Making an Impact on LinkedIn

This is the transcript for my recent LinkedIn Audio Event where I talked about the four things you need to update to give your LinkedIn profile a make-over.

Since the episode is almost a half-hour long, here is the TLDR:

Update the following four things on your profile to ensure you are making an impact on LinkedIn:

1?? Banner Image. Have one! Keep the design simple and uncluttered. Or use an image that illustrates your industry or profession.

2?? Headline (or Job Title). Some job titles only make sense to an internal audience - translate it for people to understand. Also, use the space to add a few words about what you do and who you serve.

3?? About Section. Write one! Don't repeat your resume. Instead, talk about the work you actually do and WHY it is important to you. Add a story to explain your values and goals.

4?? Experience. Don't settle on company and job title. Use this section to summarize your duties AND describe your successes and accomplishments. Also, add attachments like photos or examples of your work.

Would you like me to review your profile and give you some feedback? Book a call with me here.

Here is a recording of the event itself:

Good afternoon, and welcome to leadership impact. My name is Matthew Devine.

And today I'd like to talk to you about your LinkedIn profile. In particular, I want to talk about the impact your profile is having, and the four things you can do to make a nice refresh.?

Now for full, full confession, this is my first LinkedIn live audio session. And I welcome your comments and reactions. And I promise if you have any questions, put them in the comments, and I will get to them at the end of the session.?

And also, if this is your first live audio session, then give me a thumbs up. I'd love to hear from you. But before we get to the topic itself, why am I qualified to talk to you about your LinkedIn profile??

First of all, I've been using LinkedIn professionally for years. In my former role as a recruiting manager at Canada's largest utility Hydro One, I created the company's first corporate account using LinkedIn and developed our online recruitment strategy using the platform. And it's safe to say that during that time, I have seen hundreds and hundreds of profiles.?

Now, more recently, in the past year, I've been using LinkedIn pretty much every single day to create content, make connections with people, and grow my coaching and training practice. And during this time, I have created weekly newsletters that have been going on for months, I have published over 100 videos. And over the course of the year, I've grown my engagement by over 2,000%.?

So needless to say, I'm very familiar with LinkedIn. And today, I'm going to share with you that experience and talk to you about your LinkedIn profile.?

It's important to understand LinkedIn is not like any other social media platform.?

Most of the platforms are geared around measuring engagement and promoting posts that have the most engagement. But LinkedIn philosophy is different.?

LinkedIn is focused on the connections between people and the networks that result from those connections. And it means that it's operating more like a fancy networking event than a popularity contest. Now, it's, it's not to say that posts can't go viral on LinkedIn. Of course they do. And there's a whole reason why they do and how that works. And I'll get that to that in a different session.?

But today, I want to focus specifically on why it's important that LinkedIn is different. It's important, because when you create your profile, you are showing up, essentially, at a networking event.?

So I want you to imagine for a moment, imagine walking into an in person networking event, you walk into the room, that's a large room, there's a bunch of people around, they've got their drinks, you know, they're connected together in small groups are talking making connections, it's great.?

And when you're invited to these kinds of in person events, what do you what do you normally do??

Well, free, can I make sure I've got a nice shirt on, I make sure my shoes are okay, I put a comb through my hair, basically, you want to make a good impression. And LinkedIn is basically the same.?

And this is where people start to make mistakes when it comes to their profile.?

If you're on any other social media platform, you could create a shell profile shell account and it's no big deal. You know, you could use a fake name, no problem, you know, profile picture, no problem.?

It's not the same with LinkedIn.?

Whether or not you're active on LinkedIn, and I'm not here to tell you how often you should be on LinkedIn, that's up to you. But your profile is still visible during this time. This means that when colleagues, you know look for you on the platform, they will see your profile. And when recruiters search for you, or they're looking around, they will also see your profile.?

And if your profile is incomplete, or if the information is outdated, or if you're highlighting the wrong things, whether or not you're active or not. Your profile is not having the impression that you want it to have it's possible that you're making a bad impression in fact, and undermining the impact that you want to make.?

What does a an incomplete, outdated, poorly structured profiles say about you??

Well, I like to think that most people know there's a real person behind the profile. We understand that we get that but I want you to go back and?

