At Morton Vardeman & Carlson, we want our clients to succeed both personally and professionally. These days, we recognize that staying on top of the latest social media trends is a must, and making sure your LinkedIn profiles are memorable is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. Business professionals are constantly searching for leads on social networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter, and if your profile or business page isn’t up to par, you might not get the recognition you deserve.
Here are a few ways you can enhance your LinkedIn personal profile:
- Add a profile headline & your industry. This is likely the first thing potential connections will see when they find your profile. Make sure you stand out by adding a detailed headline (consider something like “Real Estate Attorney & Georgia Super Lawyer” instead of “Attorney,” or “Experienced Real Estate Professional – Ready to Sell Your Home!” instead of “Real Estate Agent”). You should also include your industry on your profile – LinkedIn members who include the industry they work in are 15 times more likely to have their profile viewed.
- Update your profile photo. This photo should be high-resolution, and you should be looking directly at the camera. Think about your photo as your first impression on whoever is viewing your profile. If it were your first impression in person, you would want to make eye contact, right? Also important to note – profiles with photos are viewed 14 times more often than those without. Proofread. This probably seems like an obvious tip, but it’s definitely an important one. After you look over your profile, have a friend or colleague take a look at it for errors as well. During this process is also a good time to make sure your profile includes keywords specific to your field. Customize your LinkedIn URL. Unless you have already done this, your current LinkedIn profile URL just consists of a random series of numbers and letters. You can update this by hovering over your profile image in the top right corner and selecting “Privacy & Settings – Manage,” and then selecting “Edit your public profile.” At the top of the right-side column, you will see a section titled “Your Public Profile URL.” Click there and type in your new URL & click “Save.”
- Join LinkedIn Groups. But don’t just join them, actively participate in the group discussions. Not only does it get your profile recognized, it will also lead people back to your business page on LinkedIn, and ultimately to your website. LinkedIn members who are active in groups are, at minimum, 5 times more likely to have their profile viewed. You can search for groups under the “interests” tab in the menu bar at the top of the page.
- Get noticed!
- Make sure to add your LinkedIn custom URL to your email signature. Think about how frequently you communicate through emails – whether it’s with colleagues, clients, potential clients, friends, or family. Each time you send an email, the recipient will have a chance to connect with you on LinkedIn, thus leading to a much larger network of connections.
- Connect your other social media profiles to your LinkedIn account. Twitter has a unique feature that allows you to only share certain posts with your LinkedIn page by using the hashtag #in.
- If you have a personal profile on your company website, add your LinkedIn URL to your contact section. This will allow potential clients to look at your resume and accomplishments in multiple venues, and will give you the opportunity to see who is viewing your profile on LinkedIn. When you notice someone has viewed your profile (LinkedIn sends you notifications about this), you can reach out to those people and ask them to connect!
- Next time you have business cards printed, add your LinkedIn URL with your other contact information.
- Connect, connect, connect! Make sure to connect your email account and other social media accounts with your LinkedIn profile so that you can easily find clients, colleagues and friends. When you do send invitations to other LinkedIn members, make sure to personalize the request. Generally, the invitation to connect reads, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. –Your Name.” Instead, try something like, “I really enjoyed working with you on the John Doe case—I think your organizational skills are top-notch, and I was really impressed with your efforts. I would love to keep in touch with you through LinkedIn. Have a nice day! –Your Name”
- Recommend others, and ask for others to recommend you. Don’t be afraid to ask your favorite clients or customers to write a recommendation for you on your LinkedIn profile. Also, be willing to write recommendations for your colleagues and others you work with. Endorsements from your connections are sometimes more important than what you write about yourself.