On LinkedIn, it’s not worth being around. If you want to highlight your personal brand in front of the great volume of users of the professional social network par excellence you need a completely optimized profile. Discover how to optimize your LinkedIn profile to the fullest, step by step, with this mega guide.
The goal of this post is to delve into the depths of LinkedIn to discover all the functions offered by the platform but, above all, so you can make the most of them in order to create a professional profile (more than) stellar that differentiates you of your competitors and that serves as support to enhance your personal brand.
◇ What will you find in this LinkedIn guide?
What is LinkedIn
Interesting statistics and data from LinkedIn
What is LinkedIn for?
LinkedIn opportunities for users and businesses
SEO on LinkedIn to increase visibility
How to use LinkedIn to be more visible
How to create a PERFECT professional profile on LinkedIn
Business card
URL and public profile
Your panel
Articles and activity
Sections
What is SSI on LinkedIn and why measure it
How to improve SSI
15 EXTRA tips to improve your strategy on LinkedIn
What is LinkedIn
Founded in 2002 and with more than 590 million registered users, LinkedIn is today the leading social network for businesses and users who want to create and consolidate their professional identity on the Internet.
But LinkedIn is much more than a social community focused on the business manager email list. LinkedIn allows you to connect with acquaintances, friends, co-workers as well as any other type of contact related (or not) with your professional environment. Therefore, it can be said that a large part of the value we find in LinkedIn lies in the connections.
Much of the value we find on LinkedIn lies in the connections we make
In addition, LinkedIn is a tremendously effective way to create your professional presentation letter in the digital environment since it allows you to visually and enriched both your skills, your “know-how”, your experience, your training, your achievements and other important information that we will detail later.
Before getting into the most practical part of this content, let’s see some information about this social network that will help you to know what state it is in:
Interesting statistics and data from LinkedIn
To know a little more about the current state of LinkedIn, I detail several interesting statistical data of 2018 around the social network:
LinkedIn in figures
Demographics
LinkedIn and marketing
LinkedIn in figures
Total number of users: 590 million
Total number of active users: 260 million
% of active users daily: 40%
% of active users monthly: 63 million
Number of new users per second: 2
Now, let’s see why you should not miss the opportunity to use LinkedIn and squeeze all its potential.
What is LinkedIn for?
With more than 15 years in operation, LinkedIn is a social network known to all even though it does not enjoy the same popularity as other networks such as Facebook or Instagram.
However, those who seek in social networks a way to find business opportunities have it a bit more complicated in examples such as the last two since these platforms are mainly used for entertainment and fun. Talking about commercial issues in them can generate rejection.
If you are looking for new business opportunities and enhance your personal brand, LinkedIn has a lot to offer you.
On LinkedIn, the scenario is different. Being the professional social network par excellence the user who uses it does so thinking about business. For this reason, you have your predisposition to talk about issues of this type. This would be one of the big reasons why you might want to use LinkedIn.
But beware, it would be a mistake to use this social network limiting you to capture your expertise in order to find a new job. Keep in mind that a job, on its own, is something transitory. On the contrary, your personal brand is forever and that is why they will remember you. Therefore, I recommend that you focus your actions on working it and also strengthening it within LinkedIn.
In conclusion, if you want to work and strengthen your personal brand, increase your professional recognition and are looking for new opportunities, LinkedIn is for you.
Also, I recommend reading this guide to create your brand if you want to delve into the subject.
Your personal brand is forever, focus your actions on working it and empower it #LinkedIn
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LinkedIn opportunities for users and businesses
There is another reason why you should consider being on LinkedIn (if you are not already).
As of 2016, specifically the end of 2017, the increase in the number of users of the platform was noticed more than ever, especially in Spain and Latin America. This growth has generated a brutal activity in the social network and with it new opportunities that we should not miss.
We can not know for sure what will happen in the next few years but everything points to this trend is going to be maintained and it is time to prepare well to stand out. Keep in mind that, as the number of users grows, your competition grows. Because of this, if you are going to use LinkedIn, you have to excel.
Whether you are looking for job opportunities, you are interested in attracting new clients, investors, collaborators and / or new talent, you want to expand your network of contacts or if what you want is to boost your personal brand, LinkedIn has many opportunities to offer.
Let’s see what are the most interesting opportunities offered by LinkedIn:
Personal profile on LinkedIn
Company on LinkedIn
Advantages of using LinkedIn for a personal profile
It allows you to expand your network of contacts.
