If you are looking for ways to grow your professional network, advance your career, or build a personal brand, having a LinkedIn profile is not just an option but a prerequisite. These days, recruiters search for ideal candidates on LinkedIn. People are also willing to do business and collaborate with people with a strong LinkedIn profile. The platform does not just showcase your career history, it highlights your interests, skills, projects, and references.
LinkedIn is a credible tool to present an individual as a professional. To get leads, it is not enough to create a profile alone, you should work at maintaining it. The wrong LinkedIn profile strategy can cost you job opportunities or even put your career at risk. You can maximise your LinkedIn profile by doing the following:
1. Evaluate your connections
Although LinkedIn is a social media platform, it is for professional networking. It may also be used for personal networking but employers want to see that your connections reflect people in your industry and expertise. If you are using LinkedIn for job searches, having any kind of connection is inappropriate. It is advisable to connect with people of the same caliber.
2. Your profile picture
Indeed a picture speaks more than a thousand words. Mind you, a professional picture and not one flirty or blurry. LinkedIn profiles with professional pictures can get more views. Have you noticed you get to buy clothes because of their visual appeal? This applies to other things. Some people may think it is unnecessary to put a LinkedIn photo, that is not so. People do business with people they trust and your picture can do that.
3. The wrong sub-header
Whenever a recruiter searches on LinkedIn, your name and title of your position come up. Having a vague headline does not capture the essence of your profile. You should have one that is descriptive about your experiences and career e.g. Communications specialist and Public Relations Consultant. Remember that recruiters use search engines to come up with LinkedIn account profiles. Ensure you have the right information appearing with your name to propel the recruiter to contact you.
4. Adjust privacy setting
Perhaps you are currently employed and job searching, so you don’t want your employer and colleagues to know. You can adjust your privacy settings on LinkedIn, your activities like open to job opportunities, making updates to your profile, and other activities as they will appear on your feed. So avoid making your job search efforts obvious to such contacts by adjusting your privacy settings.