Professional Documents
Culture Documents
to the
For Emmaline
Special Introduction
In April of 2014, it occurred to me that I been making quite a few
modifications and customizations to my LinkedIn profile. Id been using
LinkedIn since August 14, 2007, and throughout that time Id been using
LinkedIn less and less for job seeking, and m ore and more for connecting
with peers, colleagues and potential prospects for my business services.
Which meant that the way I was using LinkedIn was somewhat contrary to
how the standard LinkedIn profile is designed.
You see, normally, one of the most im portant aspects of your LinkedIn profile
is your Experience and your Education. Thats because potential employees
are very interested in where youve worked and where you went to school.
But I realized that most of my connections werent interested in whe re I went
to school. They were interested in what I could do for them, what problems I
could solve, and I needed my profile to do a better job communicating that.
So I began to take note of the various changes and updates and
customizations Id been making, like rearranging my LinkedIn profile sections
to better highlight my skills and expertize, and deemphasize things like
where I went to school. And as I went through all of these changes, the list
grew rather extensive. I think I had over a dozen recommen dations when I
got the point of being ready to start writing.
The initial article ended up at around 4500 words with the original 19
recommendations as seen in the infographic I created to complement the
post. Since then Ive added a few more sections, beg un to compile tips from
LinkedIn experts I trust, and have spent time improving the overall style,
formatting and readability of the article. The result is a resource thats been
met with incredible feedback and interest. I hope you get good use out of thi s
expanded digital format.
Mike Allton, Feb. 2015
To edit, simply mouse over elements of your profile and c lick on the pencil
icon that appears to the right of each section to edit it. Edits will be saved as
soon as you click out of each profile field. Your profile essentially is always
in edit mode.
Note that the LinkedIn for iOS app supports making edits to your profile,
while the LinkedIn for iPad app does not. If you want to make changes to
your LinkedIn profile while using your iPad, you'll need to log into LinkedIn
using either Safari or Chrome on your iPad. You can then edit the various
fields, though i would still recommend doing so from desktop. It's faster,
easier, and you can't upload images from your iPad if needed. Throughout
the rest of this guide, I will assume you're editing your profile via desktop.
We will cover:
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So, given the overall membership profile of LinkedIn, and the incredible
opportunities to be seen and to prospect, I think you'll agree it's time to start
improving that LinkedIn Profile of yours.
Jot these down in Evernote or someplace handy, and refer back to them
throughout the following recommendations, each time you have an
opportunity to talk about you and your business. While you want to
write everything with your profile viewers and prospects in mind, it is a good
idea to make an effort to work in keywords when possible.
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Sorry it's a bit squished, since the live graphic is quite wide. This is how one
of your connections will view your cover photo. You can use the "View Profile
As" button to see how your profile looks (but you'll need to ignore an overlay
bar that appears below the black menu bar). Or, if you have someone else
nearby who can look at your LinkedIn profile logged in as themselves, that
works better.
Note the following challenging aspects of creating a LinkedIn Cover Photo:
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1. The black "Home" menu renders on top of your cover photo, cutting off
the top slice of your graphic (approximately 25 pixels).
2. Your profile image and current details ren der above the center of your
graphic (975 x 175).
3. The bottom slice of your graphic is cut off (approximately 25 pixels).
4. A next profile widget appears in the lower right quadrant, suggesting
other similar profiles viewed or the next profile in your search (150 x
150).
5. Left and Right portions may be hidden depending on the
width/resolution of the viewer's browser.
The result is a cover photo graphic that will have the majority of the graphic
hidden from view. Plus, when you are viewing it within your own pro file, the
overlays are displayed differently suggesting that your cover photo graphic
needs to be edited. Here's what mine looks like to me:
As you can see, my profile and contact area is larger and now covers the title
of my second book, while the next connection widget is missing entirely. So,
it's important when crafting your LinkedIn Cover Photo that you ignore how it
looks to you and concentrate on how it looks to your connections and
potential connections.
