LinkedIn Branding Toolkit

Building a Winning Linked-In Profile – Key Tips

Your goal is to get your network to 2000 connections.
Ask for recommendations from former co-workers and managers.
Keep your Linked-In profile as current as possible.
Provide a picture and contribute your opinion to topics that are related to your career.
Provide recommendations to people that you think highly of.
View profiles of key managers at companies you want to work for. This will get you noticed and people are always curious as to who has viewed their profiles.
Focus on your accomplishments: especially in areas that helped save the company money, helped developed new revenue for the company, and/or helped increased profitability. Employers are seeking individuals that understand and can contribute to the company’s financial well-being.
Write an article on a topic that you are a subject matter expert on. Articles are a very powerful selling tool that you can use to land your dream job.
Edit your profile for spelling and flow.
More detail is better. Having a complete and well-rounded LinkedIn Profile will increase your odds of getting noticed by potential employers.

LinkedIn Profile Framework

Summary Section:

1. Include your value proposition or your motto- talk about what is the value you bring to a potential employer.

2. Key Accomplishments

4 to 6 key accomplishments throughout your career. Focus on accomplishments that saved the company money, created new lines of revenue, and/or help the company and employees to be more efficient and productive

3. Area of Expertise

Include certifications, key technologies, programs (add yrs of experience)

Work Experience Section:

1. Focus on specific job duties that involved managing projects and/or people.

2. Build out your job duties in a way that talks about what you did in your job on a day to day basis.

3. Include 2-3 recommendations per job.

4. Go back no more than 15 years with your Work Experience. It is important to not date yourself too much.

Education Section:

1. Make sure you include all the courses that you took in your degree or diploma program.

2. Highlight that you graduated, if you actually did. If you did not graduate, put the years that you attended.

3. Listing GPA is fine, but really not much of a difference maker in the factors as to whether to hire someone or not.

The key to the LinkedIn Profile is to build it out as complete and accurate as possible.

FACT: CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies prefer LinkedIn over any other type of employee search platform.