It allows you to create and consolidate your professional identity.
You can increase the recognition of your personal brand.
It gives you access to a large number of job opportunities.
You can show your professional and educational career, your projects, your achievements and your recommendations.
You can contact companies and selection technicians more quickly and efficiently.
It allows you to do networking through the use of groups.
You can update yourself with news and relevant news from your work sector.
As you can see, I have differentiated the benefits for companies and for personal profiles and that, whether you are working with your personal brand or your company’s brand, you can be present in LinkedIn in these two ways: as a personal profile and as a company page.
Of course, having a personal profile is an essential requirement to create and / or manage a company page and any action must start from the creation and optimization of a profile of this type. Therefore, we will focus on optimizing your profile on LinkedIn and, based on it, to expand your strategy to company pages as well.
But, before starting, we need to talk about keywords and SEO because we can (and should) do SEO on LinkedIn and it is very important to keep it in mind in each section of the profile that we are going to optimize. Let’s see why!
Not only can you, but you must do #SEO in #LinkedIn. Why?
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Content indexed and tracked SEO on LinkedIn to increase visibility
Before we go to the central part of the post and start to optimize LinkedIn’s profile, it is imperative that we talk about SEO.
Can we do SEO on LinkedIn? Not only can we, but we must work it if we really want our profiles to be fully optimized and to stand out against our competition.
As we would do when writing content that we want to position in Google, to begin with we should ask 2 questions:
How would my target audience look for me (potential client, head hunter, possible collaborator …)?
What should my LinkedIn profile have so that they can find me?
The answer to these two questions is in your keywords or your keywords.
After all, LinkedIn is nothing more than a powerful search engine for people and SEO in this platform is what makes it possible for someone to find us when they search for profiles similar to ours or terms related to it.
If you are interested in SEO in all aspects, I invite you to read these myths and SEO positioning errors according to 18 experts. A reading (almost) required.
LinkedIn is a powerful search engine for people and working #SEO increases the chances of finding us.
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How to use LinkedIn to be more visible?
To make ourselves visible in these search results, we have to make an optimized use of those keywords for which we are interested in appearing and with which we want to relate to us. Where do I start to increase my visibility on LinkedIn?
- Define your keywords
At this point, rather than focusing on what defines you as a professional, focus primarily on what your target audience would look for (which is obviously related).
Taking into account what is usually searched on LinkedIn (experience and / or specific charges), when defining your keywords, be sure to include the ones that represent:
Your profession or what you do: “Digital Marketing Consultant”
Your area of expertise: “Social Network Specialist”
In any case, you have tools to look for very useful keywords, such as Semrush, which can help you discover what exactly your audience is looking for and then use those keywords in your profile.As with the cover of a book or the title of a post, the owner of your LinkedIn profile will be your great opportunity to capture the attention of users and attract them to it.
That is why your headline has to be written in such a way that it is able to make a very good first impression and make them want to know more about you. Take note of tips to make it so:
How to write an optimized headline:
Summarize in a single sentence and very clearly what you do and what benefit you can bring to your audience.
Use your keywords (how do you want them to find you and what do you want them to associate with your brand).
Include your sector of work and your specialization or your niche.
If you have a company of your own, include it so that at a glance you can be associated with it
If you are working for an outside company and you also want to be associated with it, you can also include it.
You can add a slogan, if you have it, with which you differ.
► Location
Where are you currently? By showing this information on LinkedIn you are allowing users who see your profile to locate you at a glance and, in addition, facilitate the searches that others make based on this criterion.
► Sector
Filling in the field of your work sector is another fundamental aspect if you want to be visible in the eyes of those who search based on this category and who probably share interests with you.
Select the sector that best suits yours and, in case you do not locate your sector of work in the wide list of options that LinkedIn suggests, you can make a suggestion to include it through the “Send comments” section in the bottom of the home page.
► Labor and educational information
This element of the business card shows by default the last position you held and your most recent training place. You can customize this information and modify it to show what you are interested in that appears in a highlighted way.
► Contact information
If you have complete and updated contact information, you will facilitate connections within the platform. Here you must include data such as:
the URL of your website (personal, professional or other)
other URLs in which you participate or to which you are linked
your profiles on social networks
your phone and address
your e-mail address
your profile URL (which appears by default and we’ll see later)
► Number of contacts
Your business card also shows the number of contacts you have and allows others to know the reach of your network.
