Do you have skills and competitive advantages you want others to know about? You want to connect with professionals and companies you have an interest on? In this era of high competition and technology, LinkedIn is undoubtedly one of the best platforms where you can promote yourself.
Fortunately, there is an online course that can guide you from scratch; providing the right tools and tips to make you start with the right foot. Oliver Schinkten, a LinkedIn instructor, consultant, and expert in teaching provides the basic methods for creating a profile, staying active and attracting the intended audience you want to engage with.
Learning LinkedIn will make you go back to your account (if you already have one) and make some adjustments for improvement.
Create a LinkedIn Profile
The first step is to create an account with LinkedIn. You will need to enter your email, come up with a strong password, agree and join. Once LinkedIn welcomes you, it will ask you to fill your personal information; name, region, postal code, whether you are a student and job history.
Make your profile noticeable, directed on your goal, whether it is to find a job, increase your network or promote your business. Don’t forget to be honest, professional, share things that can be of value to others, and be constantly updating your profile regarding your most recent activities using keywords that can be notice on searches.
According to Oliver “members with a profile picture receive over 10 times more views” (Schinkten, 2020).
Your picture will be what people see first, so make sure it looks professional with high quality. Oliver recommends Canva.com as a great tool to help with the picture and a catchy background.
Your headline on the other side, will be what they read. It must tell about who you are and your goals. Make it short, with keywords and most importantly, you should be comfortable on what is written. Have someone you know take a look at it, to see if that person identifies you in those words. You will be able to customize it anytime.
The summary is your opportunity to talk about your skills, accomplishments and your goals with keywords easy to pop up in searches. Take care of the summary and think throughly what you will write. Do not hesitate on adding a video or a document to show some of your work.
As Oliver emphasizes, people will only be able to read the first lines of the summary at glance, for that reason it is important to start with an attention grabber sentence avoiding introducing yourself, work history or talking in third person. It should represent you.
LinkedIn has added a new featured that allows you to expose your best work for others to see. Although you are able to add videos in your summary, this new feature is more complex, allowing you to share articles, links, photos or presentations.
For your profile to be on top, keywords are very important. Your keywords need to be related directly with your purpose.
If you are not sure on what keyword to use, take a look at other profiles, and see what keywords they use.Companies and job searches are also great places to look for examples. Oliver also recommends TagCrowd as a great tool that will show from a group of words, which ones are the most used.
When adding work experience Oliver recommends going back to ten or fifteen years (Schinkten, 2020), as long as it adds value to your profile. Expand with details about what responsibilities, skills and accomplishments you used in those positions to enrich your experience.
As work experience, education is also important and helps you gain attention. A new profile section can be added to include education or accomplishments.
Make a list of your skills, that is, things you are good at, which will be able to showcase in this section of your profile. Having a list of skills will tell others of your capabilities, and it can help you get endoresements.
Having a LinkedIn profile is like an “online resume” (Schinkten, 2020), Oliver suggests taking time every day to refine it. Once your profile is set up, you have control on customizing and choosing who do you want to allow to see it.
Another advice is to automize the URL for your LinkedIn profile. Customizing the URL will allow people to easily identify you. The change can be made on the profile settings under edit URL section.
Build Your LinkedIn Network
As mentioned in the course, LinkedIn is a powerful tool that can help you connect in a more professional way. It is important to understand though, that on LinkedIn, you have to add value to receive value.
When posting, is a good idea to upload a video, a document, or an article. This will translate in increasing your brand. (Schinkten, 2020) Keep your posting professional, reliable and be consistent. Add feedback and answers.
On LinkedIn you can connect with people you know from school, work or who shares your same interests. Keep in mind these contacts should be beneficial to your network.
Oliver suggests to add a note every time you send a request.Introduce yourself and highlight why you are interested in connecting with that person. Asking to connect with a personal note increases the probability of acceptance. (Schinkten, 2020)
Understand how to manage your settings and customize your options with your needs. Once you have a list of connections, you will be able to communicate directly with them through messages.Considering LinkedIn is a professional platform, messages should be short and clear.
On LinkedIn, there is also the option to be a member on different groups with similar affinities, where people can ask questions, share experiences. You can find groups on the search icon or create your own if you feel none of the existing communities have the interests you are looking for.
It is important to remember that you will be able to see suggestions on how to customize and manage your network. Following these suggestions will allow you to identify companies, people or jobs you should connect with.
Using LinkedIn Day-to-Day
LinkedIn does a very good job in determining which posts or news should be included in your newsfeed. Every time you like, comment or share a post, it will flag LinkedIn on topics you are interested to keep you motivated and informed. Additionally, the newsfeed will recommend topics based on your skills and career.
Besides being a great tool to keep you updated with current beneficial information, LinkedIn also allows you to share topics with others, helping improve your image and getting your name out there.
As Oliver suggests, make sure your content is appropriate, reliable and meaningful. (Schinkten, 2020) Publishing articles on LinkedIn is a great way to share your passion, ideas and increase your brand.
Job opportunities are visible in the jobs page. The list of recommendations by LinkedIn are based on your profile, but you can always add a criteria with filters to make your own search.
If applying, you can do it externally- that is that once you click it will take you to the company’s external website, or internally.
Manage Your LinkedIn Account
LinkedIn offers two types of accounts: free and Premium.
With a free account everything discussed in the course can be done perfectly. The Premium account gives additional benefits and features.
If you are not sure if you should add the Premium, you have the option on trying a plan for a month with no charges. The plans are divided based on your goals: career, business or hiring.
By selecting account settings you will be able to see account, privacy, ads and communication tabs.
On the account section is where your email and password appear. On the privacy setting, you have the opportunity of knowing who has seen your profile; with a free account, you are able to see the five most recent views over the past 90 days, and with the Premium account you are able to see all the views over the past 90 days. (Schinkten, 2020)
It also allows you to customize, to control what others can view from your account. And finally, on communications you are able to adjust how you receive communications.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is the best platform to use by any professional or business to promote and engage with others. As your “virtual presentation” you must be constantly active- engaging with others, sharing value information, updating your skills and career. Always remember to be professional and mindful. Take advantage of this awesome space and let others know about you!
To keep learning, Schinkten recommend these courses: LinkedIn Quick Tips and Rock your Profile.
References
Schinkten, O. (2020, June 02). Learning LinkedIn for Students.Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-linkedin-3/next-steps-2
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