profiles don t contain any multi media content. Thanks to technology, a picture really is worth a thousand words. With this new feature, you can add tens of thousands of words without turning your profile into a huge, boring whitepaper on the brand called you. According to a study by W.H. Levie & R. Lentz, published in the Educational Communications and Technology Journal, visuals impact us cognitively and emotionally. Cognitively, images speed up and expand our level of communication and increase comprehension, recollection, and retention. Emotionally, visuals engage our imagination and heighten our creative thinking by stimulating other areas of our brain which translates into deeper and more 5 Consider linking to a PowerPoint that s been posted on SlideShare. That way one presentation is visible via two different mediums. It s pretty easy to do this on LinkedIn most important linkedin features you arent using correctly/ 4

5 accurate understanding. By embedding images and video into your summary and your experiences sections, you go from being boring to being a compelling brand. And, because most people aren t using this feature, it helps your profile stand out. The Summary section has a limit (2,000 characters) so adding rich media is a terrific way to add more information without exceeding the limit, and while avoiding a large block of text. Here are the basic steps for adding rich media anywhere in your profile: a) From the top menu bar, go to Profile Edit profile. b) Scroll down to the Summary section and hover your cursor there. The two edit buttons should appear in the top right corner of that section. c) Click on the first edit button, the one that looks like a square with a tiny plus sign. d) Then it will ask you to add a URL or upload a file. e) Then you will need to add a title to the item and you have the option of adding a description. f) Then click SAVE. Note: In the screen shot above you can see two edit buttons. The first one that looks like a square is the add media button. The second one (the up/down arrow) allows you to change the placement of a section on your profile. Just click on it, hold down the click and drag the section to where you want it to appear on the page. Your Skills and Endorsements From Forbes contributor William Arruda 8 in his article, The 5 Most Important LinkedIn Features You Aren't Using Correctly 9 : Let s face it. Endorsements seem silly. Yet we make judgments about people based on the skills for which they were endorsed, and LinkedIn showcases those skills in a way that delivers tremendous visual impact. Whether they admit it or not, people are evaluating your expertise this way, so you must work to get your key skills endorsed so that the top ten are displayed in the order of importance to your career success. Yes, LinkedIn gives you control over that. To make it happen, choose the skills for which you want to be endorsed. Pick the ones that bolster your personal branding and will help you advance your career. Be willing to delete endorsements for skills that just muddy the waters most important linkedin features you arent using correctly/ 5

6 Sometimes you get endorsed for skills you don t want to highlight or that you d rather not have as part of your profile. For example, if you occasionally help your friends and family sell their home but your real job is management consulting, you shouldn t have Real Estate show up in your list of skills. Here are the steps to remove or add skills to the list: a) From the top menu bar, go to Profile Edit profile. b) Scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section and hover your cursor there. The two edit buttons should appear in the top right corner of that section: Add Skill and an up/down arrow (described above). You ll also see next to each skill and edit button that looks like a pencil. c) Click on any of the pencil/edit buttons and your screen will change: d) Click on the Next button in the pop up dialogue box for more tips. e) To move something up in the list, click on it and drag it to the top. f) To remove something, simply click the X. (For example, I had multiple endorsements for Management Consulting and Consulting. I deleted the Consulting one. I did the same thing for Program Management and PMO.) Note: Profile update alert messages are not sent when you delete a skill. 6

g) To add a skill, try to use skills that are suggested by LinkedIn. Simply start typing the skill and select one that LinkedIn suggests based on its massive database of 322 million profiles.

7 g) To add a skill, try to use skills that are suggested by LinkedIn. Simply start typing the skill and select one that LinkedIn suggests based on its massive database of 322 million profiles. 10 For example, if you want to add the skill related to facilitating meetings, instead of creating the skill called Facilitating Meetings start typing Meeting Facil but instead of typing in the whole phrase, select it from the system s suggestions in the drop down list. This will link the skill in your profile to the system s massive database. Recommendations The difference between and Endorsement and a Recommendation an endorsement is like a thumbs up or Like on Facebook; a recommendation carries a lot more weight because the person had to take the time to actually go into LinkedIn and write something about you. Recommendations may be more important for people looking for a real job but they matter for consultants too. (See the section earlier on Increase your visibility by 40 times. ) Suggestions for getting client recommendations: a) Timing Ask for a recommendation right after you have delivered the work, when they are seeing the results. In other words, right when most deserve it. b) Context When you ask for the recommendation, provide the person with a little text or some bullet points you put together. Then they can then choose to publish it or make changes. The point is that you make it easy for them to take action; it s way easier to edit something than it is to write something from scratch! Here are some tips from The Undercover Recruiter.com 11 : What is your key strength (include example) What did they enjoy about working with you the most (include example) What word would they use to describe you and why (include example) 10 Source: By the Numbers: 100+ Amazing LinkedIn Statistics (updated January 2015) the numbers a few important linkedin stats/ 11 recommendations/ 7

One problem that they had, which you helped them overcome and how (include example, their feelings and your action points) For more information on Recommendations including how to request one through

8 One problem that they had, which you helped them overcome and how (include example, their feelings and your action points) For more information on Recommendations including how to request one through the system (making it even easier for the person) and how to hide one you don t like, click here: overview. Recommendations should be public and viewable by anyone. (Otherwise what s the point of having them?) But that brought up the topic of privacy settings. Privacy Settings To access your privacy settings, hover the cursor over your picture in the top right corner and a pop up list will appear. Look down the list and find Privacy & Settings, then click on Manage. Note: You will be prompted to sign in to your LinkedIn account, even if you were already signed in. The list of Privacy Controls includes: Turn on/off your activity broadcasts Select who can see your activity feed Select what others see when you've viewed their profile Turn on/off How You Rank Select who can see your connections Choose who can follow your updates Change your profile photo & visibility» Show/hide "Viewers of this profile also viewed" box Manage who you're blocking» One last tip: Have only one LinkedIn profile! One caution avoid having multiple personalities and make sure you have only one profile! (To double check, simply do a search on your own name.) Having more than one profile raises questions and suspicions and finding both profiles is not that difficult. A people search on Bob Smith or Robert Smith previously employed by PwC and who lives in California will bring up both profiles if more than one exists. Why would someone have two profiles? Two examples: Someone who has a real full time job but has started an independent consulting practice on the side Someone who works part time for a boutique consulting firm but also does independent consulting LinkedIn allows you to have more than one current position so use that feature instead. Otherwise it seems like you are hiding something which implies deceit or at best, a lack of transparency either way it s a chink in your reputation and/or trustworthiness. BE REAL. BE AUTHENTIC. BE YOU! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8

9 Related Articles and Information 8 Mistakes You Should Never Make On LinkedIn mistakes you should never make on linkedin/ The 5 Most Important LinkedIn Features You Aren't Using Correctly 8 Dos and Don'ts of LinkedIn Profile Pictures A Photo Less LinkedIn Page Means You Either Don't Know How To Upload A Picture Or You're Really Ugly 5 most important linkedin features youarent using correctly/ dos and don ts of linkedin profilepictures photo less linkedin page means you either dont know how toupload a picture or youre ugly By the Numbers: 100+ Amazing LinkedIn Statistics the numbers a few important linkedin stats/ 9

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