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How To Make A Killer LinkedIn Profile In 8 Steps

Despite our toiling efforts for brand building and marketing, we often miss out on a crucial aspect.


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Sweta Panigrahi

3 years ago | 9 min read

Despite our toiling efforts for brand building and marketing, we often miss out on a crucial aspect.

Self-branding is that vital realm that often goes unaddressed—the game of marketing changes when you introduce self-branding in it. We can go on and on with our products, jobs, and offerings in the best way possible.

But how do you build trust and be a convincing entity?

A killer Linkedin profile can kickstart your self-branding journey.

This profession loving platform has 700+ million users. As per SocialPilot’s report, 90 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers, and 63 million are in decision-making positions.

Imagine the endless prospects you can generate, reaching out to such an elite base of audience. A good Linkedin profile will put you in the right limelight unleashing several win-win opportunities.

Your Linkedin profile becomes your career story platform where you can narrate your industry experiences and know-how, building trust, thereby making you a convincing entity. You will notice an upsurge of like-minded people wanting to connect with you.

So now, how to make a Linkedin profile that attracts followers in the first place?

This is precisely what we are going to discuss in this blog.

Follow these 8 steps equipped with some additional handy tips, and you will be ready with a killer Linkedin profile.


Table of Content

  1. Start with a profile picture
  2. Personalized banner image
  3. Straight forward headline and bio
  4. Add skills, experiences, and endorsements
  5. Recommendations and accomplishments
  6. Put forth the featured posts
  7. Customize the profile URL and defaulters
  8. Networking and engagement

You can skip a step if you already have covered it in your existing profile.

Let’s start from scratch then.

Step 1: Start with a profile picture

The first impression setting parameter for your profile is a profile picture.

Various researches claim that a Linkedin profile with a profile picture receives 9 times the connection requests and 21 times the profile views!

Unlike other social media profiles, you must go for the high-quality image having a closeup of your face only. A decent attire will add a professional touch. Avoid a cluttered background as the sole focus of the image should be on you.

Natural lighting polishes the overall outcome. You can also make use of the Linkedin filters available to enhance it further.

Tips Linkedin gives you the option to choose the viewers of your Linkedin profile photo.

Linkedin cares for your privacy and has various visibility related settings. Just click on your profile image and select Visibility. You can choose any of the following options.

  • Public
  • All Linkedin members
  • Your connections
  • Your network

Take a look at this perfect snap of Oprah Winfrey on her Linkedin profile, taking up 60% of the space for her shoulder-length face closeup. The background is subtle, making it an ideal profile picture example.

Step 2: Personalized banner image

Do you still have that default light blue, dots connecting background as your Linkedin banner image?

If yes, then you are not alone. This is the exact reason why you should consider a change, so you become a standout. Use this 1584 px x 396 px space for your branding while most let it go in utter waste!

You can either choose an illustration as the graphic element or go bold with one color palette with a one-liner about yourself. This color will instantly reflect your personality.

A yellow background speaks about a happy personality, while red stands for passion. Black stands for elegance and royalty, while white signifies purity and transparency. Choose accordingly.

Tips Keep the background image minimalistic and clutter-free. Try using Canva for the Linkedin banner image.

If you are a freelancer, list your services. If you are a business owner or marketer, customize it with your brand’s logo, mission statement, or even a catchy tagline. This is your billboard bringing light to your major lifetime achievements too.

Add your workspace area, or the architecture of the company you presently work for, or images of products and services you are dealing with in your day to day life to increase credibility.

To edit your background banner:

  1. Click on the Profile icon.
  2. Click on the Edit icon and then select Change Photo.
  3. Upload the relevant file from your system.
  4. Add filter or crop to adjust the alignment.
  5. Click on Apply once done.

Founder of Mindvalley, Vishen Lakhiani has beautifully used his Linkedin banner image to advertise his latest book, “The Buddha and the Badass.” The colors give an overall calming look and the Preorder Now text tempts anyone who visits his profile to check out the deal.

Step 3: Straightforward headline and bio

This step is the one-line elevator pitch to your followers cum customer base. Linkedin gives you a default headline with your job title in your current company. You can always choose to customize it, making it more attractive and eye-catching.

A persuasive headline and a strong bio are the reasons why anyone will click on your profile. Just like websites having on-page, off-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) implementations garner more clicks, and your Linkedin profile should also have SEO keywords in the headline and the bio.

For example, if someone is looking out for a digital marketer for his company. He will type out “Digital Marketer” in the search bar. If you have mentioned the “Digital marketer” keyword in your headline or bio, chances are there that your name will pop up in the suggestion. This is exactly how inbound clients will approach you.

So framing a correct headline and bio with keywords related to your job profile or skill set lets you leverage this platform in your favor. Make sure your 120 characters headline is crisp and direct.

The People you may know section also recommends profiles similar to yours for connecting based on the headline and bio.

Tips Use the pipe symbol( | ) to separate the targeted keywords in your headline.

Chantel Soumis has creatively used her headline with multiple keywords like Advocate, Consultant, and Social Media Marketing. She has also mentioned various services she currently provides to her clients. So without even going through her entire profile, her viewers can know the values she can provide them with just from the first half of the profile.

The About section in Linkedin is more than your degree and job profile. This is where you can brag about your experiences, learning and depict the growth. This is your chance to showcase why you chose your profession and what makes you the niche master. Weave a storyline about yourself, aligning it with the timeline covering major highlights in chronological order.

Make sure you have covered the following:

  1. Explained your role, the challenges you had been dealing with, and the outcoming result.
  2. Spoke about your personality traits and incidents when you realized your true potential.
  3. Added something beyond work.
  4. Mentioned your interest and hobbies.
  5. Gave abundant white space to make it readable.