Your contacts are of great importance but not so much the number if not the type of connection you create with them.
I advise you to look for relevant and meaningful connections to create a qualified community on LinkedIn. Search and select new contacts on a weekly basis but, above all, nourish your relationship with them, interact, share valuable content …
Do not limit yourself to collecting contacts just because, focus on creating connections that are or can be fruitful.
In #LinkedIn, focus on creating and nurturing your connections rather than getting contacts because
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► Extract
The extract is that section where you can show a summary of your professional experience, your specialization and your skills in more detail than in the headline. Think about how you would present yourself to a potential client or collaborator and plot it in the extract.
This section, like the owner, is another one that you must optimize with keywords to improve SEO positioning on LinkedIn.
Take note of some tips to optimize your extract to the maximum:
Tips to show an optimized extract:
First of all, be authentic and show your passion for what you do.
Try to capture the most important information in the first 3 lines.
Talk about your skills and experience, yes, but do not forget to show how and what you can be useful to whoever reads.
Divide your excerpt into paragraphs of a maximum of 3 lines that make it easier to read.
Add a call to action and invite your readers to visit your website, contact you, share your experience, etc.
It includes multimedia content where you capture your work to give it more strength and value: images, articles, videos, podcasts, presentations …
Use a close tone and, why not, a wink that denotes a sense of humor.
URL and public profile
On the right side of your profile, next to your cover photo, you will see a small section called “Edit URL and public profile”.
When you access this section, you will see a different version of your profile in which you can configure aspects such as: the URL of your profile, the different sections and sections and the visibility of it.
The URL that LinkedIn attributes to your profile by default is not optimized and, as we can customize it, I advise you to eliminate any type of symbol or number that appears. Activity and interaction
This other section on the right of the panel shows your activity in the LinkedIn feed. Here you will see a preview of your latest publications and your latest interactions both in your publications and in those of other users (recommendations, comments …)
To improve and reinforce the value of your LinkedIn profile, it is advisable to maintain a balance between these two types of activity: Write articles, share publications and interact.
Write articles, share content and interact to reinforce the value of your #Linkedin profile
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Sections
The sections constitute each information block that makes up your LinkedIn profile and each one of them will give you a unique value.
To add a section you must go to your profile, do a little scrolling down until you see a blue button on the top right where you read “Add section”.
In that window you will see 6 sections with different elements in each of them that you can add by simply pressing the “+” symbol on your right depending on what you are interested in showing on your profile. Let’s see what these sections are, one by one:
► Professional and academic career
Use this section to add each and every one of the positions you have held as well as your training and your volunteer experiences in such a way that you can quickly identify what your specialization is.
In doing so, it is imperative that you include your keywords, preferably in the name of the position and, above all, in the description of that experience. But, be careful, try to do it naturally, as if you were telling a story. This will result less forced.
See some examples of how to capture your experience in an optimized way:
Profile of Elena Charameli
Profile of Arantxa García
Another very important aspect that you must take into account in this section is to use multimedia content. If you add “extra” content such as images, presentations, links, videos, a portfolio, etc., you will not only have a more complete profile, but visually it will be much more attractive.
► Skills
Skills represent your most important skills and abilities. By adding them to your profile, you can not only highlight them, you also allow your contacts to validate them, reinforcing them and adding value to your profile.
On the other hand, the skills in LinkedIn also work as keywords and by using them you will be contributing to SEO positioning within the social network and it will be easier for you to be found for those keywords.
LinkedIn allows you to add 50 skills and you can only highlight 3 of them. Choose wisely! When it is validated, it will be easier to do so if you show a well-focused list rather than an endless list.
To be able to validate your skills, remember to validate that option in the Aptitudes and Validations block once it has been added to your profile.
If you’re not sure what attitudes you can take a look at the directory of LinkedIn topics to guide you.
► Achievements
In the achievements section we differentiate several types:
Publications
Certifications
Patents
courses
Projects
Acknowledgments
Ratings
Languages
Business
Your achievements add value to your profile, take advantage of them and complete each section with as much information as possible. Do not stay short. The richer and more complete your profile, the more valued it will be.
► Additional information: Recommendations
In this penultimate section of the sections we find one of the most important elements of your profile: the recommendations. These represent the perfect opportunity for other contacts to value and give reliable proof of your professional qualification.