While I had been very happy with how my cover photo looked on other social
networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), I was not happy at all with the result
on LinkedIn. Even though I'd created it specifically for LinkedIn, due to the
size of the graphic, the image I'd used looked pixelated, was cut of f, and the
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text I'd wanted displayed was mostly hidden. So I created an entirely new set
of cover photos in Canva, with the goal in mind of having a LinkedIn cover
photo that did a better job of communicating something about me.
Here's what the new graphic looks like on it's own:
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This will simply provide you with a blank canvas on which to place whatever
visual elements you wish. A few recommendations:
Remember that the top 25 pixels will be cut off, as well as the bottom
175 within the center, leaving you about 175 - 200 pixels of space to
work with. With the left and right sides fluctuating due to the screen,
and potentially covered with a widget, concentrate any text within this
space.
Consider using graphics elements instead of a picture. W ith Canva,
you can upload any images you like, and in fact that was the route I
took with all my cover photos last year - using a picture of radio
telescopes to convey the idea of communication. But nearly every
image you might choose to use is going to be severely limited in this
instance. Instead, consider the use of colors, textures and shapes, or a
picture which doesn't have specific items in it that will be cut off.
Adjust the zoom within Canva to work or view your work accordingly.
When you start, your graphic will be zoomed out so that you can view
the entire thing, but with such large dimensions, you'll want to zoom in
to have an easier time working with individual elements, so keep that in
mind.
Like any professional graphic, make sure that your LinkedIn cover
photo, and all of your cover photos, use consistent colors, fonts and
elements for great branding and a wonderful overall look. The fonts
also do not have to be too large. The main text (book titles) on my
LinkedIn cover photo graphic are just 24 pt.
If you can have a set of cover photos professionally created for you, I highly
recommend it. A graphic designer will find it much easier to work with the
peculiarities of LinkedIn's cover photo implementation, as well as offer
tremendous visual and branding recommendations. But, if that's just not in
the budget, Canva offers a great alternative. (In case you're curious, I do all
of my personal profile cover photos, but my business cover photos
for Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even LinkedIn were all professionally
designed.)
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While you're editing the information in your header, be sure to check your
location. If you're providing services to a specific geographic area, this is a
critical component. When entering my own zip code, LinkedIn gives me the
option choosing my local city or the great er metro area, which worked better
for me.
And finally, give careful consideration to your Industry. This will appear to
the right of your location at the top of your profile, and give viewers a quick
indication of what kind of business you have. LinkedIn actually suggests that
adding your industry will bring your profile 15x more views!
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To the right of the View Profile As button, click on the down arrow to reveal
an additional options menu and click on Create profile in another language .
You can choose from several dozen languages, with more being added
regularly.
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When you add additional languages, all you've done is create a template for
your profile with much of the same information duplicated. What
you don't have is an automatic translation. Once you've added one or more
language templates, you'll need to create or obtain accurate translations of
your Summary and other fields, and enter them accordingly.
To add translated text to one of your alternate language profiles, simply
select that profile from the drop-down selector and then edit as normal. Only
that version of your profile will be changed. New sections or aspects of major
sections, like Experience or Projects, have to be added to the primary profile
first. They will then be automatically copied to all secondary profiles.
PRO TIP: If you have an international audience, consider each
language / demographic carefully. If your scope of services or products
is different for, say, Italy, you can use your Italian profile to reflect
those differences and say something completely different in your
Summary.
While I have not yet had time to secure accurate translations, I intend to
offer complete Spanish, French and Italian versions of my profile. What
languages might make sense for you?
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Under your Summary, you can add up to 10 Media entries, which will be
displayed in a layered brick fashion. I strongly recommend selecting your
best, most appropriate blog posts and videos and link them here. Only the
first five will be displayed initially, so prioritize your media links and make
your first two the most important two.
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specific services or key landing pages. I chose to link to The Social Media
Hat's About Page, as well as our key services page.
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so I put it in my top ten to get it more attention. It will soon be in the 99+
listings like many other skills.
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Having these skills serves two important purposes. First, they are additional
uses of the keywords we talked about earlier. Your skills should reflect the
topics and expertise that potential clients are looking for. Second, many
potential clients will see this li st and if you've done a good job of optimizing
skills and getting endorsements, this section will help reaffirm what you were
talking about in the previous Background section.
