Weekly Marketing Roundup: 27/02/2020

In this Weekly Marketing Roundup: 27/02/2020 we discuss how to build a winning LinkedIn profile. We share with you actionable tips and tricks for 2020. If you already have a profile, improve it using our guide. Do not have one yet? Hurry up and make a winning one using this article!

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Thank you for tuning into this Weekly Marketing Roundup: 27/02/2020. Here we discuss how to build a winning LinkedIn profile.

Let’s talk LinkedIn!

LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with nearly 675+ million members in over 200 countries and territories. What more, professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of more than two new members per second. Moreover, more than 70 percent of LinkedIn members are outside the U.S.

First of all, LinkedIn has been around since 2003, which is much longer than Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter. It is widely considered the benchmark for professional networking social media platforms. Also, it is widely used by hiring recruiters and managers, which is why you should establish a strong position there.

Here are 6 tips you should use when designing your LinkedIn profile.

1. Profile picture

Remember to put your best face forward. Your picture should be engaging, friendly and inviting others to connect.

• Reflecting and representing your online brand and personal image in the best possible way.
• Not only does your profile picture help others recognize who you are, but it opens that gateway to making new connections with clients and candidates.
• Make sure it’s professional, approachable, and friendly.

How to take the best LinkedIn profile picture?

1. Choose a photo that looks like you.
2. Put your face in the center of the frame.
3. Practice your facial expression.
4. Wear what you’d wear to work.
5. Choose a nondistracting background.

2. LinkedIn Headline

It is an introduction to who you are. One of the first things people see when clicking on your profile.

Treat your LinkedIn profile headline as the headline of an ad and how it should entice viewers to open your profile. If you only include your job title, your profile will be added to the never-ending queue of other profiles who hold the same title as you.

• Choose keywords that would be commonly searched.
• The rocket emoji 🚀 adds a bit of fun to the headline as well.
• Hashtags are also another way you can optimise your headline and stand out from the norm.

‘if you want your LinkedIn account to be a way that people discover you, place an emphasis on keywords.’

 Consider including something personal that gives your candidates more insight into who you are as a person. This could include ‘Mountain Bike Rider’, ‘Mental Health Advocate’ or ‘Tech Blogger’

3. Create a summary that tells your story

• Make it about you.
• Tell your story, so make it interesting and engaging.
• Write in the 1st person.
• Reveal your humour.
• Go into detail about your strengths, achievements, responsibilities, passions, and interests.
• Adding media to your ‘About’ section. Example in the image. Others can click on the videos and gain some insight on your everything you wish to share about yourself.
• Answer the questions:

1. What do you do every day?
2. What does it mean to be (your position)?
3. Why are you in (your industry) and not some other industry?
4. What about (your industry) excites you?
5. What’s the best part of your job?

4. Work experience

• More interactive and accessible version of your resume.
• Time to highlight skills that align with your personal brand. It’s also beneficial to fill this section with at least three past positions.
• Role and responsibilities while in that role, but their achievements, KPIs and overall success.
• Differentiate your paper resume/LinkedIn experience: content such as articles, images, videos, professional portfolio and more.
• A solid experience section highlighting his role, responsibilities, achieved skills and includes media attachments.
• The added multimedia takes you to a landing page of a Q&A giving a little insight for employers or clients on your background and growth as a specialist.

5. Skills, endorsements and recommendations

• List of skills shows employers and potential clients what you are qualified to do, and what you consider to be your biggest strengths.
• Don’t go adding every skill imaginable just to look fancy and highly qualified.
• Be strategic.
• There is no point adding ‘Teamwork’ to your list of skills if only one person endorses you for this!
• If you do have the skills – add them!

Recommendations from previous hires, colleagues, and clients: One of the most frequently viewed areas of a LinkedIn profile.

• Tip: Request one recommendation a month. When someone says, “You did a great job on that project!” ask him or her to take a snapshot of that success by writing a recommendation on LinkedIn. And don’t be afraid to specify what you’d like the person that gives you a recommendation to focus on. Getting generic recommendations that say, “Anna was great to work with” aren’t very helpful—but something specific, like “Anna’s contributions on the project, enabled us to increase forecasted savings by 5% over our original plan” will really showcase your strengths.
• But keep in mind, not every LinkedIn recommendation you receive is beautifully written or even relevant to your professional success. Luckily, the platform sends you recommendations before they go public, and you can decide to add them to your profile, dismiss them, or keep them ‘pending’. You can also manage recommendations that are already on your profile by clicking the “Edit” icon on that section and choose to show or hide. Remember, you can also request revisions from the person who wrote it.

6. Articles and Activity

• Keep active on your LinkedIn feed by commenting, liking, sharing and posting.
• Video is not only engaging but will represent 80% of all Internet traffic by 2021

Finishing touches

• Customize your LinkedIn URL (to your name, or your name plus your field, if you have a common name) and join a few targeted groups in your area of expertise.
• Reorder the sections on your profile if it fits your brand better. The summary section will always be on top, but you can move your publication section higher or your education down, depending on what you think works best.
• Remember to update your profile in private. You can turn off the updates under privacy settings, so you’re not broadcasting every change you make.
• Once your finished product is done, check with others to see if your LinkedIn profile is conveying your brand statement. You might want to apply changes after you get feedback.
• Keep updating your profile to make sure it stays current. After all, the whole point is ensuring that recruiters and hiring managers are seeing the most up-to-date and best version of you out there.

How to measure success?

Who’s viewed your profile

• Profile views increasing?
• How do you rank vs. your connections and coworkers?

Who’s viewed your updates

• Are more people viewing, liking, sharing and commenting on your content?

Network statistics

• Is your network growing?

New LinkedIn features

LinkedIn recently announced several new ways to get noticed on its site. Take a look, they are quite handy.

Open for business: List your services

You can use the Open for Business feature to take better advantage of your network. The feature allows small business owners and professionals to network and connect with members looking for the services they offer, and it allows service providers to reach potential clients. LinkedIn is pitching this as a way for businesses and freelancers to find new customers.

LinkedIn Skills Assessment

The platform is rolling out a “Skills Assessment” feature, which allows users to take a test to earn a badge they can use to show proficiency. A typical assessment consists of 15 to 20 multiple choice questions and each question tests at least one concept or subskill. The questions are timed and must be completed in one session.

The topics you can earn badges in are limited for now to a list of well-known business software, such as Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft PowerPoint. You can also earn badges for AWS, AutoCAD, Hadoop, HTML, Java, JavaScript, C++, Python, Ruby, WordPress, XML and other technical topics. LinkedIn is working on expanding that list.

For now, the feature is only available in English and isn’t accessible to all LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn Events feature

LinkedIn offers to promote events, which might create new opportunities to communicate with your network. This allows you to communicate with attendees via the event feed, and invite attendees to connect with you on LinkedIn if you’re not already connected.

Your event attendees can also send invitations (if you give them permission) which can expand your network. Anyone can join events, but not everyone can create them yet. 

In conclusion

These simple steps will help you expand your professional network, not only by increasing the chance that a contact will be able to help you with your job search, but also that other industry insiders might come across your profile and see you as a prospective job candidate.

Open up your LinkedIn and get on with it!