LinkedIn 101: Building your Profile, Part I
In LinkedIn 101: The Basics, we shared insights on the what, why and how of LinkedIn. We explored LinkedIn’s purpose, potential ways to approach your LinkedIn strategy, opportunities to engage with LinkedIn users, practical tips to grow your connections, and more.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to pull back the curtain on the components that comprise your LinkedIn profile. There are several components to break down and we are chock full of practical tips for each of them! To make this information as digestible as possible, this piece will focus on the following:
Selecting Your Profile Photo and Banner Image
Crafting Your LinkedIn Headline
Writing Your LinkedIn Summary
Elevating Your Work with Featured Content
Sharing Your Experience Through a Storytelling Lens
In our forthcoming blog post, we’ll dive into the education, volunteer, skills/endorsements, recommendations, and interests sections. These insights, options to consider, and practical tips are designed to help you leverage LinkedIn to achieve your networking and job search goals.
Let’s get started.
Selecting Your Profile Photo and Banner Image
Did you know that members with a profile photo on LinkedIn can get up to 21 times more profile views than members without? Adding your profile photo is the first step to building an engaging presence on LinkedIn.
There are some basic do’s and don’ts to consider here:
Do:
Choose a professional image where you are wearing professional clothing.
Choose an image that features you alone and focuses from the shoulders up.
Images against a solid background help you stand out.
Don’t:
Use your profile picture from your personal social media channels (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), unless it aligns with the do’s above!
Choose an image where there is more than one person in the photo.
Choose an image with a busy background.
Below are four examples of profile photos that demonstrate all of the do’s and none of the don’ts!
After you select your profile photo, it’s time to choose your banner image. While selecting a banner image is optional, we believe it adds value to your profile and helps you stand out.
Think about your banner image as you would your professional brand. What are you known for? What do you want to be known for? Visitors to your profile will likely associate your banner image with your work in the world, so your strategy here is key.
The banner image you select might include:
The population or audience that your work supports
For example, if you work in advocacy, you might choose an image of you and your colleagues in action at a rally; or if you work in higher ed, you might choose an image of a group of students.
An image that represents a specific skill that connects with your work
If you’re a logistics maven, you might choose a banner image of a puzzle to demonstrate your skills in problem solving; or if you work in product design, you might feature an image or selection of images from your design portfolio.
The area where you live (or want to live)
This can be especially helpful if you serve clients and/or want to attract clients in a specific geographic region, or if you are looking to make a geographic pivot to a new city or town.
Bottom line, choose a banner image that represents you! Whether it is of a population you serve, a specific skill you have, or the area where you are or want to be, the choice is up to you.
Crafting Your LinkedIn Headline
Your LinkedIn headline, similar to your profile photo and banner image, is highly visible and will appear by default when others conduct searches on the platform. There are many ways to craft your headline effectively and how you choose to go about it will depend on the career pivot you’re looking to make.
If you are setting up a LinkedIn profile for the first time, the platform will automatically generate a headline based on your current title and company. If you work for a well-known company that represents the industry you want to be in, going with the default headline may be the best option for you. Ideally, your headline will be 5 to 7 words and no more than the 120 character limit.
To aid in crafting your headline, it may help to consider the following questions:
What is the most important aspect of my current role and/or professional background that I want my network to know about me?
What hard skills do I want to convey to recruiters right off the bat?
What is the mission of my work and which communities do I support?
Don’t be afraid to get creative here! Remember, your headline will likely be what draws people to your profile, and the content that follows is what will keep visitors there.
Here are a few examples of effective headlines to help jumpstart your brainstorm:
Marketing Director at The Walt Disney Company
Software Developer Experienced in JavaScript, C++, and Python
Helping Communities Fight Climate Change
Still feeling stuck? Try visiting the LinkedIn profiles of those whom you respect and admire in your field for more ideas, or ask a friend how they would describe you to a future employer.
Writing Your LinkedIn Summary
While your profile picture, banner image, and headline are the most visible features of your LinkedIn profile, your LinkedIn Summary is where the storytelling work begins. Many people find it helpful to tackle this last as it can be the trickiest section to write.
