8 Simple Steps To Get Your LinkedIn Profile Noticed

Bianca Miller Cole

The pandemic has disrupted everything but with most people working from home I think it might be the perfect opportunity to finally brush up on those LinkedIn profiles. I know, you have been planning to do it for ages but now is a great time to finally sit down and look over your LinkedIn profile and question whether is it good enough. Does it represent your personal brand, does it illustrate the value you bring to your organisation, does it showcase your skillset. Ultimately you want to ensure that your online profile is attractive to potential employers or clients whilst telling a story about yourself and what you can offer. You never know, you might get that dream job or client you have always had your eye on!

Now, I am a massive fan of LinkedIn, so much so that in 2015 I was awarded a Top 10 “Power Profile” out of 20 million members in the U.K. alongside Richard Branson (Yes, I know, I am chuffed too!) so I may be a little biased. But I do believe that LinkedIn is an excellent professional networking site, it ranks beautifully for SEO and it is a great way to connect with others globally.

So why not take advantage of what is available to you at your finger tips?

Believe me, I could talk about profile optimization all day and often I do when I deliver training for my clients, so here are a 8 simple tips to get your LinkedIn profile noticed:

 3.   Don’t make your headline boring

One of the most visible parts of your LinkedIn profile is the headline. This is the first piece of information employers see about you, so you want it to be interesting but also reflect directly who you are as a person.

There are ways for you to be creative including:

-      Include brands, any famous companies you work for or are well known you want to make sure they are added in at the beginning.

-      Adding in the titles of who you are at your current place of work. So, if you are a founder or investor you want to make sure you add these words as they showcase your leadership roles.

-      You also want to highlight your expertise, if you are an expert in a niche area of your job then make sure to highlight it. Another great way to have your profile noticed is for you to include in your headline that you are actively seeking opportunities for a role. An example could be “seeking for a UX/UI internship role.”

To capture that information you could try a series of keywords or a sentence to illustrate who you are. Here is an example of mine:

"Personal Brand Expert |Speaker |Author |Entrepreneur |Forbes 30Under30 |LinkedIn 'Power Profile'​| TV Business Mentor"

Important note: A simple job title isn't often sufficient as it doesn't explain your value or experience and the title may mean different things to different industries.

6.   Be socially active!

Make sure you are active and interact with others on your LinkedIn profiles! You can do this by liking, commenting and sharing other people’s content that appear on your LinkedIn feed. You might also want to consider producing and publishing your own content, on a topic you may be passionate about. You could write an article, create a video or produce a series of images explaining an idea and sharing it with others in your network. This will show potential employers or clients your passion and will also get you more noticed through searches and shares of your work.

8.   Get those recommendations!

Employers (and clients alike) will notice if you have recommendations under each position you have had. This will show you are a valuable asset and will provide evidence that others had a great opinion about you too. You want to ask those that provide recommendations to ensure they are short and informative, saying what you contributed to the workplace, project and the role/s you had.  

These are just a few tips to get you started in getting your LinkedIn profile noticed. Enjoy the experience of creatively putting your profile together as it is a chance to really show who you are and what you can offer to the next job you work at or client your support. Although job opportunities may not be flooding in at this uncertain period of time, it is a fantastic opportunity to tailor profile and build relationships so that when normality resumes you have a kick start!

See all 8 steps and the complete Forbes article

20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile

Jane Fleming

The LinkedIn profile page is the foundation for your personal branding. And we regularly add features to increase its capabilities as a personal marketing platform and give you new ways to signal your skills and motivations. If you haven’t checked your profile page recently, you might well find new ways to build your personal brand.

Here are 20 profile features you should check and update for 2020. Some of them are very quick wins, some of them may take a little bit of time – but all of them are very worthwhile. They will help to give you the LinkedIn profile and personal brand that you deserve.

3. Make your headline more than just a job title

There’s no rule that says the description at the top of your profile page has to be just a job title. Use the headline field to say a bit more about how you see your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you tick. If you’ve got sales reps at your company who are on the ball with social selling, then take a quick look at their profile page headlines for inspiration. They will almost certainly have more than their job titles in there.

4. Turn your summary into your story

The first thing to say about your LinkedIn summary is – make sure you have one! It’s amazing how many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile. Your summary is your chance to tell your own story – so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had. Try to bring to life why those skills matter – and the difference they can make to the people you work with. Don’t be afraid to invest some time, try a few drafts, and run your summary past people you know. This is your most personal piece of content marketing – and it’s worth the effort.

