How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile & Make It Stand Out (Plus 10 great LinkedIn profiles!)

Do you have a bare-bones LinkedIn profile, or do you have a well-branded LinkedIn profile that makes you stand out? This is an important question because over 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn as the platform to search for talent!  

That is why now is the time for you to optimize your LinkedIn profile for visibility and stand out from the crowd. Get found by recruiters by following these tips and strategies because, as a former seasoned Recruiter turned Career Coach & Job Search Expert, I have seen millions of LinkedIn profiles and know what attracts and convinces recruiters the most. 

The main thing to think about when it comes to your LinkedIn profile is to first think like a recruiter. How would they search for talent? Typically, when recruiters get the job description of the profile they need a search for, they'll break it down into the type of profiles that they want to find. 

Usually, they'll map out all the key job titles that they'll search for, and then map out all the relevant keywords in that functional area they have. From there, they narrow it down by location and industry.

So, how will you be able to get their attention? 

Here are 12 Tips on How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile & Make It Stand Out (Plus lots of examples!)

1) Make Sure to Optimize Your Complete Profile

Studies show that you are 40 times more likely to get found and receive opportunities when you have a complete and optimized profile. So, what this means is that at the very bare minimum, you want to have a profile picture, an indication of your location, an updated current position with description, two past positions, your education, at least three minimal skills and have at least 50 connections. After this, you'll want to optimize your entire profile with relevant keywords. Sprinkle these relevant keywords throughout your profile to increase your rankings at the front of the page when recruiters search for your profile there.

2) Get a Great Professional Profile Picture

This is the first impression that you're going to give, so even if you don't find a photographer to get the photo done these days, you can just use your iPhone to capture a really good photo. Find someone to help you take it. The goal here is to have a picture that feels authentic, professional, warm, inviting, friendly, and sharp with confidence. That's what you want to convey. 

Avoid unclear photos or photos that would be difficult for recruiters to identify you in the picture. A prime example would be group photos or couple photos. These don't really come across as professional. Other types of photos you should avoid are those where you're not looking at the camera or a photo that looks like your graduation picture years ago. Avoid wearing sunglasses in your profile picture.

You are 14x more likely to get found and receive opportunities with a professional profile picture.

Here are some examples of great profile pictures:

 3) Have a Customized Background Image

I would say this is highly under-utilized. A lot of people know about this but are not making use of it well. You can customize your image to anything that you want. It could be your initials, your value prop statement, or you could include your contact information or link to your website. Whatever it is that you would use, it should be creative and interesting to make yourself stand out.

Here are some examples of great background images that highlights their personal brand:

4) Have a Catchy, Relevant, and Optimized Headline

Your headline is the first thing that people see, and the first thing that recruiters get when they screen through the search results, so you want to have a headline that catches people's attention. This is because if you don't do anything about it, it will, by default, be your most recent job title. 

To optimize your headline, start with including the title that you are targeting or in. Second, you want to use relevant keywords in your area. The third is your value prop statement or an impact statement to help people really understand your unique differentiator. Make it interesting and highlight those you think are important.

Here are some great examples:

For more examples, check out my most popular blog post on my website on How to Create a Compelling LinkedIn Tagline (Headline).

Now, keep in mind, there is also a character limit, but there's a way that you can get around this. This is to update your headline in the LinkedIn mobile app that currently doesn't have any character limit.

5) Have an Authentic and Optimized About Summary

This is what I call the premium real estate space where you can write anything to captivate the attention of the reader. Most people either don't write anything or just have a brief sentence. This is a loss for them because there are various things you can include in your summary. 

My recommendation is to tell a paragraph of your story, who you are, what you're passionate about, and what you care about. Next is your top three unique selling points, or your top three core area expertise or competencies. From there, elaborate a little bit more and explain what it means. Give some stories or examples. Lastly, you can add in key areas of your expertise using bullet points. Add in some relevant keywords. So, this is going to help you with your search rankings. And then, in the end, you can invite people to connect with you and give out your contact information. Thus, if you want to stand out, you need to give some context on what you do and what you've accomplished so far.

Here are some really solid examples of authentic, pesonalized and compelling summaries for inspiration and ideas. Click on the image to check out their profiles further.

6) Don't Forget to Optimize Your Job Titles

Now, this may seem simple, but sometimes in different industries or different companies, job titles may vary. So, if your job title is not a common one, you may want to add a bracket or add another job title that is its equivalent. For example, I recently came across someone's profile of a client success coach. You can say that it's equivalent would be a Client Success Manager or an Account Manager. You should bracket those job titles to help with your visibility and search rankings.