The summary is your chance to share your story in the way that you want it to be received. It is an opportunity to highlight skills and accomplishments that you’re most proud of and convey insights about who you are, where you are currently in your career, and where you want to go next. If you are looking to make a career pivot, for example, you can use the summary to show and tell how you might leverage your transferable skills to succeed in a new sector.
There are many ways to approach writing your LinkedIn summary. You might reflect on some of the questions below as you start writing:
What sparked your interest in getting involved in your field and/or the field into which you’re looking to pivot?
What are the 2 to 3 skills, accomplishments, and/or experiences for which you most want to be known?
What is a specific example of a time when you made an impact, and what did you learn from it? How might you drive impact at a new organization based on this specific instance?
Another way to think about your summary is by considering the breadth of your experience or your expertise. For example, does your experience span X and Y and Z industries? Have you worked with a diverse range of professionals from A to B to C types of people? If you have a deep level of expertise in one area, consider all the ways you’ve grown and built that knowledge -- and why it interests you! A few examples of this broad brush approach are below:
“My marketing experience has taken me from startups, to nonprofits, to most recently a Fortune 500 company.”
“As a technology professional, I’ve supported leaders at all levels, from administrative coordinators to mid-level managers, to C-Suite level executives. I help them to understand their challenges and troubleshoot solutions that work for their individual needs.”
As you wrap up your summary, remember that LinkedIn is designed to be a platform for connections. Closing out your summary section with a line or two expressing a willingness to build relationships with others goes a long way. Consider who you might want to connect with and why.
For example, are you looking to grow your network in your current field? Or, are you looking to pivot your career and grow your network in a different sector? Here are a few examples of how you might express a willingness to connect with others at the end of your LinkedIn summary:
“I’d love to connect with others working in ABC space doing XYZ type of work, please drop me a line if you would like to chat!”
“I’m looking to deepen my network in ABC space. If you work in the field and want to share insights, discuss best practices, or connect on new industry trends, drop me a note!”
Elevating Your Work with Featured Content
In the world of work, there are projects we might be a part of -- or produce ourselves -- that we’re proud of, and then there are accomplishments that we want to shout from the rooftops. The Featured Content section is the place to do just that. It is where you can elevate articles, websites, posts, or images that you want displayed prominently near the top of your profile.
Adding featured content to your profile will enable viewers to see content right away that might otherwise be buried in your LinkedIn profile. Also, the Featured Content section can -- and should -- be updated regularly to demonstrate the relevance of your skills and experience. This informative guide will walk you through how to populate and get the most value from this section.
Sharing Your Experience Through a Storytelling Lens
The Experience section of your LinkedIn profile is your chance to convey what you were hired to do and what you accomplished through a storytelling lens. This helps LinkedIn users get to know you in a more conversational and personable way.
Similar to choosing your profile photo and banner image, there are some basic do’s and don’ts to consider here:
Do:
Feel free to use “I” statements to explain what you do.
Include 1 to 3 sentences that share the scope of your work and responsibilities.
Detail 2 to 5 key accomplishments that demonstrate your impact with metrics, such as #’s, $’s, and %’s help your impact jump off the screen.
To put this into practice, see below for effective and impactful examples of what to do:
“Grew revenue for five small and medium business clients an average of 10% quarter over quarter by mapping new software features as solutions to their business goals.”
“I led a team of three recruiters to fill open roles across the United States, Europe, and Asia in an average of six weeks or less.
Don’t:
Cut and paste the bullet points from your resume.
Write vaguely, and without context about what you did. For example: “Grew revenue for small and medium business clients.” or “Led a team of recruiters hiring for international positions.”
Showcase featured content that is very outdated or no longer relevant to the type of work you want to do.
As you can see, there are many decisions to make as you build your LinkedIn profile, and you have many options to choose from. What is most important is that the content of your profile highlights not only where you are now, but also where you want to go next in your career. The more time and thought you put into building your profile, the more likely it is to serve you in meaningful ways throughout your career.
….Stay tuned for LinkedIn 101: Building Your Profile, Part II where we’ll unpack the remaining key components of your LinkedIn profile, including: the education, volunteer, skills/endorsements, recommendations, and interests sections.