What is a LinkedIn Profile?
Discover how your profile can benefit the business and your career.
If you have this itching feeling where you are not fully sure what LinkedIn actually is about and why your business needs it, then delve into these articles first before reading this further (trust me, it will help you to understand a lot more!)
Link to 14 reasons businesses need LinkedIn
This is one of the most comprehensive articles that you will be able to find on in regards to a LinkedIn profile. You got it, – everything you need/want to know about a LinkedIn profile is here.
What is a LinkedIn Profile?
Think of your LinkedIn profile as your expanded business card cross pollinated with your elevator pitch with a drizzle of key facts from your employment and professional achievements, pampered by endorsements from your peers.
How is that for an introduction?!
From your time on LinkedIn, do you think it sounds about right?
Until right now you might have not thought much about your own LinkedIn profile. Let’s face it, this is how many people get to know you and yes, judge you (yes, don’t looked so shocked, you’ve done it, I have done it, the guy sitting next to you on the bus has even done it).
The best news – and advice – that I can give you, is you can always improve.
If you want to know if your profile stacks up against best practice, you can discover a quiz here.
What are LinkedIn Profiles Used For?
User profiles are a huge component of almost every social media, including LinkedIn.
Is there anything that makes LinkedIn profile different?
LinkedIn profiles are used to showcase your professional experience, accomplishments, appreciation from peers and clients, and more.
Did you know that depending on a users’ privacy settings, their profile information might be visible only to their current connections, or it might be visible to anybody?
A LinkedIn profile shares numerous similarities with other social networking profiles, like a Facebook profile for example, -with its design and information areas enhanced to include more content associated to a user’s professional skills, accomplishments and interests.
A more conventional outlook on a LinkedIn profile is looking at it as though it is a virtual resume.
Other people look at them to learn about where you currently work, where you’ve worked in the past, where you went to school, what your skills are and other facts about your profession (which will generally come from sharing posts and articles).
When in business, your LinkedIn profile can be used to assess you and your company as a potential vendor. Imagine the damage your outdated profile could do to your business?
Frankly, if you don’t maintain your profile, you may as well delete it all together rather than confuse those who are looking at your profile.
And just as you might expect, LinkedIn profiles can even be used to make an application for jobs.
How to Add Content to Your LinkedIn Profile
Once you’ve registered on LinkedIn you can start filling out your profile.
LinkedIn offers a walk-through of getting the main parts of your profile set up if you’re brand-new to the platform.
You can access your profile whenever to view or modify it by selecting ‘Me’ at the top of LinkedIn.com followed by selecting ‘View Profile’.
On the LinkedIn mobile app, tap your profile image icon in the top left, followed by ‘View Profile’.
Your profile will be shown in a layout comparable to how it’s shown when made public to your connections and the public, nevertheless, you’ll see numerous editable choices across your profile.
Just to make it fun for you there are DIFFERENT icons offering editing possibilities.
Take note of these icons:
- The pencil: Selecting this allows you to modify the area by changing, deleting or adding content.
- The list: This appears when you hover your cursor over some area (on LinkedIn.com only) and enables you to drag and drop them to reorder them.
- The plus sign: This permits you to include brand-new blocks of material to your profile.
And on top of that to conserve time from having to scroll down your whole profile, you can add new material to your profile by picking the blue “Add Profile” area button on LinkedIn.com straight below your profile photo.
It will display a dropdown list of all the main sections and subsections of content you can add.
Now that you know where to find the button that will allow you to edit, lets deep dive in each of Profile sections, so that it will be easier for you to fill them in.
LinkedIn Profile Sections
You can share as much or as little info about your expert life on your LinkedIn profile as you desire.
Some individuals keep their profiles basic while others make the most of all the areas and fill out whatever they can. Keep in mind that by sharing information about what you currently do can be really beneficial for those who are reading your profile that are interested in going into business.
The sections you can have in your LinkedIn profile consist of:
- Intro: Edit this section by selecting the pencil icon in the leading right of your profile, to the right of the profile image and underneath the header photo.
