I joined LinkedIn on August 1, 2005, nearly 20 years ago. At first, it was a way to connect with coworkers and not lose touch with them when they changed jobs. Twenty years later, LinkedIn still serves that purpose. When I started my blog in October 2007, LinkedIn (and Twitter – now X) were the primary ways of informing my network about new articles. LinkedIn has also helped me more than once secure new employment by leveraging my network.
I’d like to share with you my favorite LinkedIn tips for keeping your profile in top condition.
Personalize Your LinkedIn Profile URL
The first tip is to personalize your LinkedIn Profile URL, which by default includes your name and some random numbers. Personalizing your profile URL adds some polish to your profile. If your name is fairly unique, like mine, you’ll be able to grab your first and last name. People with unique names can simply use their first name if they like, such as Elvis or Prince. While LinkedIn says special characters are not permitted, even they use the hyphen in your default profile URL and I have seen customized URLs that use hyphens, too. If you must resort to using numbers for uniqueness, avoid using personally identifiable information such as your age or birth date.
If you use other social networks professionally, for example, GitHub or Instagram, try to use the same profile name across platforms.
Headlines
Avoid using your employer’s job title as your headline. You already have that covered in the Experience section. Instead, use the headline to describe yourself in an aspirational way. It’s unlikely that your friends know what a Senior Analyst IV is. Your headline should be more about positioning yourself for the career choices that are in front of you rather than behind.
Keep Experience Focused
Don’t feel the need to mention every job you’ve ever held, especially the grocery bagger position you held at Kroger during high school. Unless you’re applying to be the next CEO of Kroger. Maintain a personal copy of your complete work history in a lengthy resume. But even your paper/PDF resume, when used, should keep things focused and only quote a subset of experience from that master document.
Be Aware of Age Discrimination
A benefit of keeping your experience focused is that it makes it more difficult for potential employers to determine how old you are, especially if your earliest job descriptions are not included on your LinkedIn profile. You can continue this trend by removing the graduation dates from your degrees. However, if you returned to school later in life for a new degree, I’d keep the date, as the degree indicates the amount of work you’re willing to perform to stay relevant.
Avoid Abbreviations
Avoid abbreviations in job titles and in software programs that are relevant to your experience. Using full product names in online profiles has the same benefits of Search Engine Optimalization, or SEO, for websites. Never forget that LinkedIn is ultimately a website. Use of proper terminology can increase the odds that your LinkedIn profile will appear in a search engine’s search results. SAP BusinessObjects professionals should review my earlier article, SAP BusinessObjects Resume Tips.
Use Metrics When Possible
When possible, use metrics. Supporting 10,000 users sounds more impressive than supporting three (unless one of them is Tim Cook). Other metrics might include the number of scheduled reports, the number of documents purged from a system during an upgrade, or the number of minutes of processing time saved by tuning a SQL query. Percentages are good, too, such as “reduced nightly batch processing time by 40%”.
Link Experience to Company Pages
If your employer has a company page, make sure that your experience links to it. Your LinkedIn profile will look more professional with the addition of the company logo. If a previous employer was acquired, you can link to the current company and add a note that it acquired your previous employer.
Keep It Interesting
LinkedIn provides a profile section for Interests that you can include at the bottom of your profile. These can simultaneously impress a potential employer while putting valuable content for you to read in your Posts and Activity section. These are currently:
Top Voices: people on LinkedIn such as authors, thought leaders, and executives from companies whose products you use professionally.
Companies: Useful for following your previous, current or even future employers. Also useful for following companies whose products you use professionally.
Groups: Groups was LinkedIn’s attempt to help birds-of-a-feather flock together. You can post directly to groups that you belong to, rather than just your personal profile. I currently belong to about 25 groups that I feel badly about leaving but I’m not sure the group creators are living up to the promise of why they created the group in the first place.
Newsletters: Similar to Groups, this feature allows Newsletter publishers to communicate with their network. Like Groups, I currently subscribe to a series of newsletters but my subscription isn’t radically changing my life.
Schools: I follow my Alma Mater as well as the schools my children attend.
Share Relevant Content
The five interests, along with your connections, will automatically put content on your LinkedIn wall. While you can certainly bookmark interesting content to read later, take a moment to like and share anything you genuinely find interesting with your LinkedIn network, as they likely have shared interests. Over time, you can be a valuable content curator to your network even if you are not a content creator. Don’t overshare. Avoid political posts. And always add a personal comment to reposted content so your followers understand why you think the content is worth their time.
Be sure to check out my companion article, Improving Your LinkedIn Company Profile.
Which best practices do you follow in your LinkedIn profile? Which worst practices to you choose to avoid? Share in the comments below.
