Drive Your Career -> LinkedIn !

LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps.

Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job seekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs.

That’s a lot of potential contacts!

Members use the site to keep in touch with business associates, clients, and co-workers.

But it can do so much more like to boost your profile, build awareness of your brand, and help you to recruit the right people.

!! Ways to Get the Best From LinkedIn !!

1. Update Your Profile !

Many people forget to keep their LinkedIn profiles updated. Whether you’re a total newbie, just starting a new job, or starting to explore new opportunities, there’s no excuse to have outdated information on LinkedIn. It will reflect badly on you.

Here are two quick and easy areas you must check are up to date:

• Professional Headline: The job of any headline is to entice people to click. At minimum, you can use your headline to highlight your current position and company (e.g., “Director of Inbound Marketing at ABCXYZ Corporation”), but you can and should go further. Highlight your expertise (e.g., “Content Marketing Strategist and Copywriter”) or awards, or showcase skills you want to turn up in searches (e.g., “Speaker, Trainer, Author, Consultant, Evangelist”). Tell everyone on LinkedIn who you are, what you do, and why you’re someone they need to connect with.
• Location and Industry: Are your location and industry still accurate? If not, fix them now!.

2. Only Use Professional Photos

LinkedIn profiles that have a picture are 11 times more likely to be viewed.

So if you’re still showing a silhouette, it’s time to make a change and reveal yourself.

3. Brand Your Profile With a Background Photo

Does your LinkedIn profile look boring and average?

Give your profile page a bit more personality, or branding, with a visually appealing background image.

LinkedIn advises users to use an image (PNG, JPG, or GIF) with a resolution of 1400×425.

4. Write a Ridiculously Good Summary

This is where you really sell yourself to potential connections. Your summary should expand on what appears in your headline, highlighting your specialties, career experience, noteworthy accolades, and thought leadership.

There has been much discussion about whether it’s best to write in first-person versus third-person narrative here. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter either way — just stay consistent with whichever you choose. Don’t go back and forth between first person and third person as it’s confusing and signals a lack of attention to detail.

5. Terminate Those Typos

Poor grammar, typos, and misspellings are a no-no.

Avoid typos at all costs.

6. Use Keywords With Intent

Words are so incredibly important, especially when search is a big part of the equation. Using the right keywords in your profile is the difference between being found and being invisible.

Identify the words you want to be found for when people use LinkedIn search and use those keywords in your headline, summary, and profile. Using the right keywords will expose you to more potential connections and opportunities.

7. Personalize Your LinkedIn Profile URL

When you created your LinkedIn profile, it had some ugly combination of letters, numbers, and backslashes that had no value for your personal branding. You don’t still have this, right?

If you do, it’s time to customize your public profile URL. For example, my customized URL is https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrykim. LinkedIn makes it simple to keep your profile consistent with your other social profiles.

8. Connect With People You Don’t Yet Know

One of the biggest mistakes people make on LinkedIn is failing to reach out to connect with people you want to know but don’t yet. That’s the whole point of networking — getting to know new people, not just established connections.

Building out your LinkedIn network has many benefits. You get in front of influencers. You get more endorsements. More people see your best content, share that content, and visit your website. And it’s great for personal branding.

9. Personalize Invitations to Connect

“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

The default message LinkedIn provides is so dreadfully boring and impersonal.

When you invite someone to connect, make it more personal — mention where you met or a topic you discussed in a LinkedIn group, over email, or during a phone interview. This personal touch will increase the odds they’ll accept your request.

10. Ask for Recommendations

So you haven’t received as many LinkedIn recommendations as you’d like? After all, it takes a bit of time and thought for someone to write a recommendation.

What can you do? Ask for them! LinkedIn makes is super easy, providing an “Ask to be recommended” link, where you can specify what you want to be recommended for, who you want to recommend you, and write a personal message.

Pick specific people. Don’t just randomly ask all your contacts if they can recommend you. Be selective.

Share details in your message to your connection. If there are specific skills you want your contacts to highlight in his or her recommendation, don’t be shy, tell them.

Another way to increase the likelihood that you’ll get a great recommendation: Give a great recommendation to someone you’ve worked with. This increases the odds that your contact will feel obligated to return the favor.