My entrepreneurial friends and colleagues know that my love affair with LinkedIn goes way back. I’ve helped dozens of busy professionals polish their image…and this inspires them to then take a more serious look at their website and their social media. I think of it as the ‘starter drug’ that folks need to up their game.

But have you considered your image on the platform? Yes, many people say that they don’t want to have images of themselves on platforms where it can be used for nefarious intent. But the chances of those villains finding and using your headshot for any reason whatsoever pales to the positive impact garnered by it smiling at visitors to your page. 

So let’s get to it! If you have questions, feel free to reach out for answers. You can also visit my LinkedIn page for clues on optimizing your profile.

HEADSHOT

Profiles with a professional headshots receive roughly 14 times more profile views and are 36 times more likely to receive a message on Linkedin. So look professional, hard-working and approachable. Size jpg as a perfect square to upload.

WALLPAPER

Does it represent you and/or your business? Your wallpaper should be 1584 x 396 pixels in size.

HEADLINE

This is not your mission statement. It is either what you do in 8 words or less or an outreach statement/tagline.

LOCATION

Choose ‘SF Bay Area’ UNLESS your services are for your local community exclusively.

ADDRESS

If you work from home – or work in a location that could be considered ‘vulnerable’ in exposure – I  encourage you to skip the actual street address and just put your city. We all want exposure but don’t want to worry about stalkers. However, if you have have a storefront or a business that services clientele onsite, list it here.

ABOUT

Concise info with deliberate language to appeal to your target market. Remember to use keywords here!

CUSTOM URL

Make your LinkedIn page url more personable by optimizing it in the admin options. By using your name, or your name followed by a number, etc., you can share it more easily, both in conversation, and in your marketing materials, like your business card.

POSTS

LinkedIn is forever changing how we access the posting button. At the time of this writing (Sept 2022) you access it by clicking the home icon. Share 4 posts to start. Play around with this – if it’s from your blog, you simply share it from your website. If it’s from another source, including another LinkedIn colleague, it should also be a slam dunk to figure out.

BUSINESS PAGE

Scrolling down your profile page, you will see your work history. If you haven’t already created a business page, do it now by clicking the ‘work’ icon in the menu bar and scrolling to the bottom of the dropdown menu. Click on ‘create a company page’ and complete that information. Then you can go back and link to on your personal page to your business page. be sure to includes your business logo (as a square), compelling banner image, etc. And if you have employees, please invite them to update their profiles to reflect the now-present business page link.

CAREER HISTORY

Ideally your former employers have LinkedIn business profiles, so you should tie your history to their business page (you will know you’ve done it right if their logo appears in your Career History. If not, build your history using their website description, etc. Just know that you won’t be able to upload their logo – that is an exclusive feature for the business owner/administrator.

EDUCATION

List advanced education only. Be sure to link to the school’s profile, in the same way you did in the Career History section. Include supplemental educational organizations, as well.

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

Go back as far as you need in order to include at least one project during your career, or consider a strategic nonprofit with which to align now.

ENDORSEMENTS

Set the criteria for your skills to be endorsed. LinkedIn will reach out to your connections and request they endorse you. But why wait?! You can always do it directly.

INTERESTS

Choose well-populated sites (500+ members) with your professional interests.

GET AN EDITORIAL BUDDY

Team up with a fellow professional or trusted family member to review your site for holes, inaccuracies, and typos.

CONNECT

Once the profile is perfect, reach out to others by searching for those in a particular industry or with specific interests you share. Your goal is 500+ connections as LinkedIn does not define any number larger than 501.

OPTIMIZE

Be sure to feed your profile with your blog posts or just log in occasionally and look at what your professional connections are writing about. Like and comment on their articles, work anniversaries, etc. Just like a good friendship, your LinkedIn connections need to be nourished.