LinkedIn All-Star Status Rocks

LinkedIn is king in growing and nurturing your network. With over 546 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is the go to destination for professionals to network, build business relationships, find talent, and search for job opportunities.

Below is my profile, your profile status is hidden to you and will be displayed on your dashboard.

How to Obtain an All-Star LinkedIn Profile

I’ve broken down each key point when aiming for All Start status.

Profile Picture

Although the statistic of profiles with a picture are 14 times more likely to be viewed, this statistic does not mention that profiles with professional pictures are more likely to be viewed. Not just any picture will do.

Your photo should be current showing you in a relaxed, inviting, professional manner. This means no bathroom selfies, Facebook fun pictures, pets, kids, families or group photos.

There are exceptions to every rule and if your business is all about dogs, having a puppy in your photo may just be the ticket for you – as long as it matches with your profile headline.

Captivate the Reader with a Strong Headline

You have a limit of 120 characters for your headline. Many people make the mistake of just writing their job title in their headline, despite there being a 120 character count. To help you reach all-star Linkedin profile status and capture attention, utilise all 120 characters by including your areas of expertise too, which will also help you to show up in people searches.

Think about this as a very short introduction, you want to be known for more than just your title and company, right? Add keywords and phrases here that represent you and the value you provide.

Experience

The more positions you list on your Linkedin profile, the more likely you are to be found in search results and you’ll need at least three job descriptions to achieve all-star Linkedin profile status., all completed with supporting information. In other words, simply listing two previous positions is not enough. Use experience section to build your story of where you have been and how it is getting you to where you are going. List the value you provided, who you served, how you served them and the difference you made while there.

You have the parameters of 200 minimum characters in the experience summary and a maximum of 2,000. You do not need to use all 2,000 characters – a short paragraph will do; accompanied with a couple of supporting bullet points is even better.

Skills

For All-Star status, you must have at least five skills listed. You can add up to 50 skills, but let’s not get carried away. If you do not have a skills section click Skills section under profile summary at the top of your profile. You may need to click View More to find this section

Summary

Your summary is your introduction to you. This is your opportunity to speak to your audience directly, in a one-on-one conversation. It should be an expansion of your headline and incorporate your style, strengths, specialties, experience. Remember, this is a conversation, not a script.

You have 2,000 characters to play with so make them count. It is not necessary to use them all as long as you tell your story the way you want the reader to understand it.

I’ve included a screenshot of the start of my summary below:

Industry & Location

These two areas simply tell readers where you are located and in what industry you operate. When editing your profile, click the edit button next to these fields. Enter your country and zip code then enter your industry. To finish, click Save.

Education

Simply add your education in this section. It is not necessary to put graduation dates. The additional benefit of adding education is it gives you an opportunity to connect to fellow school attendees and alumni – you have a built in connection!

Connections

For All-Star status, you need at least 50 connections. Start by connecting with professional contacts you know. Use the search feature to search companies you worked for to find former or current employees on LinkedIn. Do the same for the schools listed in your education section.

BONUS TIP: Keep Content Fresh

Once you reach all-star Linkedin profile status, you’ll want to stay there! One way of doing this is to keep your Linkedin profile content fresh and show Linkedin you’re actively using the platform. Posting regular LinkedIn updates can help to keep your profile fresh and posting blogs on Linkedin Pulse is another good option to keep your profile fresh, whilst demonstrating your sector expertise to your network and general Pulse readers.

If you would like our team to help you get off the starting blocks, simply send me a message now directly on LinkedIn.