I found this infographic on the Linkedin Blog, yet it was an infographic hosted on Slideshare done by LinkHumans.com. hmmmm. Let’s use it anyway.
It’s ten tips to make your Linkedin Profile rock. One of them is total and complete BS, and they missed 6 others. Scroll down to see what really matters.
One of the biggest issues with an infographic is they are usually long. This slideshare version has a scrollbar along the side so while you can view the entire image, it doesn’t take up much vertical real estate. That’s a great thing if you wanted to scroll down to leave a comment, eh? (hint)
10 Tips for the Perfect LinkedIn Profile from LinkedIn
Here’s a break down of their 10 tips (I’ll use my profile ‘as is’ for examples)
1. Sell yourself – your headline should be catchy.
Score! Or at least I hope that’s catchy enough. Maybe I should make it “Supreme Builder of Engagement” instead?
2. Add the industry you work in to your profile.
Score! Sort of. ‘Marketing and Advertising’ will have to do because there’s not a ‘Web Development’ in their drop down. Why not Linkedin?
3. Publishing posts is a great way to get noticed.
Clarification Time. When they say ‘posts’ they don’t mean sharing things like this post, written on this blog (which I’ll do). What they are referring to is writing long format posts on the linkedin site itself. I wrote about the danger of this feature in “The Importance of OWNING Home Base“.
Score! Well, I wrote 1 post. It was about the danger of getting sucked in by numbers when it comes to writing. Click on the picture to read it. I’m surprised it didn’t get me banned from Linkedin.
It’s a great idea to write on Linkedin but don’t put all your eggs into that basket. Write original stuff, when you have time and continue to write on the place you own the content (your self hosted WordPress Website).
4. Be sure to include keywords (in your summary) so you’ll be found in searches.
Score! My summary section is written as if William Shakespeare came back as an SEO Wizard and stuff’d the text with more keywords than Hamlet had skeletons. Matter of fact – I doust strongly dislike my summary and shall be changing it in a fortnight, nay perhaps even sooner.
5. Don’t just say it – display it.
Nope! Although I have two items there, a short video and my Resume as a .pdf. Both suck. This is something I really need to change as well.
6. Be precise – don’t be afraid to use detail.
I’ll give me a 1/2 point on this one. I guess it’s ok but could be a bunch better, eh?
7. You can reorder skills, place the more important ones at the top.
Ruh Roh… Here comes my pet peeve! Skills and Expertise is the most useless item on Linkedin. Seriously. With a click you could add hundreds of new skills to my profile. For the record – some of these might be applicable but then again I’ve NEVER sold real estate. How in the world could anyone think I might have any expertise in Short Sales, Residential Homes, Investments and don’t even get me started on NASCAR. NASCAR?!?
The problem is that it takes just one click to add skills or expertise to someone’s profile. There’s absolutely no thought or meaning behind this. Just a bunch of click, click, click. I wrote about this when it first launched, “Linkedin Endorsement or Linkedin Recommendation?“
The good news is that you can moderate what ‘skills’ show on your profile, so I did. I narrowed it down to just five and guess what 11 people did? That’s right. click, click, click 🙁
8. Join relevant groups, these will be visible on your profile.
Bingo! I’ve always said these were important. I love Groups on Linkedin when they are on topic. Most are just depositories for spamholes. The groups I show happen to also be ones I want to be seen in. No Justin Bieber Fan Club Groups for me. Don’t laugh. There are currently 25 Bieber Groups on Linkedin.
9. Volunteering can be just as important as work experience.
FAIL. For me anyway. I do show a few but when it comes to volunteering I tend to keep that on the down low.
10. Be specific about your education, it will get noticed.
FAIL again. Formal education is not my strong suit. I loved school, had a thirst for learning but the parental units didn’t help like I wish they could have. Two years of Community College is all I ‘legally’ show. I would have loved to have gone to CAL but it wasn’t in the cards. I agree with them, add your education.
What they forgot:
- Use a recent picture of yourself. One that looks like you. You know what I mean.
- Make sure your current place of ‘work’ is a link to your Linkedin Company Page (no matter how small your company is).
- Get a Linkedin Vanity URL (like https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemueller).
- Use all three links and use anchor text for each (for better SEO).
- Add your contact info to the top of the Summary so that EVERYONE can get a hold of you.
- Write a real Recommendation (not a one click endorsement) and you’ll get a real Recommendation back! (I promise)
Good thing slideshare made that tall infographic small or you never would have read down this far. Am I right?
I scored a 5 1/2 out of 9 – how’d you do?
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet
VP of Happiness at AreWeConnected.com
A former professional hand model, Mike builds Custom WordPress Websites that rock!
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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