With the spread of coronavirus pushing people into enforced self-isolation, many of us are finding ourselves navigating a new working from home normal. Working from home means that we are finding new ways to stay productive in a different environment and using technology to communicate with our colleagues.
Taking a step back from normal every day life can provide the perfect opportunity to update your social media profiles. Users with a completed LinkedIn profile are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through the platform as it improves your search rankings and the likelihood of engagement. To help you up your game, we’ve pulled together our top tips for improving your LinkedIn profile.
Update your profile picture/banner
Your header and banner is the first visible thing a LinkedIn user will see when they click onto your profile. In order to make the best impression, we recommend using a recent and professional photograph of yourself and choosing a banner which reinforces who you are and visually supports the written portions of your profile. Your images should communicate your skills, value and professional identity.
Write a compelling about us section
The best profile defines you in your own words and strengthens your first impression in a way that no other profile section can. We recommend a tightly worded paragraph with optimised key words to get the best results. Your summary should expand on what appears in your headline, highlighting your specialities, career experiences and noteworthy accolades.
Update profile basics
We’re often too busy getting on with our daily lives to think about updating our professional profile. Whether you’re currently exploring new opportunities, or you’ve just started a new job, there is no excuse to have outdated information on LinkedIn. Make sure your location, industry, professional headline and company reflects your current status.
LinkedIn’s helpful completion meter can guide you to complete any unfinished key sections and to improve your organisations presence on LinkedIn. The tool not only lets users identify what information is missing, it also actions points to populate a page.
Publish valuable content
One of the best ways to grow your connections and audience is to be publishing valuable and interesting content which has a significant, long term value. Whether you are creating, curating or sharing content, each post can increase your reach, build awareness and spark engagement. LinkedIn recommends at least one post a day to actively engage audiences, but what should you be posting? The type of content we recommend for your LinkedIn profile is as follows:
- Video
- Self-published articles
- Short content posts
- Sharing industry-adjacent content
Did you know? LinkedIn status’ can be up to 700 characters long on company page posts and 1,300 characters for status’ on personal accounts. However, LinkedIn articles have no real character limit so if you’ve got a lot to say, always opt for an article. Want to learn more about social media post lengths, click here.
Grow your network
You can never have too many connections on LinkedIn and growing your network is a guaranteed way to interact with more people and showcase the content your publishing. Join groups and reach out to colleagues, friends and clients/customers – the more the merrier!
Looking for help with your own social presence? Get in touch with us today.