What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is largest professional network on the internet and is perfect for job seekers, building relationships, or people wanting to learn skill sets for their career. All LinkedIn profiles are unique based on your experience, skills, and education, like the format of a resume. LinkedIn members can use this platform to connect with a network of professionals, companies, or groups within or beyond their industry. To learn how to get started on LinkedIn, click here.
Choose the Right Profile Picture
Profile pictures are important because it is the first step to building your profile and brand.
Use a recent picture– Make sure your LinkedIn Profile Picture is up to date and reflects how you look daily. A question you could ask yourself is “if someone met me tomorrow, would they be able to identify me from this picture?”
Use a Solo picture– Helpful for candidates to know exactly what you look like.
Use a Simple Background– This will ensure the focus is not taken away from your face.
Use Filters– LinkedIn provides filters to enhance your profile pictures. The Classic and Spotlight filters will make you look more polished and sharper.
Get Someone to Take It For You– Instead of taking a “selfie”, it can be more effective for someone else to take it for you because the rear camera is higher quality and will make it look more natural and comfortable.
Lighting– Natural light while the sun is setting or on an overcast day usually produces the best effect.
For more tips on how to choose the right profile picture, click here.
Verify Your Skills
LinkedIn provides a feature to verify your skills to hiring managers called LinkedIn Skill Assessments. A badge will be displayed on each candidate’s profile after each assessment is complete. Results show that candidates who complete LinkedIn Skill Assessments are 30% more likely to get hired. This is a way to strengthen your personal brand and become more discoverable for opportunities. LinkedIn provides free learning courses if you do not pass the assessment to verify a skill. Once you passed an assessment for a certain skill, LinkedIn will provide relevant job recommendations as soon as they are posted. According to LinkedIn research, 69% of professionals think their skills are more important than college education when job seeking, and 76% wish there was a way for hiring managers to verify for their skills to stand out against other candidates.
Stay Informed
Including statistics in your LinkedIn posts will help you appear more knowledge and informed about your industry. The key is to keep it short for someone to quickly read, while also keeping it interesting and meaningful. Adding eye-catching headlines and different wording will also make your post stand out from others! A few format ideas for statistical content are:
- Articles
- Case Studies
- Branded Infographics
- Videos
Use Engaging Headlines
To reach other individuals and increase engagement on your profile, it is important to use headlines that are captivating and relevant! Headlines should be short, but also creative. Buzzsumo researched 10,000 of the most shared posts published on LinkedIn, the following are some of the interesting insights that were found:
- Use the word “career.” Headlines with this word had an average of 563 shares.
- The word “habits” generated an average of 1,196 shares.
- Incorporate the word “leader” or “leaders” in your headline. This has an average of 483 shares.
- The most shared phrases: The future of… Why you should… You need to… Can learn from.
Be Consistent
As it is easier said than done, it is very important to stay consistent. It does not give off a good impression to post something and then go off the grid for a while. One way to stay consistent is to post on the same days at the same time so your followers know when to look out for your posts. To keep all your posts organized and to stay ahead, it is wise to create a content calendar to build an audience. Repurposing articles or blogs that you have already created is a good tip to not get overwhelmed with planning more than one post in the beginning.
Tell Stories
Sharing stories and personal experiences can lead to meaningful connections or relationships. People seem to like “raw” or realistic stories that they can relate to. This does not include political opinions or anything that could be controversial. An example of this would be a time you may have failed at something but preserved and came out the other side. It is a way inspire and learn from others.
Create Video Content
Since LinkedIn is a more professional platform than most social media sites, it could be assumed that LinkedIn is not a place to post videos or that it is not as popular to do so. However, videos are just as useful in the professional world as anywhere else. In fact, 59% of executives say that if text and video are available on the same topic, they’re more likely to choose video! There are various places to use video on LinkedIn:
- Your profile
- LinkedIn Publisher
- LinkedIn Learning
- Newsfeed Posts
A few topics to go by when producing video content on LinkedIn are:
- Brand Storytelling
- Business Introduction Videos
- Business Events
- FAQs
- Video Case Studies
Teaching Social Media 