Think about that in person networking event. If you're at this event and you see someone come to the event and they're wearing sweatpants, and they've got a stain down the front of their shirt, and their hair looks like they've just kind of rolled out of bed and it's a bit wild.?

When you think on a surface level, I think you it's possible, you might think that they were not taking the event too seriously, or that they care to make a good impression.?

Now, I want you to think about that same encounter, but from a recruiters perspective.?

What a recruiter say about that person's attention to detail.?

What do you think that recruiter would think about their career at that person's career aspirations??

And what, what would they think of that person's ability to represent the company and if they're imagining a client, could they imagine that person representing themselves.?

The goal today is to think about your profile, and focus on the thing, the right things that will allow your profile to make a good impression.?

To do that, I am going to talk about four aspects of your profile. First, we're going to look with banner image, and I'll say a bit about your profile image. Second, we're going to talk about your headline to the job description or the job title rather. Third, I'm going to talk about the about section on your profile. And finally, we'll talk about the experience section. And questions I will get to at the end.?

As I said, right at the beginning, this is my first time running an audio session. So bear with me if it takes me a moment to bring up those questions, but I'm gonna get through my content first.?

#1 - Banner Image

The first item you want to look at when giving your profile, a bit of a refresher, making sure you've got the right things is the banner image. This is that blank space that goes along the top of your profile, if you don't have one, you'll need to get one.?

Because when somebody looks at your profile, before they read a single word, they are absorbing the visual elements of your banner, like an advertisement, you know, the colours, the images, or the layout of the elements all communicate an impression about you.?

And there are whole books, you could read whole books on visual marketing techniques and don't but I don't worry about that. You can't if you want to. But don't worry about that here, I'm going to give you some easy shortcuts to ensure you have a great looking better.?

And you don't need to overthink this, you can use an existing template, simply type into Google, LinkedIn banner templates, and you'll be presented with a variety of options.?

And personally, I use a free online program called Canva. It's a graphics editing program. But Canva has the benefit in that they already have pre made LinkedIn banner templates ready to use, you just simply need to download one that you like, different colours, different kinds of lands, they're great. So you can easily find a professional looking banner template, it'll take you like five minutes, and you're good to go.?

If you are a little bit more savvy, and you feel comfortable using programs like Canva, to design your own draw to town, you can create your own banner image great, my recommendation is keep it simple. Don't put any words on it, limit the number of elements you have on it. uncluttered is better than filling it with a whole bunch of junk.?

Another way to think about your image, or your banner is to look at the image that you put on it. You could think of this as a way of expressing something about the industry that you work in, or the particular profession that you do, and use that to inspire the design and the images that you put into your banner image.?

A colleague of mine, she works in the utility business. And as her banner image, she has this gorgeous black and white picture of a transformer station. So it has all the electrical wires and transformers and switching gear and so forth. Very engineering look perfect for her profession. And anyone who looks at that instantly knows, here's an electrical engineer. Great.?

I invite you like think about the industry you're in. And what what are some images that come to mind for your field, like if you're in say mining, for instance, maybe it's a picture of a mine, or maybe it's a landscape that you want include. If you are, hey, I've got colleagues who are in finance, who default to using these really cool architectural shots of corporate head offices as their banner image. So that kind of thing. Think about things that are typical of your industry, your profession, that when somebody is looking at your profile, they instantly recognize oh, here's an engineer, or here's a finance person, or here's somebody who works in health care. Great clearly communicate something about you.?

A couple of things to avoid.?

One is avoid your personal images. And no one cares about your puppies. No one cares about your, your weekend hobbies, or your beach vacation, these should not be appearing on your, your, your banner image. This is still a professional networking event, you focus on the things that are related to your industry or profession that plays much better.?

Also, the banner image is a very narrow field. So you want to be thinking if you're looking at a picture, you want to be thinking about that horizontal dimension, because that's going to be much more applicable than a vertical dimension on an image. So keep thinking this is a very narrow space that you're dealing with. Think about what elements are going to appear in that image. And if you don't like it, you can always change it. There's no hesitations there.

