How to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

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LinkedIn is the largest professional social media platform. It is a great place to connect with other professionals and businesses. Just like any social media profile, it is important that your profile is complete and looks good. This is a quick step-by-step guide for how to have a great LinkedIn profile.

Customize Your LinkedIn URL

Customizing your LinkedIn URL makes it easier to search and looks more professional. Just go to your profile, on the right click “Edit Public Profile and URL”, then on the right, under “Edit your custom URL” click the pen and edit the end of your URL to your first and last name.

Profile and Cover Photo

Make sure your profile picture is professional. It looks best if it is just of you. If you do not have a professional photo, have a friend take a picture of you against a brick wall. For the cover photo, find a photo that applies to the field you are going into. You can find high quality, free and royalty-free photos at Pixabay or Unsplash (links).

Headline

Under your name you can add a headline. In your headline, include the industry or job you want to get in to and what you are looking for. Something like “Social Media Manager Enthusiast Looking for More Opportunities” or “Up and Coming Business Analyst” are great if you are looking for a new job.

Summary

Your summary is like the summary on your resume. It is two to three sentences that showcase your best skills. You can easily copy and paste your summary from your resume and insert it here.

Experience | Education | Volunteering

The easiest way to complete your experience, education and volunteering experience is take everything you did on your resume (link) and copy and paste it into your profile. That way your jobs and bullets are the best they can be.

If you do not have your volunteer experience on your resume, still add any that is relevant.

Skills

List all the skills you have. Do not be afraid to use the keyword list you created when making your resume or to Google a list of skills and find the ones that apply to you. You cannot have too many skills!

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