7) Ensure that Your Experience Details Section is Optimized 

This is also a free space that you could use to elaborate further on what you can do. I recommend having a paragraph and publishing three lines max, which depicts the overall scope of your work. These include your core job responsibilities and duties. To stand out, add three to five bullet points of your key highlights. This could be your core accomplishments and key results of how you added value to your company. If you can think about tangible results that you can share, those will also help catch attention.

Here are some great examples:

8) Optimize your Skills Section for Better Search Rankings

You can have up to 50 skills that you can identify to put up on your profile. LinkedIn also allows you to pin at least three skills. So these are the top ones that you want to highlight and the relevant keywords you want to add. My recommendation is to identify the functional key skills or hard skills that recruiters would search for. Avoid the soft skills. For example, if you're a Product Manager, some of the key functional skills are Product Management, User Experience, Data Analysis.

9) Have Strong Endorsements and Recommendations

This is in connection with your skills section. What are the core skills that you wanna be endorsed and recommended for? That's why it is best to get at least three to five recommendations from your former colleagues, your boss, and people who work with you, your clients, and more. You need to get those testimonials because it will help increase your credibility and be seen as a high performer with high potential.

10) Write Articles to Share Your Expertise

This is the section where you can manage to share your story, thoughts, key trends, opportunities, or challenges in the area you work in. This will also give off the impression that you have great knowledge and expertise in your area. You can write three to five articles. That's already a great start. It will give people an idea of your communication skills, writing skills, and critical thinking skills, which are all critical skills when it comes to evaluating whether someone is fit to be a candidate.

Here's a great example of how a Content Marketer & Strategists showcases her expertise through publishing articles. Click the Featured section to view her articles.

11) Utilize the Feature Section

This one is relatively new, and not a lot of people know about it. You can find it right below the Summary section. This is a fantastic opportunity to stand out because it offers a lot of options for you. For instance, you can insert a link to a video showcasing who you are or link it to past posts or articles that you've written on LinkedIn. Perhaps you can even include awards certifications or your portfolio. This is an innovative way of making your online resume amazing and unique.

12) Be Active on LinkedIn 

After completing and optimizing your profile, make sure that you are also active on LinkedIn to increase your marketability, searchability and visibility. Every time you click a like or when you comment or share that gets featured or showcased in your networks feed. This will mean that you will be at the top of people's minds in your network. This will create a lot of opportunities for you, and you'll find it helpful.  

Here's a great example of how Max Chan started creating content daily on LinkedIn since May 2020, where he grew his network (followers) by more than 5x in about 4 months and got new opportunities.

Take all of these tips and strategies into consideration, and you'll find that your LinkedIn profile is better than ever. You also need to remember that everything in your profile from the about summary to the feature section is consistent. Each part should be backing up what you are trying to claim. In this way, you'll be building a harmonious and concise case of why you are an excellent fit for the particular role that you are targeting.

Hopefully, this has been helpful to you. If you want more of these kinds of articles and information, make sure to check out my website at https://mymarketability.com/! 

I'd love to see your transformed LinkedIn profile! Feel free to message me when it's complete!

If you want a video version of these LinkedIn tips, check out these videos:

#personalbranding #contentmarketing #linkedin #linkedintips #linkedinprofile #careers #jobsearch

____________________________________

Is this your first time reading one of my articles? Awesome! I hope you enjoyed it! If we're not connected on LinkedIn yet, follow me or send me an invite to connect.

I'm Diana YK Chan. I'm a former Recruiter turned Speaker, Trainer and Career Coach at My Marketability. I help ambitious leaders and executives, like you, design the next chapter of your life and navigate transformational changes in your career by redefining what success means to you, unleashing your talents, and differentiating your unique brand value.

I've delivered speaking and training engagements to thousands of people and I've coached hundreds of clients 1-on-1 globally, from new grads to C-level, representing diverse industries and professions to change careers, land incredible opportunities, and increase their income significantly. My mission is to empower you to own your greatness with confidence so that you do amazing things and make a remarkable impact in this world.

Want to elevate your brand and advance your career? I invite you to visit https://mymarketability.com/ and subscribe to my list to receive exclusive career and job-search advice that I only share in email. You can opt-in to receive my 10-day job search mastery challenge.