#2 - Headline (Job Title)

The second thing you want to think about on your LinkedIn profile that you want to make sure that is it same, what you want it to say, is the headline.?

The headline, some people call it the job title, but the headline is the set of text that's immediately below your name on the LinkedIn profile. Typically, LinkedIn defaults to the job title of your most recent or your current job as the headline, it will automatically do that for you. Most people have that setup.?

This piece of text is probably the most viewed bit of text aside from your name. Because it shows up everywhere on LinkedIn. If you make a comment, if you post a piece of information on LinkedIn, that piece of text will show up at the top of every single post you make. So it's very visible and something that can't be seen.?

Now, if you have your job title, they're great. Most people do most of the time, that's fine.?

The thing that's a challenge is that some job titles may not be overly descriptive. And you want to think about what an outside audience think about that job title doesn't make sense to an outside audience. It may make sense to you, you may understand what it means. And the people inside your current organization may understand what it means and understand where it fits into the organizational structure and so forth.?

But take a moment to consider what does that job title mean to an outside on it somebody who doesn't know you??

For instance, if you were to tell your mother your job title, would your mother understand that? Maybe she wouldn't. But I use that as an example, pick a family member who may not know anything about your industry, would they get that job title, or for that matter, like you know, imagine going down to a coffee shop and you talk to the barista? Would your barista understand if you told them what job you did, maybe fine.?

Again, it may be fine if it's a recognizable job title in your industry. But there's an opportunity here to do more. In your headline, you have about 200 characters you can play with to expand here. And if you have an unusual job title, it's okay to put something different in that place, your job title will still appear in the experience section below on your LinkedIn profile. So that's still fine, that doesn't change.?

But in the headline, you have the opportunity to communicate something that the audience will understand. Now, this could be translating it into a recognizable title. For instance, if you have a senior specialist of engineering something or other, maybe an external title might be manager of engineering, or director, it's okay to translate that.?

Alternatively, you could use this as an opportunity to communicate a statement. For instance, you could describe the kind of work you do or the kind of people you serve, for example, you know, engineering director saving the planet, one wind mill wind turbine at a time. I'm using that as an example, I have a background in the power industry. So I'm gonna be pulling up a lot of engineering samples.?

Think about using it as an opportunity to describe the kind of work that you do and maybe a value that you serve, and that when somebody looks at your profile that's going to pop out. Of course, they can always scroll down your profile and looked at the actual job description that you currently have no problem there. You're not trying to communicate anything inaccurate. But it's an opportunity to say something a little bit more personal and a little bit more descriptive.?

Is this helpful? Would you like to speak with me directly to get feedback on your profile? Click here to book a call with me!

#3 - About Section

All right, number three, the about section. the about section, you know, comes down a little bit further down your profiles, but it's ahead of your experiences. And this section predictably is a section where you can write about yourself itself.?

Now there's two mistakes that people make.?

One is that people leave this blank, they don't use it at all, too.?

Or they just treat it like a biography or just another way of describing their resume. the about section is not your resume, the rest of your profile, the rest of the LinkedIn profile will do the heavy lifting of that, all your experience sections, any projects that you've worked on any awards that you've gained any qualifications that you've earned, all of that has its own section on your LinkedIn profile, let the profile do the heavy lifting for you.?

You don't need to repeat it in the about section.?

You can, but there's an opportunity to do something more. Instead, think about who do you serve? And how do you serve them? And what kind of work do you do as a profession? What kind of impact do you have? Talk about why you do what you do? Why did you choose to be an engineer? Why did you choose to be a healthcare professional? Is there a story that goes behind this??

I have a colleague who completely changed her career aspirations, because one of her family members was diagnosed with cancer, and she realized I need to do something more meaningful with my life. And so she went into cancer research. That's a great story.?

Is there a story that describes why you have chosen what you do??

You can also use the about section to talk about your vision. What do you want to have happen? Are you trying to reduce poverty in the world? Are you trying to help us transition to a carbon free economy, whatever it happens to be? Is there a vision that you have, is there a purpose that's driving you forward in this work, you can use the about section to talk about that. Tell us a story that inspires us about your mission.?

