Living in the age of social media means you aren’t somebody until you can be found on professional sites such as LinkedIn. However, with more professionals and businesses creating an account on this social networking site, it’s becoming more difficult to get found by potential employers or customers.
So, what can you do to increase your chances of getting found on the most powerful and popular professional network? You can start by optimizing your account correctly which will give you a leg up in using LinkedIn to find jobs, customers and more. In fact, optimizing your account needs to be a priority as it’s what can take your profile views to go from 0 to 1,000.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Complete your profile
This one’s a no-brainer but, if you take a look at the profiles on LinkedIn, you’ll notice that so many of them aren’t completely filled in. So, take the time to fill out every single section as this can help improve your position on LinkedIn’s search results and rank higher over partially completed ones.
Not sure which sections to fill out or what information to include? LinkedIn provides a useful tracker that shows the percentage of fields completed and the areas where you would need to add extra information about yourself, your skills and experience.
2. Claim your Vanity URL
When you first create your LinkedIn account, your initial URL will include some random numbers and letters. Claim your vanity URL by changing it to your full name – for eg. linkedin.com/in/johnexample/. This helps you connect your LinkedIn profile to your name so you can get found easier by your real-life connections.
3. Optimise your profile using relevant keywords
When writing your profile description, make sure you optimize it by including the keywords you’d like your profile to be associated with in LinkedIn’s search results. Think of the search keywords a potential client or employers would enter into the LinkedIn search bar to find you. For example, if you’re a London-based web designer, focus on keywords such as “web designer” and “web designer London”.
4. Join and participate in relevant groups
Run a search on LinkedIn to find groups you might find interesting or useful. By joining and participating in relevant groups you can not only expand your network easily but also improve your profile’s visibility. But don’t just join these groups. You also need to engage and contribute in a positive way in order to boost your level of profile activity. The more you engage, the higher the chances of ranking higher in LinkedIn’s search results.
5. Expand your network
LinkedIn is the perfect platform to connect with as many people as possible, whether they’re friends, former university colleagues, co-workers or potential clients. The size of your network is another important factor LinkedIn takes into account when displaying results. So, if you’re serious about improving your profile’s visibility on LinkedIn’s search results, you need to expand your network. Don’t stop at people you know. Take it one step further and reach out to new contacts, especially those who share your professional interests and skills.
How about you – what else are you doing to improve the visibility of your LinkedIn Profile?