As a recent college graduate, I understand the importance of LinkedIn — or so I thought. In Public Relations we’re frequently told, “connect with me on LinkedIn,” as an assumption that all young professionals in PR have a LinkedIn. Most of us do, but the truth is that many of us don’t fully understand the best way to meet our end goals by utilizing it. Like most recent grads, I LinkedIn as a more detailed online resume. That’s one of the problems. We’re treating LinkedIn like a generic resume. What happens to generic resumes that are not tailored to a specific company or niche? They’re thrown out. Essentially the same theme occurs for LinkedIn. People don’t care so much about where you went to school and what awards you’ve received, they care about themselves. And why shouldn’t they? They are looking for a candidate to help their business thrive, not make new friends.
So how do we make ourselves irresistible amongst millions of other profiles? We refocus, repurpose and reframe every sentence of our LinkedIn profile to match the need of the target.
Here are a few quick and easy LinkedIn tweaks that will get you noticed and help your profile get more engagement:
- Rewrite your professional headline
- The headline should clearly explain what industry/niche you work in and how you can benefit clients in that niche.
- Use LinkedIn’s search tool to see what the most popular keyword searches are related to your industry.
- Edit your Contact Information in the area’s “website” or “blog” listings
- Instead of choosing one of the pre-set options that LinkedIn offers, choose “other” and write a brief phrase hinting at what company or client need your particular skillset will meet.
- Start your LinkedIn profile’s summary section with ALL CAPS to highlight services that your target companies offer, making sure your summary is client facing.
- Add in multimedia clips to your summary section
- Videos, online presentations, links to pages on your website, photos or portfolios, etc. that demonstrate your expertise.
About Caroline Josey
Caroline Josey is a University of Florida graduate, Go Gators and Go Jorts!