16. Share relevant content from your LinkedIn feed

It’s one thing to have a network of connections on LinkedIn – it’s far better to have an active role in that network, appearing in your connections’ LinkedIn feeds in a way that adds value for them. Sharing relevant content with your network is one of the most accessible ways of doing this. You can make a start by keeping a close eye on your LinkedIn feed, and sharing content that you find genuinely interesting – and that aligns with your point of view.

17. Add comments

Sharing is great – but it’s just the starting point. When you add comments to your shares, you give yourself greater prominence within the feed and start to express why you think a particular piece of content matters. Well-expressed comments also enable you to share a broader range of content. It might be that you don’t agree with a point of view but still find it interesting, for example. A comment that can express that viewpoint starts to establish your opinion and thought-leadership. It’s also more likely to draw additional comments, which then raise your profile across LinkedIn. Bear this mind when you’re writing your comment – and make sure you’re saying something you’re happy for people to associate with you.

Read all 20 steps and the complete article

Six ways to make your LinkedIn company page stand out

Dayna Steele

As business gears back up, search activity is doing the same on LinkedIn as companies look at personal profiles and company pages for hiring, contract work, leads, and more. Don’t wait – this would be a great time to get to work updating and refining your online information.  

Viveka von Rosen, Chief Visibility Officer & Co-founder at Vengreso and LinkedIn author, has six great tips on what companies should be doing right now to update your company presence on LinkedIn. 

ONE: Create a new banner 

Create a banner that speaks to your audience’s points of pain or needs right now! Especially if they have been adversely affected by Covid-19.  Use your banner to let them know you can help solve any issues your clients have due to furloughs, decreased budgets, remote working, Illness, fear, etc.  You can get the dimensions at www.VengresoBanner.com.  Check out what it might look like at www.LinkedIn.com/company/Vengreso. 

TWO: Create relevant content 

Create relevant content on your LinkedIn company page every day.  Stop the heavy-duty sales pitches and job postings.  Find content that is useful to your audience, either your own or curate relevant content from partners or clients. Use the description or “what do you want to talk about” section to describe the asset you are sharing, why they should read it, and what they’ll get out of it.  And, if you are sharing a partner or client’s post, make sure to @Mention the person or company in the post.   

THREE: Employee advocacy 

If you have employees, share the link to the post with them (in an email, or through your employee advocacy tools or a project management tool like Asana, Slack or Teams).  Then they can share it with their networks, which will significantly increase the views on your posts and may get you new followers as well. You will have to be an ADMIN to post the content, but employees don’t need to be an admin to share it. 

** I'm a big fan of number 3 **

See all six ways and the complete Microsoft.com article

LinkedIn’s AI gives job candidates feedback on their interview answers

KYLE WIGGERS@KYLE_L_WIGGERS

LinkedIn announced a new AI-powered feedback tool for people practicing answers to job interview questions. The Microsoft-owned company claims that in early tests, it resulted in a “significant increase” in LinkedIn members rehearsing their answers.

The tool taps into technology Microsoft developed for Presenter Coach, a PowerPoint feature designed to provide guidance with respect to pacing, tone, and attention, and it could be of use to the more than 50% of people who say they lack confidence during interviews. Candidates have reason to be nervous — content agency Come Recommended reports that 33% of interviewers claim they know if they’ll hire someone within the first 90 seconds.

With the new AI practice feature, once LinkedIn members record and upload their answers, they get a detailed assessment of their answer delivery within seconds. This includes a report with metrics like filler words used and their frequency, words per minute, and speed over time, as well as feedback on cadence, profanity, and phrases that might be considered culturally insensitive.

For instance, the LinkedIn tool detects the pace of speech and recommends changes that might help interviewees better understand facts and figures. If a user inserts a disfluency like “um,” “ah,” “like,” “actually,” or “basically” or makes a potentially gender-charged reference like “you guys” or “the best man for the job,” it will recommend alternatives.

“This [new tool] provides an interactive way to practice answers to the most common interview questions in private,” wrote LinkedIn senior director of product Blake Barnes in a blog post. “Interview prep also gives you the ability to request personal feedback on your practice responses from your connections.”

LinkedIn also launched a feature in preview called video introductions, which allows employers to request that candidates submit recordings or written snippets as a part of the hiring process. The aim is to enable hiring managers to assess a would-be employee’s communication skills prior to the first live interview; LinkedIn says that 92% of talent professionals consider soft skills (e.g., people and social skills) equally or more important for hire than hard skills (teachable and measurable abilities).

Read the rest of the VentureBeat article for more information and examples.