Turn Your LinkedIn Profile into a Job Magnet

Love it or hate it, LinkedIn is part of modern business and if you are building a career, your LinkedIn profile can act like a magnet, attracting the people or the algorithms who are looking for you. 

If you haven't been giving your LinkedIin much love lately, you're not alone.

A lot of my clients tell me that they just don't really know how and why to use it, so they don't bother.

But that's a missed opportunity, whether you're looking for a job or not, because when your profile has the right elements, it will attract recruiters, hiring managers and other people who might have the great next career opportunity for you. 

In fact, if you’re in some professions, such as enterprise software sales, if you’re not on LinkedIn, it’s like you don’t even exist. Even if you're a tailor or a farmer or a general contractor, a strong LinkedIn presence will show your professional approach to your business and can affect your success.

Who’s looking at your LinkedIn profile? All kinds of people. 

• Recruiters looking for candidates
• Recruiters screening the applications and resumes for a job you applied to
• Hiring managers, both before or after your interview
• People considering working for you or for your company
• People considering hiring your or the company you work for
• People researching careers like yours
• People you used to work with
• Current and potential clients, vendors and consultants
• That person you met in the coffee line at Starbucks and maybe your neighbor

Every one of these visitors to your profile is an opportunity to share who you are professionally in an inviting way so people see you the way you want them to see you.

Here are a few quick ways to make your LinkedIn profile draw people in:

Put up a great photo.

Profiles with photos get 14 times more views than profiles without, and I guarantee that profiles with a great picture get far more than the ones with boring photos. Look awesome in your picture, like someone who likes who you are. 

Use a head shot where you look happy and confident. Wear something neutral that you might wear to work, not too formal, not too casual. It's not about your clothes.

A solid background works best; I like white backgrounds but black works too - you can do this by just having someone take a bunch of shots with your phone standing against a solid wall. Be authentic. Smile, laugh, be playful, have fun.

Your photo is so important that I often recommend investing in a professional headshot so you put your best face forward to business world, including clients, colleagues and hiring managers. You want your picture to make them think "I like that person" as their first impression. 

Customize your headline.

LinkedIn will automatically fill in your current job title and employer in as your headline, but you can (and should) change that to something that describes what you really do and are.

If you had a tagline in the context of your career, what would it be? Use that.

Your formal title might be “Associate Assistant to the Training Department” but who you really are in your career is an “Innovative Learning and Development Project Manager." And you can add more about specialties, too, in your headline. Don't be afraid to stand out. Standing out is the whole point!

Create an inviting and interesting summary section.

The "About" section on LinkedIn is your chance to talk about yourself in a bigger-picture way.

Use a conversational first-person voice and tell people what you’re all about. Never write in third person (like it's someone talking about you, that's weird) on a personal page.

And use pronouns (I, me, my, our) and write in natural sentences that are the way you talk, so it feels like you. Keep the resume-speak out of your profile to feel more personal to the reader.

Introduce yourself the way you want people to see you. Tell them who you are, in the context of your career. Sometimes a quick summary of what you’ve done to date is good and if you're a leader, sharing a little about your philosophy will make you stand out.

Just make sure it sounds inviting, friendly and like you.

Include all the right keywords. 

Don't be afraid of keywords, they're simple to get right.

LinkedIn and other computer appication systems automatically compare and match the words in your profile (or application) to the words in the job posting to rank how well you fit the job, so make sure the right keywords are found in your title line, summary and job descriptions.

This shouldn't be difficult if you have the right experience for the jobs you're going after... just include these key words from the job descriptions in how  you describe your work on LinkedIn.

You can also create a subsection in your summary of keywords, which is helpful for technical people who have a lot of skills that people might be searching for, and for executives who have a truly broad range of skills and experience in their toolbox. Put it at the bottom of the About section and you can easily update it during your search.

And please be aware that just dumping keywords in your profile may backfire if your experience doesn't back it up... they work best when they are woven in organically in how you describe your work and your job. 

Tell a story with your experience.

Writing a LinkedIn profile is different than a resume. It's in more natura langauge, and not just a list of responsibilities or whatever. And don’t just cut and paste from your resume.

Instead, in each job, summarize a little about the company and what you did there that you’re proud of. A paragraph or two with the overview is fine for each entry. Keep it simple and in natural language. If they need more details, that’s on your resume.

Build your network before you need it.

When it’s time for a job search, it’s so much easier if you have put time into expanding and developing your connections before you try to use them in a job search. For the most important connections, you can be more visible to them by following them, reading their blog, liking their posts, sharing some appropriate news, and being active in similar groups.

Once you begin connecting with people, LinkedIn’s algorithms will suggest more for you. LinkedIn’s platform will walk you through checking who you might know; here’s a link to their help page for that.

Ask more people to write you recommendations.

In business networking, LinkedIn's recommendation function gave a place for first-hand testimony from verifiable sources to share about working with you. This was a breakthrough in evaluating candidates, and these words of praise go a long way... whether it's from a former coworker, boss, subordinate or client, recommendations are very persuasive to the recruiters, clients and hiring managers who are checking you out.

Here’s a link to LinkedIn’s instructions on how to ask for recommendations. Ask people who will say good things about you and who you can see have written strong recommendations for others. Prompt them a little by suggesting what to write about, like “I’d love if you could talk a little about that ABC project we worked so hard on together,” so they reinforce the things you want them to.

Also, you have to approve a recommendation before it shows on your page, so it it needs a little work or has typos, you can ask them to edit it if you need to, and if you don't like what they say, you can choose not to approve it, so you're in control.

Give recommendations to people you’ve worked with in the past.

Be generous and descriptive with your words, and feel free to show lots of personality since that will stand out. Spend time with what you write and proof well, since others will see it, too. The recommendations you give will reflect your own values and show an important side of you as an employee, client, boss, or whatever the case is.

Join some groups and connect with people.

LinkedIn groups can be a fantastic resource for job seekers and career climbers. It takes a little time and wandering around to find the right groups for you. See what you can find in your industry, your profession, your local or regional area.

Join the groups where you find people you’d like to know or learn from. Don’t be afraid to ask for entry into closed groups, since these may have the best conversations and you might be able to establish an online awareness and find yourself connecting with some movers and shakers in your field.

There is a lot more you can do on LinkedIn, of course, but hopefully you found a few places you know you can up your game, and that's a great place to start.