How To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile (1)

In an earlier post, I wrote about what LinkedIn Optimization is and why it is important to optimize your LinkedIn profile. In this post, I will be providing you with a brief guide to help you get to work immediately with the optimization of your LinkedIn profile. 

Before you get started with the tasks of optimizing your LinkedIn profile, there are some things I believe you need to take note of as they will help guide your optimization efforts.

Define Your LinkedIn Objectives

The first thing you need to do to effectively optimize your LinkedIn Profile is to clarify you’re the objectives you want to achieve on LinkedIn. Ask yourself the following:

Do I need to be on LinkedIn?

If I need to be on LinkedIn, what do I hope to achieve through LinkedIn?

Can I achieve these using any other means apart from LinkedIn? If yes, do I still need to be on LinkedIn?

Set Your LinkedIn Goals

To ensure you get the right results out of LinkedIn, you must take out time to set goals for yourself on what you want to achieve by using LinkedIn. 

For instance, your goals could be any or all of the following:

Find a job at xxx company or industry through LinkedIn within the next three months.

Find new clients in xxxx country that will pay me xxxxx amount for my xxxx services between now and September.

Connect with industry leaders in xxxx industry and work to get into their network within xxxx months. 

Grow my social media influence by increasing my LinkedIn followership from xxxx to xxxxx within the next 6 months. 

Your LinkedIn Intro

Your optimization journey starts with giving your profile the right intro that will get you noticed. The LinkedIn intro section is made up of the following:

Your Profile and Cover Photo

Your Name

Your headline

Job Title

Education

Location

Industry

Your Profile and Cover Photo 

Choose a good photo as your profile and header picture. Your Photo of choice should be able to send a message across that you’re the kind of person to be taken seriously.

Use a header photo that speaks more about your personality and what you do. You can be creative here but you mustn’t overdo things.

Tip: You can make use of Canva in designing your LinkedIn cover photo. Canva comes with templates and presets that you can easily use to create your cover photo.

Your Name

Ensure you use your official name or the name with which you are identified professionally.

Your Headline

Your headline is found just below your photo and it might interest you to note that your headline appears everywhere your name appears on LinkedIn – searches, comment sections, groups and contact listings. So you must ensure that your headline represents you wherever it appears and can attract people to your profile.

Use Job title

Company Name

Keywords relevant to roles you wish to be contacted for (the Zing Factor)

Highlight relevant interests (only use this when you don’t have much to add in the roles you wish to be contacted for)

Job Title

Here, you have the opportunity to highlight your current job roles or functions at your place of work. If you have no experience in this field, you can add a volunteer experience/engagement you have had.

Education

In this subsection, list the school from which you graduated. Ensure this is the most recent or the institution with the most important qualification.

Location 

Specify your location. This is important as oftentimes recruiters search for their ideal candidates based on location.

Industry

Specify your industry. This is to help you appear in the industry of your choice when searched by people interested in that industry.

Closing Thoughts

The above only contained information on how to optimize the Intro, in the second part of this post, I will continue with the remaining parts and how you can optimize them for desired results.