LinkedIn Profile Optimization For Dummies

Donna Serdula is the leading authority on LinkedIn profile optimization. She grew her profile consulting business from a one-person enterprise to a team of 40 serving individual, corporate, and military clients, and is much in demand as a speaker. Visit her website at www.linkedin-makeover.com, and follow her on Twitter at @donnaserdula.

Introduction 1


About This Book 1


Foolish Assumptions 2


How This Book Is Organized 3


Part 1: The Strategy Before the Siege 3


Part 2: Getting Your LinkedIn Profile Started 3


Part 3: Detailing Your Career Trajectory and Creating the Ultimate First Impression 3


Part 4: Rounding Out Your Profile and Adding Finishing Touches 3


Part 5: The Part of Tens 4


Icons Used in This Book 4


Beyond the Book 4


Where to Go from Here 5


Part 1: The Strategy Before the Siege 7


Chapter 1: Determining Your LinkedIn Strategy 9


Determining Your LinkedIn Goal 10


Job Search 10


Reputation Management and Branding 11


Sales and Prospecting 11


Figuring Out Your Target Audience 12


Creating a Compelling Tone 14


Chapter 2: Getting Found on LinkedIn 15


Using LinkedIn as a Search Engine 15


Using the Search Bar 16


Using Search Filters 16


Ensuring a Compelling and Attractive Search Result 18


Understanding the Importance of Keywords 21


Using Online Keyword Tools 25


Using Wordle.net 25


Using LinkedIn Topic pages 27


Using Google AdWords Keyword Planner 28


Ranking Higher with Profile SEO 30


Building Off Profile SEO 31


Chapter 3: Understanding Skills and Endorsements 33


Showcasing Your Skills 34


Adding skills 35


Rearranging skills 37


Obtaining Endorsements 38


Hiding an Endorsement 39


Opting Out of Endorsements 40


Endorsing a Connection 41


Removing an Endorsement 42


Soliciting Endorsements 43


Part 2: Getting Your Linkedin Profile Started 45


Chapter 4: Optimizing the ”Behind the Scenes“ Sections 47


Managing Profile Changes 47


Turning Off Update aAlerts 48


Manually Removing Updates 49


Knowing When to Allow Update Alerts 50


Turning on Your Public Profile 51


Creating a Personalized URL 53


Using Your Name 55


Oh No, My Name is Taken! 55


Marketing Your Public Profile URL 56


Improving Your Profile’s Strength 57


Dealing with a Lack of a Current Position 58


Adding a School without a Degree 59


Expanding Your Network 60


Chapter 5: Establishing Your Calling Card 65


Using the Name Field Correctly 66


Editing your Name 66


Adding prefixes to Your Name 67


Keeping your Profile Confidential 68


Filling Out Location and Industry 69


Choosing your Location 69


Choosing your Industry 70


Suggesting a Missing Industry 72


Including Your Contact Information 73


Adding your Email Addresses 74


Adding a Phone Number 76


Adding your IM Address 77


Adding your Work Address 78


Adding your Twitter Account 79


Adding WeChat 80


Adding Websites 81


Chapter 6: Impressing with the Right Profile Picture 85


Why You Need a Profile Picture 86


Determining If You Need a New Profile Picture 86


Using a Photo Already Taken 88


Working with a Photographer 89


Taking Your Own Profile Picture 90


Understanding the Importance of Light 91


Finding the Right Background 91


Framing the Shot 92


Finding the Right Outfit 93


Choosing and Uploading Your Profile Picture 94


Cropping to Profile Picture Dimensions 94


Resizing and Saving a High-Res Image 95


Uploading your Photo 96


Changing Photo Visibility Settings 97


Chapter 7: Developing a Compelling Headline 99


Grabbing Your Reader’s Attention 99


Adding Flair to Your Headline 100


Saturating Your Headline with Keywords 104


Add your Job Title 105


Add your Specialty 105


Add an Extracurricular Hobby 106


Add a Happy Ending 107


Creating a Benefit Statement Headline 107


Adding Your New and Improved Headline to LinkedIn 110


Part 3: Detailing Your Career Trajectory and Creating the Ultimate First Impression 111


