How To Optimize Your LinkedIn Account

Whether you’re a small business owner or a large employer of labor, or you are a personal brand or a job seeker, a LinkedIn account is your ticket to greatness. Lol, greatness, literally. recruiters and employers now view potential employees on LinkedIn. Especially well-optimized LinkedIn accounts. It is the new social networking for business. It’s the digital CV, the mecca of branding and marketing. It’s where you should be if you are not. It begs the question, do you know how to optimize your LinkedIn account?

Optimizing a LinkedIn account is very necessary if you are going to take advantage of all the goodness that the site has to offer. A LinkedIn account is not a regular Facebook account or a Tinder account, and so there are some things you should not do. Like writing your profile name as “Mhiz dharmeelola badt girl Barbie”. Yes, it’s funny, but it’s not. We are going to guide you through the process of correctly optimizing your LinkedIn account. We will utilize everything you didn’t think was important. Read on!

Your Profile Picture

Very important! Do not use butt shots, full-body shots, stick-out-your-tongue shots or any other corny shots. It is not your Instagram page. Rather, use a headshot or a portrait. Make sure it’s a recent photograph and you’re wearing proper clothes. Smile too. Your eyes should smile too. You want your picture to say “hey, look at me. I’m what you need.”

Your Background Photo

A well-optimized account has a good background photo. Not many LinkedIn users have this, so be among the select few by jumping on this train. This photo should say something about your brand or your business. It is basically going to be spread across your profile header and it’s the first thing viewers will see. So, pick something that spreads the message of your brand or business.

 The Headline

Headlines are more than job titles. Headlines should tell the viewer why you do what you do, or why you are starting your brand. A good headline will also outline the important details first. And it is very specific. This specificity is a very important feature of LinkedIn optimization.

 Your Summary

While you may be pushing for a well-worded summary of your achievements, avoid buzzwords. Words like “certified”, “expert”, “experienced”, “strategic”, and “specialized” are overused and so, they are becoming almost meaningless. Avoid them. Your summary should be as personal as you can get without becoming sappy and unprofessional. Your summary should tell why your skills matter and how you have used these skills to impact your little corner of the society.

Read also: eleven habits of successful people

Meeting People

Oh, before you do this, you should :

List your relevant skills and sell your services. Yeah, this is pretty important. The people you want to reach out to need to know what you have got to offer them. And what you have got to offer has to be pretty relevant to them or to someone they may know. So, do that and see your connections grow. Yeah, that’s what they call friend requests on LinkedIn.

Getting endorsements and requesting recommendations

Now, this may seem quite egotistical, but it isn’t. It’s just like having someone who is really respected in a given industry drop in a word for you at the recruiters’. It’s a great way to get yourself out there, without it feeling like you’re trying too hard. But remember, endorsements must come from people you have worked with and you find really valuable. And when you are requesting recommendations, make sure that they are personalized.

Skills Assessment

LinkedIn has a number of tools that you can use to assess your competence level. They include tools like Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Google Analytics, and a lot of others. If you pass the skill assessment test, you get a badge, which you can display on your page, if you want. This is LinkedIn optimization people!

LinkedIn Learning

Follow LinkedIn learning. It is really important that you do so. LinkedIn Learning offers you the opportunity to take classes in various subject areas and earn a certificate. Isn’t that interesting? And they also offer a free period. So hurry and grab it now!

Your Industry

Say, you are interested in social journalism, you’d naturally be interested in everything journalism and activism and social work. This would also be reflected in your headline, summary, skills, and services. In addition to this, following relevant influencers in your industry will really help in optimizing your LinkedIn account. And it’s also a good way to gain more connections, win-win for everybody, right?

In addition to all of these mentioned above, optimizing your LinkedIn account also demands that you share relevant content from your feed, and make comments on posts that you find relevant to your business or brand. It also demands that you add content to your wall. And when you are adding content to your wall, be sure that it is relevant to you, relevant to your potential connections, and will establish you as a passionate thought leader. Also, get to know how LinkedIn works by staying active every day.

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so all your LinkedIn expectations won’t happen in a day. It takes patience, consistency, and lots of data, hehe! Have fun while you’re at it. Optimize away!