Tips Be specific and eliminate the jargon. Write as if you are formally introducing yourself to somebody in person.

Daniel Thornburgh, a Software Engineer at Google, has shown his passion for coding from yesteryears in the form of incidents and anecdotes. He has tactfully mentioned his expertise in programming languages like C, C++, Java, and Objective-C, emphasizing the core concepts of Algorithms and System Programming. It is an excellent example of the Linkedin About section.

Step 4: Add skills, experiences, and endorsements

While the About section was a teaser on you, adding relevant skills and experiences are valid proofs to solidify your claims.

Here’s how to write an impactful About section.

  1. Give a long-form description of each experience.
  2. Mention the proficiency level of your skills.
  3. Mention the industry trending skills you possess and make sure to update it.
  4. Add relevant certifications and experience letters so your prospects can go through it and be convinced.
  5. Go for upskilling by doing online courses in relevant streams from Linkedin Learning or other online mediums.
  6. Mention different types of projects you worked on.

Endorsements in Linkedin are also quite popular for showcasing skills. Take and give endorsements from people who are doing equally well in your field. Keep adding new endorsements from your clients or your teammates.

Shreya Pattar, one of the finest Linkedin users, has used endorsements to vouch for her Web writing skills. She has also explained each of her professional and volunteering experiences, pinpointing the responsibilities she handled.

Step 5: Recommendations and accomplishments

While endorsement is just a one-click activity for your peers and clients to approve your expertise, a recommendation is the in-depth experience theirs working with you.

Your clients or teammates can fine-tune their praises by showering you with recommendations. It works like a testimonial on Linkedin.

Another vital difference between an endorsement and recommendation is that you can only be endorsed for the skills you have added. There is no direct way to ask your fellow connections for endorsements, but you can always ask for recommendations.

These recommendations will be in the Pending section, which will require your final approval before going live into your Linkedin Profile. If you need some changes to be made, you can Request them for it or even Dismiss it altogether. It will be communicated to you in your Linkedin Inbox. Similarly, if you are giving a recommendation, you can Revise it or even Delete it. You can even manage the recommendation’s visibility too.

Go to your Profile page and scroll down to the Recommendation section. Click on “Ask for a recommendation” and personalize it before sending it to your connections. You can also edit the given recommendations by clicking on the Edit icon.

Add accomplishments too so that it becomes evident that you are not just doing a specific task but are also good at it. Users also add their test scores and even patents or publications to show their competitive strike.

James Caan, a serial Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, has skillfully played the Linkedin game of giving and receiving recommendations. He has added numerous accomplishments, particularly publications which bear proof that he is a pioneer in the Entrepreneurship industry. His publications related to starting a business and job-seeking will spark interest in his follower base.

Step 6: Put forth the featured posts

The real worth comes when you know how to use Linkedin. Unless you start posting and engaging, it is as good as keeping a freshly xeroxed copy of your A4 size resume in the locker.

It will help if you appear in the feeds of your target base for engagement. One hack to this can be to focus on followers before building connections. Change the by default Connect button to Follow. It will make sure that your posts appear in your followers’ feed guaranteed.

Once the post reaches out to your followers, start rigorous engagement by commenting and sharing your opinions on other posts as well. Add the posts with high engagement as featured posts in the profile. These will convert your visitors into followers if they resonate with your postings.

Tips End your posts with questions, quotes, or Call-To-Actions (CTA) for better response.

How will you know which post performed better?

If you want to leverage branding in every social media platform, use a scheduling tool like SocialPilot. Find out the best performing post by using analytics.

Come up with the best content ideas updating your content calendar for social media posts with the content curation tool. Make sure to respond to every comment and message with a social inbox.

Not just posts, but you can also feature articles, links, or even videos in your Linkedin profile.

Go to the Featured section, click on the Add icon, and select the option you want to feature.

Sandeep Khochhar’s trending posts are featured in his profile to give a quick insight into his posting styles and interests.

Step 7: Customize the profile URL and defaulters

Often we need to give our Linkedin IDs. Sometimes we need to mention it in our contact details at multiple places, like conferences, corporate decks, resumes, etc.

Customizing helps massively here and saves you from the embarrassment of having a never-ending URL. Remove the random characters assigned by Linkedin by default.

Head over to View Profile, and click on Edit Profile URL. Generally, this format, www.linkedin.com/in/yourname, is followed. You can tweak it a bit so your followers don’t end up connecting with somebody having the same name as yours.

Tips Linkedin URL’s customization half is case sensitive. You are allowed to change it five times in six months.

Step 8: Networking and engagement

Last but not least, networking is the sole motto of Linkedin.

How will you ensure that you keep getting the connections?

Add value by consistent posting. Experiment with the types of content, but textual content is still prevalent in this platform. Graphics and posts with external links do incredibly well in terms of engagement.

Customize your invitations while sending out connection requests. It will hammer hit the final nail for an impeccable first impression.

Try engaging in discussions with your peers to get a collective outlook and put forth your views on the prevailing matters revolving around your interest zone.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to make a Linkedin profile, I bet you want to rush straightway to give your profile a makeover.

It wasn’t as difficult as you thought it would be.

Be rest assured. You will have a fun time once you know how to use Linkedin. Follow these steps, start with wherever you left, and pick up the pace. Results will be evident once the profile metrics take off and start converting for real.

Happy connecting on Linkedin!

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Created by

Sweta Panigrahi

A content writer by profession, my strongest pursuit is to capture social media happenings in well-researched blogs. From geeky codes to hilarious meme posts, my search history is a confounding mess. When not typing out blogs, you can find me basking under sun, scribbling poems.


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