Getting Started on LinkedIn

Getting Started on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one the the best business platforms available. It is a great place to establish yourself as an expert in your field, to grow your influence, to improve your employee branding, and most importantly, to attract clients or headhunters and recruiters from the top employers in your industry.

If you are simply looking at your LinkedIn account as just another social networking site like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, then you are most likely missing out on some great opportunities for yourself and/or your business.

Here are my top three tips to help you start getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile.

Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

This is all the information you need to complete your LinkedIn Profile:

– Profile photo*, Location and Industry

– Education

– Experience

– Current work position / job title

– Past positions

– Skills

– A few connections

Simple, right?

Well, apparently not.

Yes, you read that right, “half.”

So go ahead and fill-out those simple details and you just got ahead of the game. Of course, don’t stop there. Find time to fill-out the rest of the sections too, like certifications, volunteering experience, projects and a lot more.

* Please use a professional looking profile photo. Sure, some tech geniuses have very informal photos but you are not one of them yet, so let’s keep it safe for now.

Fill Summary with the Right Content

The Summary Section is one of the most important sections on your LinkedIn Profile and it must be filled with the right information.

By this, I do not just mean the right details about your experience. It is also not simply writing in an interesting way. By right content, I am really talking about the right keywords. No matter how beautifully written your Summary is, it will not matter if the relevant people cannot find your profile in their searches.

So, yes, be as eloquent as you want to be, but make sure that you also use the keywords that is relevant to your industry.

Create Content

Touch screen devices (mobile phones and tablets) has encouraged society to be good at consuming content and information. There’s nothing wrong with this per se. However, a wise man once told me that, if you want to stand out you want to be one of those few sharing your valuable and interesting content.

Now, I am not suggesting that you need to become a blogger to stand out. However, it would be good for you to publish something every couple of weeks.

Yes, I meant to say *something* instead of article because there are different types of content that you can create and share:

• Your own article. Tough to do if you are not a natural writer but the best as far as building credibility as an expert.
• Sharing a link to an article. It helps to include your own thoughts and insights from the article.
• A favourite quote on a relevant topic.
• Comment on articles shared by others on your network, especially influencers.

Time To Get Started

I hope this helped you get started with your LinkedIn profile and in finding that best company that will be a perfect fit for you.

Stay tuned as I will be sharing more tips in future articles.

by Ryan Salvanera 06/02/2018