Chapter 8: Getting Your Experiences Ready 113


Referencing Your Resume 114


Determining Which Experiences to Keep and Which to Merge 115


Keep your Target Audience in Mind 117


How far back do I go? 118


Creating a Work History for Recent Graduates 118


Dealing with Employment Gaps 119


Chapter 9: Creating a Powerful Experience 121


Adding a New Experience 122


Making the Start and End Dates Match your Resume 125


Using Month and Year or Just Year 125


Getting the Company Logo to Appear 126


Linking to the Company Page 128


Less Is More — Stop Disqualifying Yourself 129


Summarizing the Company with a Boilerplate Description 129


Describing your Roles and Responsibilities 132


Crafting an Impactful Achievement 133


Giving your Reader a Call to Action 133


Editing an Existing Experience 134


Reordering Concurrent Experiences 135


Removing an Experience 136


Reattaching Recommendations to Different Experiences 137


Optimizing Your Job Title with Keywords 138


Job Title Character Limits 140


Making your Job Title Pop with Symbols 140


Examples of Great Experiences 141


Salesperson Looking for a New Opportunity 141


Salesperson Looking for More Prospects 142


Human Resources Professional Using LinkedIn for Reputation Management 142


Chapter 10: Writing a Compelling Summary 145


Editing Your LinkedIn Summary 146


Writing in First Person 147


Avoiding Resume Speak 147


Revisiting Your LinkedIn Goals and Target Audience 148


Catching Your Reader’s Attention 149


Creating Your Professional Manifesto 150


Explain your Benefits 151


Highlight your Top Achievements 152


Keep the Summary Focused on You 153


Create a Clear Call to Action 153


Formatting a Sleek LinkedIn Summary 156


Examples of Compelling and Engaging Summaries 156


Product Management 157


Leadership 157


Retail 158


Accounting 159


Student 159


Part 4: Rounding Out Your Profile and Adding Finishing Touches 161


Chapter 11: There’s More to You Than Your Jobs 163


Showcasing Organizations 163


Uncovering Your Honors and Awards 166


Choosing the Right Honors and Awards 167


Creating a Strong Description 168


Keeping your Honors and Awards Updated 170


The Three P’s: Projects, Publications, and Patents 170


Adding Projects 170


Adding Publications 173


Adding Patents 174


The Two C’s: Certifications and Courses 176


Importing Certifications from Lynda.com 178


Adding Courses 178


Adding the Languages You Speak 179


Creating a Profile in Another Language 180


Adding Your Education, or Lack Thereof 181


Divulging the Year you Graduated 182


Preparing Activities and Societies 182


Adding your Education 183


Reordering Education 185


Adding Multimedia 185


Adding Volunteer Experiences 187


Pro Bono Opportunities 189


Chapter 12: Making Your Profile Personal and Unique 191


Leveraging the Additional Information Section 191


Adding Interests 192


Providing Details that Show you are Human 195


Offering Advice for Contacting you 198


Blocking People from Viewing your Profile 200


Adding Multimedia to Make Your Profile POP! 201


Determining what to Highlight with Multimedia Files 202


Resisting the Urge to Upload Your Resume 204


Reinforcing Your Brand with a Background Image 205


Finding the Right Image to Showcase your Brand 205


Using Online Graphic Tools to Create an Image 207


Adding a Background Image to your Profile 209


The Importance of Recommendations 209


Identifying People to Recommend you 210


Asking for a Recommendation 211


Ditching the Default Request Text 214


Accepting a Recommendation 215


Reordering Recommendations 216


Removing Recommendations 216


Recommending Others 217


Chapter 13: Following Groups, Companies, and Influencers 221


Understanding the Importance of Groups 222


Determining the Types of Groups to Join 223


Turning Off Group Notifications 225


Joining Recommended Groups 226


Searching for Groups 227


Deleting Groups 229


Turning Off Group Communication Email 230


Choosing Which Groups to Highlight on Your Profile 231


Cultivating Your Following Section 232


Choosing the Right Companies to Follow 233


Following Companies 234


Unfollowing Companies 234


Following News 235


Showcasing Influencers on Your Profile 235


Deciding Which Influencers to Showcase 236


Finding Specific Influencers 236


Discovering Recommended Influencers 238


Removing Influencers 238


Publishing on LinkedIn 239


Showcasing Yourself As A Thought Leader 241


Creating Your First Article 241


What happens after you publish? 247


Marketing Your Blog Post 247


Chapter 14: The Final Review and Reveal 249


Rearranging Profile Sections 250


Viewing Your Profile as an Outsider 252


Your LinkedIn Profile Checklist 253


To Pay or Not Pay for LinkedIn 255


Features of Paid Accounts 255


Unique Features of Premium Accounts 258


Choosing the Best Plan for You 260


Benchmarking Your Profile’s Success 260


Marketing Your Profile 262


Alerting Your Connections of Your Updated Profile 262


Adding Your Profile To Other Social Media Sites 266


Getting Views To Your Linkedin Profile 268


Part 5: The Part of Tens 275


Chapter 15: Ten Profile Do’s and Don’ts 277


Do Use a Professional Profile Picture 277


Don’t Use LinkedIn’s Default Headline 278


Do Turn Off Your Update Notifications 278


Do Use Eye-Catching Symbols Sparingly 278


Do Include Your Contact Information 278


Do Add Multimedia Files 279


Don’t Stuff Keywords 279


Don’t Go Back 30 Years 279


Do Get Recommendations 280


Do Add Interests 280


Chapter 16: Ten Tips for a Perfect Profile Picture 281


Hire a Professional Photographer 281


Use Lots of Light 282


Use a Nondescript Background 282


Dress to Impress 283


Adjust Yourself 283


Keep the Camera Close to Eye Level 284


Say No to the Mug Shot 284


Crinkle, Smile, and Jut 285


Use Photoshop Lightly 285


Crop Your Image 285


Chapter 17: Ten Tips to Expand Your Network 287


Import Your Address Book 288


Import a Contact List 290


Let LinkedIn Help You Connect 290


Join One Hundred Groups 291


Start a LinkedIn Group 292


Make Connecting a Process 292


Link to Your Profile 292


Brand Yourself a LION or Just Connect to Them 293


Join Open Networking Lists and Groups 294


Use an App 295


Chapter 18: Ten Tips to Leverage LinkedIn 297


A-B-C Always Be Connecting 297


Connect and Stay in Touch 298


Gather Business Intelligence 299


Get the News 300


Get Social Proof and Credibility 301


Get Past the Gatekeeper 301


Rub Elbows in Groups 301


Find Assistance 302


Showcase Thought Leadership 302


Network in Your Pajamas 303


Chapter 19: Ten LinkedIn Profile Resources 305


Get Inspired and Excited 305


LinkedIn Headline Generator 306


Virtual Phone Numbers 306


Google Voice 306


Skype 307


Say No to AOL and Hotmail Addresses 307


Your Own Domain 307


Acceptable Free Domains 307


Symbol Variations 308


Stop the Typos 308


SlideShare 308


Photographer Directories 309


Background Image Libraries 309


Online Image Apps 310


Index 311