LinkedIn has achieved some stunning growth in the recent times. With 135 million professionals now having a profile on the social networking site, it's high time you did all the right moves to attract your potential employer or a business partner. How can you carry out these moves? Well here are the things that you need to focus on -
Profile Picture
The profile picture should be inviting but not informal. It should be professionally done and must have a clear, solo image of yours. This is the first thing that falls in the eyes of a visitor and so you need to focus on this!
Professional Headline
This is placed right beside your image and acts as a sort of headline for your profile. This means that not only do you score some SEO brownie points but you help the visitor understand your specialties in a couple of words.
Location and Industry
Gone are the days when the location didn't matter. Google now wants you to make sure that the location is properly given in order to aid searchability. So, be very specific about the area and the industry. This also helps LinkedIn suggest you the right groups!
Other Relevant Information
Your job title as well as the past job title will help Search Engine find your profile whenever someone types in the job profile. You can even get some link-back to your blog and website, from the profile itself.
The best part about this is that it lets you put in your Twitter id which you can later do a host of other stuff with!
Profile Summary
Another way to earn some quality SEO points is by providing the right kind of summary. This gives the visitor(and the search engine) ample idea on what you do and the skills that you have.
Let lose your creativity but treat this space like your own personal advertisement. And you know what they say about advertisements - the shorter and sharper, the better.
Recommendations
Write recommendations and ask for them from your current and past colleagues. This normally is a sort of victory lap and the more you earn them from your colleagues, the better will it be for your profile.
Recommendations substantiate the claims made by you in your profile summary as they are from others. However, you need to be careful to display recommendations from only those who hold a lot of ground. For example, a recommendation from your boss will work more than a colleague from some other department.
Linking Twitter
Social media has only one disadvantage - it sucks you in. So, with the right kind of tools, wouldn't it be nice if you could sync your professional tweets on your LinkedIn profile? Well, now you can!
If you don't want the hassle of a different account, you can sync the tweets with a #in hashtag. Only tweets with this hashtag will show up. Just think about the possibilities!
Take Away
Join groups, comment on them and meet new people and make sure that you meet those within the industry. You will definitely enhance your circle of influence!
Let's connect on LinkedIn! Cheers!
