Winning a LinkedIn Power Profile - How I (think) I did it...

Being British, I’m always mildly embarrassed at the prospect of any accolade (not that they come often), and this was certainly the case on Tuesday this week when I was invited to LinkedIn UK’s London HQ to receive an award as a UK Power Profile in HR for 2015.

What is a ‘LinkedIn Power Profile’ I hear you ask. I must admit that I was wondering that too as Google for once did not provide all the answers. It seemed that Power Profiles had only been awarded previously to LinkedIn members in India and Australia. Perhaps these prizes were restricted to LinkedIn members in cricket playing nations only?

As it transpires, LinkedIn Power Profiles have been awarded to UK professionals who were most viewed on LinkedIn in 2015 and who are using the platform to best effect. The awards covered six categories: Leaders (including ‘proper’ powerful individuals like Sir Richard Branson, James Caan and some bloke called David Cameron), Finance, Technology, Marketing & Advertising, Students and good old HR with 10 recipients per category – see here for more detail and the winners in each category.

The UK Power Profile winners celebrate at LinkedIn's London HQ

The ceremony coincided with LinkedIn announcing a pretty notable milestone themselves in the UK. They now have 20 million members in the UK – that’s nearly 60% of the UK’s working and student population. LinkedIn has no intention of stopping there either – their vision is to create opportunity for every single member of the global workforce. A lofty goal maybe, but hey what’s wrong with aiming high?

Like many of the fellow winners I spoke to I was a bit bemused by the whole affair and for the life of me couldn’t quite understand how I had made the cut. My beloved wife Sara provided the first clue commenting on my arrival home that it was obviously because I spend an inordinate amount of time on LinkedIn. I confess there is probably a heavy dose of truth in that.

However, having given the matter some thought I’ve come up with six tips that may help others attain the ‘Power Profile’ moniker:

1. Write your own content

The number of views my profile received rose significantly when I started writing blogs on LinkedIn Pulse. I was fortunate enough to be one of the first users able to use this application and over the last two years have posted close to 40 blogs. As well as being something I enjoy, writing on Pulse (and other HR blogs like HR Tech World and ERE) has enabled people to find me who otherwise wouldn’t have known I existed. Consequently, it has been of huge benefit to me from a business perspective. Any tips to 'beat' the LinkedIn Pulse algorithm will be gratefully received!

2. Share and curate content

Similarly, I am an active user of the ‘Share an update’ feature. I’m not suggesting this is the only way, but my tips here are:

• Be selective – I only share content that resonates with me and I believe is of relevance to my connections and followers
• Less is more – Don’t deluge people with content, I post a maximum of five updates per day
• Timing can be everything – I’ve experimented widely as to when I post an update, and have found that early mornings, lunch and early evenings seem to generate the most success. When considering when to post please remember that LinkedIn is a global platform and your connections are likely to be spread across the world.
• Add your point of view – It shows your personality, tends to provoke more interest and discussion, and helps you align your updates with what you do.

3. Be passionate about what you do

Part of my ‘success’ is likely down to the fact that I work in what I believe is the most exciting part of HR – the burgeoning people analytics space. I passionately believe that the future of HR will be underpinned by data and analytics. Analytics is reasonably new to HR and adoption levels are not high, which means that people are curious to learn more. LinkedIn is a great platform to broaden your knowledge and if you are passionate about what you do and share that fact then you are likely to attract inquisitive LinkedIn members to your profile.

"Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing" - Hunter S Thompson

4. Grow the number of relevant connections you have

As the infamous showman and serial hoaxer P.T Barnum is reputed to have remarked, ‘nothing draws a crowd like a crowd’, and that is certainly the case when it comes to increasing your profile views on LinkedIn. I accept and request connections with relevant people in my industry, whilst the articles I write and curate mean that a number of people have chosen to ‘follow’ me – which I am naturally very grateful for. I find the ‘People You May Know’ feature useful and as the number of connections increases, so does the number of shares, comments, views and connection requests.

5. Regularly update your profile with interesting content

Think of your LinkedIn profile as more than your online resume – it is your window to the business world. Make your profile standout and update it regularly. Use the functionality on offer to add links, video, detail your achievements and describe what you do and are passionate about, and remember a little bit of humour is absolutely fine. I know from analysing the number of views that follow an update that not only do more people flock to your profile, but the number of career and business opportunities significantly rise.

6. Give back

LinkedIn is not about taking – like any form of networking what you give back is far more important. I try and help others whenever possible – whether they are looking for help with their career, want some advice or by simply sharing or liking LinkedIn articles and updates from my connections. The benefits of helping people may not give immediate benefit to you, but invariably it does pay off in the long run. In my view giving back is also decent, ethical and makes you feel better about yourself, so where’s the harm?

Thank you LinkedIn

LinkedIn has its detractors and occasionally the criticism it gets is justified – no one (and no company) is perfect after all. Nevertheless, I am happy to admit that LinkedIn and especially Pulse has helped my career, enabled me to build a profile as an influencer in the people analytics space and expanded my network. As such, I am a big advocate of LinkedIn and probably like many of its users, can’t imagine a world without it. My thanks to everyone at LinkedIn UK for this recognition and for hosting me at your splendid London HQ this week – keep up the good work!

A big well done…

…to my fellow winners especially those in the HR category many of whom have been a personal inspiration to me: in no particular order congratulations to Jennifer Candee, Johnny Campbell, Matt Buckland, Ruthie Penfold, Hung Lee, Joe Burridge, Margaret Buj, Casey Amend and Michelle Flynn - I am humbled to be in such great company.

Last but not least...

A huge thank you to my connections and followers. Without you, none of this would have been possible.

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About the Author

David is a respected influencer and commentator on the burgeoning topic of HR analytics and was recognised as Best Writer at the 2015 HR Tech Writers’ Awards. His role as Global Director, People Analytics Solutions at IBM enables him to work with clients applying an analytical and insight led approach to their talent strategies and people decisions. David also speaks at industry events and chairs conferences. He has been confirmed as co-chair of Tucana’s People Analytics Conference in April, is a member of the HR Tech World Blog Squad and is a judge for the 2016 Workforce Analytics Excellence Awards. Please feel free to follow David on LinkedIn and Twitter, read his blogs on HR Tech World, ERE and LinkedIn, or contact him by email.