- Profile picture
- Header photo
- First & Last name
- Headline: This is the first thing (after your name!) LinkedIn generically makes this your job title and company.
- Current position
- Education: This doesn’t have to be tertiary. It can also be your apprenticeship or diploma. Basically anything that contributed to your education in your industry.
- Region/Country
- ZIP/Post code
- Industry
- Contact information (Profile URL, Email, WhatsApp number)
- Summary/ About Section: This is a great spot to really tell people what it is you and your company do. It can feature a call to action, your email, or more about who you are as a professional.
- Featured: Share information such as articles, web links, testimonials with imagery etc. to showcase what you have done.
- Background
- Work experience (Past and Present): This is similar to your CV. You share your knowledge and expertise’s in each of the roles.
- Volunteer experience
- Add up to 50 private skills: (Examples consist of Social Media Marketing, Research, Public Relations, Writing, and so on): This is your chance to really narrow down your skills and share. Once you’ve shared your skills, people can endorse your skills that you’ve chosen. This is like a personal reference.
- Achievements: This is your time to shine! Share different aspects of your career (see the 8 points below), where you can add the achievements to show your success.
- Publications: This could be any articles, books, or reports that you have written.
- Certifications: Any extra qualifications you’ve gained: think first aid certificates, or any industry specific certificates.
- Patents
- Courses
- Projects: This could be projects that you have worked on; if you’re a builder it could be a home, a marketer it could be a campaign that went viral etc.
- Honours & Awards: Have you been to an awards ceremony and won? Or maybe you were nominated. This is a great place to showcase your awards.
- Test Scores: This may not be relevant to you if you are well into your career. However, if you are a graduate or at university, it could be good idea to share your grades.
- Languages: If you speak more than one language – share it loud and proud!
- Organisations: This can be industry specific, or if you were a Girl Guide. The organisations we are a part of, can help share information about us.
- Additional Information
- Recommendations: You can get recommendations from others (voluntarily or you can request them!) and you can give them to your connections. Think of them like personal testimonials.
After you finish your profile, we strongly recommend to explore how it stacks up against best practice it by taking our LinkedIn Profile Quiz.
Can You Limit Who Can View Your Profile?
Yes, is the simple answer.
To limit your profile information from being viewable to just anyone, you can configure your personal privacy settings in just few simple steps:
- Click on your photo in the menu bar Me > Settings and Privacy.
- Next to Edit your public profile, select ‘Change’. You’ll be shown a sneak peek of how your profile is shown to the general public.
- Explore the alternatives in the righthand column to customise which areas you wish to conceal from the public.
If you do not want any public visibility, you can turn the blue “Your Profile’s Public Exposure” button to Off.
While you totally can do it, we question why? After all part of the reason you join any network is to make new connections and to allow people to find you.
The Benefits of Having a LinkedIn Profile.
Even if you don’t intend on investing lots of time on LinkedIn, if you have put the effort into establishing a profile, it is a whole lot better than not having one at all.
Here are just a few fantastic advantages you can expect from having a LinkedIn profile for a few different opinions.
When you own a business, your LinkedIn profile allows you to:
- Update business and professional connections you already have,
- Claim your space as an authority in your industry,
- Be found for your expertise by prospective clients,
- Find new staff members by posting jobs on LinkedIn,
- Find prospects so that you can grow your business,
- Do targeted market research and PR,
- Connect with others from a professional development view point,
- Understand the job market for your industry,
- Claim your authority and expertise so that you become a known expert in the field,
As a marketer or a sales professional, it’s becoming common place to be part of LinkedIn to:
- Conduct market research,
- Gauge feedback,
- Do lead generation,
- Promote your products and services,
- Do PR,
- Advertise,
- Showcase products & services you promote and sell,
As an employee, you want to keep your profile in order so that:
- When you are employed it becomes an Instant Resume for Applying to Jobs. Of course, it’s only valuable when it is current. Explore how current your profile is with our Quiz here
- Generating a CV
If you put effort into building up your LinkedIn Profile, you are able to generate a PDF version of your LinkedIn CV. This will include your skill set, background summary, contact information etc.
