Creating a Marketable LinkedIn Profile for Beginners

LinkedIn is known to be one of the most accessible and effective ways to professionally network. In fact, research has shown that 87% of all recruiters use this site to find employees. However, creating a LinkedIn profile is often more time consuming and confusing than a standard social media platform as its function is for business rather than recreation. Thankfully, this task of creating an eye-catching profile can be made easier by simply remembering a few rules. Here is how you can create a marketable LinkedIn profile.

The perfect profile picture

Your profile picture is often the very first thing people see when they look at your profile, hence it often creates the ‘first impression’ that they will have of you. Thus, you would want to ensure that this first impression is a positive one by using an appropriate picture. This means that the image you choose should be recently taken, clear, professional and with a smile. Avoid images that may have a distracting background or is too zoomed out (you want your face to take up at least half of the photo).

Write a winning headline

Like your profile picture, your headline is also one of the first components of your profile that others will look at. Your headline does not have to be your job and what company you are working for. You could instead use that space to advertise yourself and what fields you specialise in or what unique and valuable skills you have, which will more effectively capture attention than just, “Manager, at x company.”

Use the right words throughout

Most people who create a LinkedIn profile have a certain field they want to work in or a certain type of company they want to work for. Additionally, most individual fields or types of companies will expect certain attitudes and skills from their candidates. For example, a startup may ask for ‘flexibility’ and ‘independence’ from their candidates. Or if we are looking at a certain professional field, such as marketing, then you may find that many job advertisements ask for experience in content creation or SEO. Find out certain words that appear often in your desired field of work or company, and drop them throughout your summary, skills and experience.

Make sure to use all of the summary space

Undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of your profile will be your summary space, where you list everything about you that makes you the ideal worker. To do this, there are a few basic tips to keep in mind. First, keep the summary concise. This means that your summary should only contain your best, most recent and relevant works and skills. Secondly, remember to write down all of the key components of this space, which includes interest, skills, qualifications and most relevant and recent work experience. Try not to skip any part. The more elements of your profile that you can fill out, the better.

Use numbers

Using numbers in your summary is always a great idea because it is more difficult to argue against numbers than words. Throughout your profile, and particularly in your summary sections, try to drop a few statistics on your best achievements. By using numbers, you are already giving viewers clear, concrete evidence of your skills.