Making the Most of Your First Month on LinkedIn

Hello, connections. Hope you've had a happy & productive day.

Alright so, being new here, with the thought of stimulating my profile, interacting with you all and to keep my writing flow in check (:P), I decided to curate a few articles every now and then, and, on a personal and a relatable level, couldn't think of a more suitable topic than this for my very first piece.

Since most of you are veterans, you are encouraged to add any missed out point which was successfully devised and utilised by you during your initial days here.

Does an impressive LinkedIn profile matter? Absolutely yes. (probably more than our resumes)

From looking for an internship or freelance work to cracking your dream job or switching careers, a strong LinkedIn presence is an extremely vital part. This page is almost your professional image and subject to be judged by potential clients, recruiters and business partners.

Apart from stalking your ex-partners and leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT to build the perfect summaries, here are some key takeaways which need to be executed in the right manner in order to strengthen your presence here, like:

• Setting up your account

Apart from fine-tuning the settings, privacy & the visibility section to tailor to your personal preferences, a stand-out profile picture with a complimentary banner image showcasing your professional front is the first impression you make while reaching out to potential connections. So, choosing a professional yet intriguing picture, and making it public, goes a long way in garnering traction.

Moving on to filling details, adding a pinch of salt to the headline and summary, while being careful about it, shall make your profile stand out among the millions out there. The sole aim of this is to make your first impressions and to be less boring and monotonous to the viewer's eyes. This should be a careful activity and holds the potential to backfire if overused and/or used incorrectly.

For instance, 'focused' and 'extrovert' are okayish terms for a heading but these are 'buzzwords; which have been overly used in every other profile. Even though they are boring, they still are a lot better and acceptable than their synonyms like 'intense' and 'uninhibited'.

Alternatively, with a little research, one can come up with replacement words like 'fixated' and 'exuberant' to have a feel-good and a professional impression to the viewer's eyes.

Secondly, use as many numbers as possible. Be it years of experience, or number of project completions, digits always speak for themselves.

Additionally, include and blend search keywords in your heading and professional summary to be seen in search results and potential recruiters' proposals. Being one of the most effective methods, SEO keywords should be blended evenly throughout the profile and should not be overused.

• Elevating your game

After having set up your profile by putting the right keywords at the right places and the most winning profile picture, the real game changing deal start after. As discussed earlier, numbers speak for the themselves and the immediate goal for newbie is to reach that 500+ connections which appears a little tricky, given the weekly connection outreach limit by LinkedIn.

However, there are always ways, right? Adopt these strategies and climb to that 500+ mark in just a few weeks:

1. Exhausting your weekly limit with personalised message requests. Connection requests with a message attached have 69% more chances of getting noticed and accepted, especially by people you don't know directly.
2. Joining groups and following remarkable profiles within or outside your niche, and being alive in the comments sections.
3. Syncronizing your contacts list, searching up the alumni of your school and college and co-workers of your current and previous company/organisation, and sending them connection requests have 69% more chances to be accepted, even by the people you don't know directly.

• Embellishing

At last, there's a lot other important paraphernalia you can manage in order to get that boost and stick your feet in there. Remember, the key here is keeping a professional wholeness, aura and synchronicity throughout.

Filling out the Licences & Certificates, Skills & Endorsements section and getting recommendations from past or current bosses creates a great sense of authenticity and adds a new layer of personal touch to your profile.

Focus on your industry, join related groups and discussions, answer questions and spread genuine likes and shares. It's free and yet the ultimate dopamine hit for creators and underdogs as well.

Proofread your entire profile once a while and keep updating with recent achievements and accolades once a couple months. (AI tools like GPT can be leveraged here)

One of the most common misconceptions people have is that having a great profile is enough. A remarkable profile with little to no activity gets comparatively lesser visibility and traction than an average looking but active profile.

Developing a LinkedIn addiction and regularly liking, sharing relatable content and more importantly, posting original content related to your niche and creating a profile theme based on your profession and personality supercharges your profile like anything.

Keep networking and keep growing. Small steps matter. Ciao.