- Passive Exposure to Other Professionals.
- Other professionals (including employers aiming to employ) may discover your profile through searches or through their connections. They may reach out to you with a great chance if they like what they see on your profile.
- A Networking Opportunity.
- Having a LinkedIn profile can assist you in networking with the best types of specialists. Viewers can skim your profile and decide within a few seconds whether you’re an excellent match to network with.
- A Place to Feature Media, Links and Recommendations.
- Standard resumes typically don’t surpass composed words, however with a LinkedIn profile, you can upload appropriate media files (such as files, videos or images) and link to URLs on the web for each position listing you put under your Experience area.
On top of that, you can also supercharge your credibility by asking for recommendations from associates you’ve worked with and are connected to on LinkedIn. These will look like composed statements of endorsements in addition to the name, profile picture and profile link of the individual who gave it.
Did you join LinkedIn to Generate Leads? But now you are not sure about it because nothing seems to work?
So did many other people on LinkedIn.
I’m not sure what you are doing to get leads on LinkedIn. And maybe you have engaged one of many Lead Gen agencies from some overseas. Or maybe you used it for couple of days, got nothing and walked away disappointed.
Here are three truthful facts, that might have escaped you:
FACT 1.
Even when you do nothing, a prospective buyer may come across your LinkedIn profile and can reject the idea of reaching out to you even when recommended, because of poor outlook of your LinkedIn profile.
Right now, do you feel like this has some truth to it?
Fortunately, this can be corrected. Start by taking our Quiz and then reach out for help when needed.
FACT 2.
All known networking rules apply, ie you get proportionally to what you give. If you do not participate on LinkedIn ( you don’t share ideas, comment, or celebrate with others) they won’t come to you. So, when you think what can you do to make LinkedIn work for you, think again from a networking perspective.
Maybe you hate networking. Then the great news is LinkedIn is all digital, so you don’t have to dress up, go somewhere and see people you don’t want to see. That’s a plus, right?
FACT 3.
When in business, to become successful on LinkedIn you have to brutally honest and understand the value and the position of LinkedIn in your sales process. Yes! In the diagram called your sales process you need to have a space for LinkedIn, along with before and after actions.
Do you or do you not understand the place of LinkedIn in your sales process?
It’s a very clear place for every business.
This is not a place where sales transaction happens – that is the reason why your sales people are not closing sales on LinkedIn. Because it’s not designed for that.
Do you need a hand to understand the correct place of LinkedIn in YOUR sales process?
Do you need a hand to integrate LinkedIn in YOUR sales process?
If your answer is yes to either or both of the above, reach out directly to me [email protected] now to discover how LinkedIn can bring profitable outcomes for your company too.
In Conclusion
This article offers in depth information about what, why and how when it comes to LinkedIn profile. The remaining question is Who?
Who will do it for you?
LinkedIn and our team believe you can do it yourself because everything is there for you.
At the same time we know you are busy, unsure and may be even not motivated to even brings your LinkedIn profile to where it needs to be.
Do you need a hand?
How about our Done For You option?
Either way, let me invite you to a place where you can learn more and choose a solution that makes the most sense for you, from teaching you how to doing it all for you. Our NZ passed professionals are ready to re-set your LinkedIn profile to the level it deserves, including:
- Becoming your expanded business card
- Delivering your elevator speech
- Claiming your authority with key facts from your employment and professional achievements
- Giving you credit your deserve with endorsements from your peers
Interested to see how this can be done for you?
Reach out to us here and experience the difference of professional marketing approach applied to your LinkedIn profile.
Assia Salikhova
Co-Creator of Smarketing Lab and other profitable B2B solutions to grow your business.
Find out how well your LinkedIn profile stands by using our Quiz and ask for help when need it. Because the #teamtalent at Smarketing Lab is on standby ready to help you gain the full benefit from LinkedIn for your business.