Having a good compilation of recommendations will give much value and strength to your profile. Also, if our keywords are found in them, this will favor SEO positioning.
The recommendations will bring a lot of real value and strength to your LinkedIn profile
Until you have received at least one recommendation, this block will not appear on your profile. Therefore, the first task at this point is to start getting them.
It may voluntarily cost a little more than recommend us. So the most effective way to get recommendations on LinkedIn is to ask for them and, of course, do them.
How to ask for a recommendation
How to recommend
How to ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn?
We have two ways to request a recommendation on LinkedIn:
a) From the profile of the person you want to recommend:
Click on the “More …” button
Choose the option “Request a recommendation”
Indicate the relationship that binds you to that person and the position you had at that time.
Write your request and, very importantly, personalize the message.
Supported languages
This last section allows you to create a version of your profile in another language.
In case you want to position yourself within an international sector I recommend, yes or yes, that you create the version of your corresponding profile for that language. Keep in mind that having a profile in different languages will allow other users and recruiters to find you more easily.
How to create a profile in another language on LinkedIn
To create your profile in another language, just follow these steps:
Select the option “Add profile in another language”
Choose the language in question
Fill in your name, surname and title for the selected language.
Click on “Create profile”
When you have created a profile in another language, users who land on your profile will be able to manually choose which of the languages they want to see from the top right menu of your profile.
Important: The profile does not translate automatically. You should be translating the information of each section of your profile one by one.
Now that we have analyzed each block of your profile, one by one, and I have given you the guidelines to complete and optimize them properly, do you want to know what score LinkedIn gives you?
Do you know that #LinkedIn rates the effectiveness of your profile? Discover your score.
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What is the SSI LinkedIn and why should you measure it?
The SSI of LinkedIn makes reference to the term in English Social Selling Index and it is a formula that measures the effectiveness with which you carry out Social Selling practices in the social network.
But, eye, we should not associate this indicator solely with how we sell a product or service as such. With the Social Selling Index we can measure the progress by which we establish our professional brand within LinkedIn, how we work our personal branding, how we “sell” ourselves.
The SSI, introduced in 2014, gives your profile a score between 1 and 100 and qualifies it based on a series of criteria. These criteria determine if the way in which you are promoting yourself within the social network is really being effective.
Do you want to know the value of your LinkedIn profile?
Discover my SSI
What is it based on and how to improve LinkedIn SSI?
The SSI is updated daily and is based on 4 fundamental pillars:
If you have a complete and updated profile and share valuable, relevant and weighty content.
If you find and connect with relevant people through the search tools that LinkedIn offers you.
If you interact and generate conversations with interesting content
If you establish relationships and reinforce the connections with your contacts.
How to improve LinkedIn SSI in 6 steps
- Keep your profile updated and make sure it is complete
- Increase and reinforce your LinkedIn presence by publishing more frequently (minimum 3 times per week)
- Do not share any content make sure it is a content focused on the interests of your target audience and that is relevant to your sector of work
- Search for new connections daily using LinkedIn’s advanced search tools (#)
- Participate in groups related to your work sector and also share in them
- Interact! The true value of LinkedIn lies in the connections.
Advertising Instagram 15 extra tips for your strategy on LinkedIn
After this audit of your profile and once you have completed and optimized each of the most important sections of it, I share another 15 key tips to apply to both your profile and your strategy and improve it:
15 tips to improve your strategy on LinkedIn
Be constant and keep your account active. Publish at least 3 times a week.
Interact in your own publications and, above all, in your community.
Keep your profile updated and optimized with your keyword selection.
Collect multimedia content to include in your professional experiences and complete them.
Review the statistics of your weekly search appearances and optimize your actions based on the results.
Search for new users that fit your audience through the powerful internal search engine and plant new relevant connections.
Customize your invitations. It’s your chance to not be a contact anymore and start generating trust.
Get recommendations from former classmates, work colleagues, partners … and ask them to include some of your keywords.
Do not limit yourself to sharing third-party content. Generate your own content, make sure it is relevant and useful and plan your publication.
Use hashtags in your publications (2 -3 max.). They will help make them more visible.
Include the video in your content strategy. Not being the most common publication in the social network, it will attract more attention and generate more engagement.
Detects relevant publications through keyword searches with the search
