Love it or hate it, LinkedIn is the de facto place to be for career-minded professionals like yourself. However, to truly benefit from the platform, you need to be found.
But with 300M plus users, how do you stand out from the crowd in LinkedIn?
To learn how to stand out on LinkedIn, I started listening to the audiobook by John Nemo titled “LinkedIn Riche$.”
I’m at the ½ way mark at the time of this post, but it is proving so far to be a good reminder of what LinkedIn is, what it is not and how to use it correctly to stand out.
2 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR VISIBILITY TODAY
Over the years, I’ve tweaked my profile off and on to see what drives activity and what doesn’t. Similar to how a content marketer will conduct A/B split testing to see what copy or content works best at converting observers to customers.
While the tweaks I’ve made have always resulted in a more robust profile and attracted more attention, they’ve always been done with the thought process of treating LinkedIn like an online resume.
John’s book reminded me I am not alone. The vast majority of LinkedIn users do the same, which results in a boring and not Stand Out worthy profile.
I don’t like boring. If you listened to my interview with Dorie Clark, you know you need to Stand Out in all aspects of your life in today’s economy.
So over the next few weeks, I’m going to be updating my profile using the tips and tricks from John’s book. Don’t worry; I’ll do it with the broadcast feature off.
My goal for the updates will be to increase my profile views and increase the number of people who take my online brand assessment.
Starting this week, I’m going to update my headline and contact information sections.
YOUR HEADLINE
I think the vast majority of us have a headline that is Blah, Blah, Blah. That’s because your default headline is your most recent job position. I’m no exception here. My headline has no reason to stand out.
The beauty of the headline is that you can make it anything you want, as long as it’s real. For example, mine will never mention the hair club for men or Rogaine.
But it can certainly be better than my current job title.
Take some time today and think about an attention-grabbing headline for you. Here are a few examples of attention-grabbing headlines to get you started thinking.
Dorie Clark: HBR/Forbes contributor; author of “Stand Out” and “Reinventing You.”
Matthew Capala: Internet Entrepreneur, Founder of Alphametic & Search Decoder, SEO Strategist, Speaker, Author of “SEO Like I'm 5”
Lea McLeod: Job Search + Job Confidence Coaching + Courses
Hannah Morgan: Job Search Speaker & Trainer | Author & Blogger | Online Visibility | Career Sherpa.net
While those headlines are good, these next ones are some of my favorites. I think you’ll agree; they make you want to look up their profiles.
Picture from: http://www.linkedinsights.com/3-stunningly-original-linkedin-headlines/
CONTACT INFORMATION
The contact info area might be the most under-utilized section in your profile. To edit it click on the Contact Info button to open the editing menu.
With the contact info menu open, you can see there are two sections; Visible to your connections and Visible to everyone on LinkedIn. Most people complete the Visible to your contacts section as you would expect.
However, the most overlooked contact methods and the ones that can be the most valuable, are found under the “Visible to everyone on LinkedIn” section.
Add in your Twitter handle (you do have one right?) and your WeChat name if you have one. Next, click the pencil icon beside the label of the website. What? Don't you have a website? No worries. I can help.
After you click the pencil icon select “Other” from the drop-down menu, here you can add up to four additional places online for people to learn more about you or projects you've been involved with.
Fill in the description (Hint: use appropriate keywords) and the URL for the website addresses you want people to visit. Don’t forget to click SAVE before you exit.
Another way to improve your visibility in the contact section is to create a custom URL.
Click the gear icon beside your current URL link to open the update your public profile settings page.
On the top right-hand side of the update page, you’ll see an area titled “Your public profile URL.” Clicking the pencil icon will open a text edit box which allows you to create a custom URL for your LinkedIn page.
Think of this as a vanity plate on a car don't be too cute with it. Use your real name or the name people will use to search for you.
A custom URL will not only help with LinkedIn search results, but it will help with Google search results as well because your LinkedIn page gets indexed by Google. Bonus!
QUESTION: Did you already have a custom URL and your contact info complete? Let me know on Twitter @RyanRhoten