So before we move on, let me touch on an obvious question many of you
may have at this point, "how do I get more endorsements?" I don't ever
recommend asking for endorsements. Either you're asking people you don't
know and that's awkward, or you're asking people you do know and whom
you've worked with, and that seems a waste. If I've worked for you and done
a good job, I'm better served by asking for a recommendation, which I'll get
to in a moment. Instead, focus on giving endorsements. Each time you view
someone's profile, LinkedIn will suggest a few endorsements, and as long as
they seem appropriate, go ahead and endorse them. Then, LinkedIn will
bring up four of your other connections and recommend skills to endorse
them for, do those too. Each time you endorse someone else, they'll get a
notification that you did that for them, and be prompted to endorse you for a
skill in return.
Do you see the beauty of this system? Not only are you being nice to other
people and encouraging more endorsements for yourself, you're also
regularly "dripping" on your other connections in a very unobtrusive yet
valuable way.
So as soon as you've finished optimizing your own skills, go endorse a bunch
of your connections. Make that a party of your daily LinkedIn routine (which
we'll expand on in a moment).
(That said, if you think I've shown particular expertise with LinkedIn as a
result of this or other posts, please do feel free to visit my LinkedIn
profile, scroll down within the Skills & Endorsements section, and give me a
happy endorsement for "LinkedIn" by clicking the + button to the right of that
skill. Thanks!)
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Summary
Skills & Endorsements
Publications
Certifications
Projects
Additional Info
Volunteer Experience & Causes
Organizations
Experience
Education
Courses
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You might also be using a few sections that I'm not: Languages, Honors &
Awards, Test Scores or Patents. If those apply, make sure you use them and
place them accordingly.
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I wouldn't recommend listing every single one of your guest articles here
just a nice sample to show a prospect that you've been published elsewhere,
beyond your own website. 4 - 6 entries in this section seems like a
reasonable number. But of course there are always exceptions. Just like the
one-page resume rule can be broken by someone with an exceptional
history, if you've been published in a dozen incredible places, or have an
extensive library of books that you've authored, list 'em.
The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect LinkedIn Profile
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So just like with your own blog, make sure that you're regularly sharing great
new posts directly on LinkedIn.
If you don't yet have access to this feature, just wait. LinkedIn is gradually
rolling it out to all members.
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Along the same lines, think about whether or not you're embedding your
LinkedIn profile anywhere. Most people aren't, or if they are, they're only
using the LinkedIn Badge as a static image. But LinkedIn does offer a widget
that displays a portion of your profile, much like Google+ and Facebook, so
keep that in mind. If you're embedding that widget anyplace within your
website, double-check it as well for both functionality and appearance.
By the way, if you're interested in displaying your own profile widget or any
of the other available LinkedIn widgets, they're available on the LinkedIn
Plugins page.
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Endorse Others
Review Recent Profile Views
Share Evergreen Content
Share Curated Content
Comment on Group Posts
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audience and mention that person so they know you appreciated what they
shred.
A lot of this activity can be done via mobile, so make sure you have the
mobile LinkedIn app installed for either iOS or Android.
Here's a quick infograph to help you remember all of these tips:
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If you take the time up front to make your LinkedIn profile as good as it can
be, and then follow up with these kinds of regular ac tivities, you'll see your
number of connections rising, your engagement with others improving, the
traffic to your website from LinkedIn increasing, and your number of leads
and sales as a result of LinkedIn going up.
Once you've made some or all of these changes and improvements to your
LinkedIn profile, be sure to review how it looks! LinkedIn has upgraded your
ability to preview your profile. Click on the View Profile As button to
transition to preview mode. LinkedIn then allows you to toggle between
Connections and Public. Make sure everything about your LinkedIn profile
looks perfect for you, and in line with your business goals.
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References
While most of the above recommendations and information were obtained through
personal observation and experimentation, there are a few statistics and pieces of
information shared that came from external sources.
https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin
http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/04/22/professional-photos-on-linkedin-are-worth-athousand-opportunities/
http://mashable.com/2012/11/28/social-media-time/
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2014/09/the-average-ceo-has-3-9k-twitterfollowers-630-facebook-friends.html
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-a-few-importantlinkedin-stats/
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