10 Tips To Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

A complete LinkedIn profile demonstrates that you take yourself seriously as a professional within your industry. It also helps you to optimise your position in LinkedIn search results and according to LinkedIn; users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.

Take a look at my 10 Tips below to help you to create or build your existing LinkedIn profile.

TIP 1 Name and Current Position

When creating your LinkedIn profile you can include your maiden name, nickname or a previous name. You can also edit this section within your existing profile. Note that your Public Profile will not display the Former/Maiden Name field, so any searches performed on Google using this information will not produce any results.

You MUST include a current position and therefore if you are not currently working then it's recommended that you state that you are "Actively seeking new employment" If you hold voluntary positions then you can include this work too.

TIP 2 Are you in the right Location and Industry?

What is your main professional location in other words where do you work? When creating a LinkedIn profile it's common for people to include there home postcode. Instead it's highly recommended that you include the area you are looking to work.

What is it that you do? Many people include the Industry that they work in rather than the role they perform, it's important to be recognised for what you do.

TIP 3 Description of Current Role

I would recommend that you don't just copy and paste your CV into the experience of each of your roles on LinkedIn. Instead write a brief paragraph as to what you have achieved within that role.

TIP 4 Include a Picture

You MUST have a profile picture and a smart headshot is perfect. Whilst your photo doesn't need to be taken by a professional it does need to represent you as a professional within your industry.

TIP 5 Two Past Positions

According to LinkedIn Including your two most recent positions will make your profile 12x more likely to be found. Most of us will find it easy to include two previous positions, however for those who have worked for the same organisation for a number of years then ensure that you include your various positions separately. If a graduate or someone who has only just started working then if possible include Internships, Summer Placements or part-time work.

TIP 6 Education

Remember to also include any Professional Qualifications that you have achieved.

TIP 7 A Strong Profile Summary

Utilise the allocated 2000 characters to your benefit. What is your Goal? What can you offer? Where can you add value? What are you looking for?

TIP 8 Include Your Skills

You can include up to 50 skills and there is a feature which also allows you to include your level of proficiency, choose from the drop down: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert. You can also include your years of experience.

TIP 9 Start Connecting

In order to complete your 100% profile you are required to have 50 or more connections. LinkedIn informs us that we should only connect to those people whom we know well. Whilst this is a good policy in theory, it can be quite difficult in practice. I recommend that before making connections on LinkedIn that you take the time to decide how you wish to use the LinkedIn service. Are you looking to use LinkedIn as a place to store all your contacts as you would an address book or are you looking for job or business opportunities?

TIP 10 REMEMBER!

Double check your spelling! What type of impression do you want to give the reader to your profile? What makes you different, why should they make contact with you?

"Don't say anything online that you wouldn't want plastered on a billboard with your face on it"

Nikki Hutchison, founder of Chilli Pepper Global http://www.chillipepperglobal.com/ advising you on every aspect of the job seeking process guiding you step by step whether you are returning to work after raising a family or redundancy, looking to move internally with your existing employer or externally with a new organistation.