5 Ways To Make Your LinkedIn Profile Pop in 2022
Darren Westall
May 12, 2022
Marketing
As of January 2022, LinkedIn had at least 808.4 million members around the world, suggesting that 14.6% of all people aged 18 or over around the world have a LinkedIn profile today. This may lead some of us to ask how on earth we are able to make our profiles stand out from the crowd, because the crowd is quite overpopulated as it is.
The first thing to note is that you aren’t trying to stand out in a crowd of 808.4 million people. Instead, you are trying to stand out in a crowd which covers the industry and sectors you specialise in, and for some people, the area in which you are based as well. This makes creating a noticeable LinkedIn profile still quite a challenge, but a much more achievable one.
So, what does a good LinkedIn profile look like and where should you start?
1. Your profile picture
Choose a profile picture that looks like you today – not you 10 years ago. Ideally, a photo of your head and shoulders with a clear shot of your face is ideal, so people can recognise you if they know you (such as candidates and clients for recruiters). If the organisation you work for has a way to uniform all LinkedIn profile pictures – such as against a blue background, for example – this is a great brand awareness tactic which will enable your network to recognise where you work.
Make sure the quality of your photo is good, too. If it’s filtered or outdated, it won’t give the same personable impression as a high-quality photo would. And of course, try to avoid sunglasses or facemasks in a profile photo – that might seem like a glaringly obvious suggestion, but there’s countless of them out there!
2. Your headline
Your headline is basically your selling point – tell your network how you can solve their problems. Nobody really cares if you’re a recruitment director, a recruitment team leader or a recruitment consultant. They will, however, care if you are “Placing the top tech talent in SMEs all over the UK” if they are either a) a tech candidate or b) work in a SME and are hiring tech employees.
Keep it short, punchy and honest – if you want your connections to remember who you are and what you do, tell people what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
3. Your summary
Your LinkedIn summary is your chance to show off. Keep it short (the word ‘summary’ is key here) and try to include not only your skills, motivations and sector specialities, but also how you can solve problems for prospective customers. Despite your summary specifically being about you, people viewing your profile will also want to know how your expertise could possibly add value to them in some way.
Make sure you end your summary with some form of CTA, and include multiple contact details. Don’t just include your phone number – add your email address and website as a minimum, too.
4. Your featured links
Don’t dismiss how valuable the featured section of your LinkedIn profile is. This is your opportunity to display your most impressive content and can set you apart from other recruiters or competitors.
When you click on the Add Featured icon, you’ll be able to select from the drop-down menu and choose if you want to share a post, article, link or media. If there’s a video you’ve featured in, or a blog you’ve contributed to, this is your chance to display it at the top of your profile with pride.
Remember – colleagues, candidates and clients will all be able to see your featured links, and you want them to feel inspired and impressed, so make sure you share your best work!
5. Your experience
Setting up and optimising your LinkedIn profile wouldn’t be complete without filling out the experience section. Depending on how long you’ve been working, this section could either be quite short or extremely long. It’s unlikely that anyone will go through your experience section with a fine-toothed comb, so be sure to keep it short, simple and only include the highlights.
For example, your job title, company name, dates you worked there and 3-5 bullet points describing your responsibilities in each role is plenty of information. If you are including bullet points at all (this is optional) make sure you only mention key highlights such as achievements, statistics and promotions.
Get in touch
Here at Paiger, we could talk about the importance of posting effectively on LinkedIn until the cows come home, we’ve even made a LinkedIn Playbook you can download for free here. Our platform enables you to not only schedule content ahead of time but also to enable your network to consistently engage with you when they see regular posts going out in your name. Book a demo with us today.
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