What kind of impression do you want to leave on potential employers, business partners, and clients? How can you ensure that your professional image reflects you in an appropriate and attractive way? What can you use to showcase your professional life online?
LinkedIn is a networking site where you can display your professional background for others to see. Just like any social networking account, you need to stand out from the millions of other accounts. Here is how you can set up your LinkedIn profile to stand out from the competition.
Show Yourself…
Start with a profile picture. Your picture should be high quality and professional. This can be a picture of yourself if this is a personal account, or a company logo if it is a company account. If it a personal photograph, make sure the photograph is appropriate. You should be well-dressed and neat, with a clean background. You should consider using a picture taken by a professional photographer.
Customize your URL. You can easily change your URL from being a random string of letters and numbers to your name or your company’s name.
Make your headline special. It does not just have to be your or your company’s name. You may want to include some keywords, including descriptors and your occupation that people may be searching for. Be specific, but do not use the overused descriptors. Be creative!
… and Your Abilities
Give your audience the story of your professional life. You need to show achievements that you have made in your career. Do not simply list your previous job titles and workplaces. Instead, integrate them into your professional story to show achievements, experiences, and knowledge you now have due to your past jobs. Your LinkedIn profile should not be a resume. Instead, it should be more personable and show more of you in a warm, professional manner.
You should add extra content depending on your area of work. This can include photos, videos, portfolios, professional writings, projects, and links to websites. This can give future employers and clients a more in-depth look at your work. Showing physical evidence of your work can be better than just talking about it.
Your LinkedIn should give possible employers or clients a deeper insight on you and your work. They want to see somebody who shows professional growth and a warm personality. Think of it like this: when people are looking for an employee, they have a problem that they are hoping you are the solution for. Show yourself as part of the solution for their problem.
___________________________________________
Daniel James Consulting is a Full-Service Business Consulting Firm based in New York that designs solutions tailored specifically to the needs of your business in order to ensure you achieve continued success by designing, developing and implementing plans, metrics and platforms, be it a one-man operation, non-profit, startup or large organization. Our packaged solutions or a la carte selections include Website Design, Marketing & Advertising, Search Engine Positioning, and Graphic Design. Business Management Solutions are also available for companies of all sizes.
For more information please visit: www.danieljamesconsulting.com