This can be your about section, it will help your profile stand out, because a recruiter going through your profile, they're going to read the whole thing. But this is going to give you character this is going to give dimension to your profile in a way that our resume would never be able to do.?

One other detail before I move on to the final section. Write this in the first person, which is I did this, I achieved this, I want to do this I'm the reason for me doing this is this story, tell it as a first person story. This is not the 1980s. Don't tell it in third person as in “Matthew is this person who does these things.”?

That's a completely outdated format. Do it right in the first person.?

#4 - Experience Section

Alright, final section, your experience section. This is where you list your job experiences.?

For most people, it's easy, you just add in your most recent job experience, LinkedIn will automatically calculate how long you've worked in the job. Easy peasy. No problem there.?

The mistake that most people may or often make is that they only list the job title, and no description.?

And you're leaving so much on the table.?

When you do this, it means that when people are scrolling through, they only see the job title, which again, like I said before, might not make sense to an external audience.?

This is an opportunity to expand on this section. And there's a lot of space here.?

When you expand on it, you have the opportunity to certainly add you know, your key accountabilities??

What are the aspects of the job, the scope of the work, the the number of clients who work on the geographic area that you're accountable for, you can add all that stuff in here, great, do that, that helps add detail. Lovely, do that.?

And this is also a place to promote yourself.?

If you had a success here, tell us about it.?

You reduced safety incidents by 10%. Great increased efficiency by a certain amount. Great, you sold X number of products and raise profits by so much amount. Great. Add it here, insert the accomplishment, add it into your experience section. anything notable you did you if you were on a notable project, or if you were able to contribute something interesting, I added in here as well.?

This is your place to gush.?

You add all your successes into your experience session. This is where you do it. Tell us how awesome you are. Now, if you're not sure and you haven't built up the confidence you have to say okay, did I really achieve anything here? If you're not sure about accomplishments, then talk about the things that interest you the most?

What were the projects that really inspired you??

What were the things that you did that you were excited about, you're glad you had a chance to experience great added in here. These are interesting details that add character and flavour to your profile.?

And one other thing, and this thing, almost nobody does. And I recommend you do this, add attachments.?

In the experience section on LinkedIn, you have the ability to add attachments. And this allows other people to learn more about you. You can attach PDFs, you can attach Word documents, you can attach pictures, drawings, or any of that sort of stuff, you can add it here into your LinkedIn experience section, examples of your work things that you're proud of, maybe there's an award you got or certification, you can add it in here, there, there's a dedicated, dedicated section for awards. But if there's something you were proud of added here, and pictures, if you have pictures of the work that you've done, maybe you've been on a job site somewhere you have a team photo with everybody, or you’re celebrating a win. And you have a picture of that, add the picture here.?

So few people even think to do this or know that it's even possible, you can add it here. Photos really stand out in your experience section.?

Summary

In summary, we've gone through four different things that you can improve on your LinkedIn profile:

Banner image, have one first off, keep it simple and professional. If you can use an industry related or professional related image,?

Two, Headline or your job title. Your job title is probably fine. But if there's any thing that might be confusing about it, this is an opportunity to do something more descriptive or translate it to an external audience.?

Three, the about section, have one. And remember, this is not a biography or repeating your resume, this is a chance to expand on what you do, why you do it, who you serve. And if you can tell a story. Great. That's amazing. Oh, one more note about the about section, you only have to about 2100 characters to work with, which isn't a lot. It's about a page worth of text if you're typing it out. So keep that in mind. You can't remember, you're not gonna be able to read volumes here. But you can write a bunch.?

And finally, number four is the experience section. This is more than just simply the job title. Add a few details in there, but focus on your accomplishments and add some attachments.?

If you are interested in having me take a look at your profile and give you some feedback. Or if you've updated your profile and you also want some feedback, send me a message, send me a message on LinkedIn, we can connect, I'd be happy to take a look and give you my thoughts.?(Click here to book a call with me)

Like I said, I've looked at literally hundreds of profiles over my course as a recruitment manager, but also professionally since I've been actively using LinkedIn over this past year. So send me a message if you'd like me to take a look your profile.?

And that wraps up my content for today. Thank you for showing up and participating. My name is Matthew Devine and I look forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn. Have a great afternoon.