There are many guides, blogs, and videos about building a winning profile. This piece consolidates some basic recommendations that, in my view, presents necessary steps; that’s definietly not a comprehensive guide. So, please consume it accordingly 🙂

In general, there are three essential steps to stand out; these steps are interconnected:

1. Planning: Who are you? What are your goal? How do you want to be perceived?
2. Update the LinkedIn profile accordingly.
3. Create content based on your goals.

If you decide to stop reading this post now, at least take with you these three pillars.
Now, let’s dive into each step.

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So, the first step is planning, which I strongly recommend to adhere to. It’s like preparing a dish; you’d better have the ingredients and the recipe before you start cooking.

Planning: Think, Crystalize, Execute

Think

Firstly, think about your traits and the experience you have. Make a list of your strengths, expertise, the activities you shine at. This list can be short or long, but it exists whether you’re an undergraduate, graduate, or experienced professional.

Secondly, find and define your targets. What’s your desired role? What’s your next step? How do you want to be captured? What’s your added value?

That’s not an easy step; it requires self-reflection and being candid with yourself. However, once you’ve done it, you feel great!

Crystalize

Based on the previous step, list down keywords and phrases that describe your skills, strengths, and the potential roles. Refine your messages. This content will be embedded into your profile in the next steps.

You can also look for job descriptions (JD) of the desired roles and copy some keywords into your profile or into your resume (see below LinkedIn Resume Builder). It will improve your results when recruiters runs their search.

Execute

Update your LinkedIn profile, check the outcome, wait for a couple of days and review the profile again. The second look will allow you to re-examine if the content matches your goals and the target you’ve set earlier. Then, refine your profile again.

After the second round, let it go and review the results after 2-3 weeks.

LinkedIn Profile – The Sections

Now, after you planned what should be added into your profile, let’s see where to implement these changes:

• Headeline:
  Very important. This line is the first interaction with your profile. It should include job description and other keywords that represents your skills. I don’t recommend “looking for my new challenge” since it contributes nothing about your expertise, past experience, and successes.
  
• Signal to recruiters you’re open for new opportunities:

• The About section
  Describe your “elevator pitch”; focus on the value you brought (to your clients, employer, the team you’ve been working with, your organization), the achievements you gained, and your unique traits that makes you perfect for the desired job.
  
  For example: I’m a project manager; there are many project managers in the market. However, my career trajectory is unique – I have a combination of technical expertise and management skills. That’s one of my greatest advantages that I bring to the table.
  
  I believe you have competitive advantages too; you just need to review your career and your character, and you will find them.
  
• The Features section:
  Share articles, posts, and certificates that represents your professional facade. That section is located on the top of the profile, so it catches the audience.

• Skills & Endorsements:
  Place the skills that represents your professional target on the top.
  Ask for endoresements.

• Update the rest of the sections too; Hillel Kobrovski published a comprehensive guide and a video on YouTube.

Job Experience

This section is more than a resume. You have the opportunity to make it more interesting and less dull by content and media.

The guidelines for this section are:

1. Describe your achievemts, not only your responsibilities. Your potential employer wants to see the value you brought, not only what you’ve done.
2. Plant the relevant keywords in the content; that’s crucial to surface on searches.
3. Make sure your company name is identified by LinkedIn; I’ve seen some profiles that the employer was misspelled.

Make Your Text Visually Appealing

Use bullets and other signs to make the content more readable.

1. Emojis pedia
2. More emojis
3. Bullets and other symbols to creare a list
4. Text formatter (bold, italic, etc.)

Create Content

A perfect Linkedin profile is just not enough; a profile doesn’t stand by its own.

Even if you have the ultimate profile, it’s not enough to yield the desired results. Recruiters will notice you, but that’s the passive way.

You must be proactive; you should create traction to be noticed.

To be seen and stand out, you must create content. This is the X-factor, and I can’t emphasize enough how much it may be crucial.

What content to create?

Do you remenber the goals from the first step? Everything that matches these goals and brings value to any reader is a suitable content.

If publishing articles or posts is too much at the beginning, then start with writing comments, be involved in professional groups, share a TED talk, or a relevant article you found on the web. By that, you share your voice.

Where do I get ideas from?

• Your experience – events that happened in the workplace and how you tackled them, lessons learned, etc.
• Your current activities – what are you working on? Are you learning new things?
• Dillemmas
• Online content – articles, TED talks, etc.

I’m not special, I have nothing to say

Well, you do. I guess that if you read this article you’re not Elon Musk, but you’ve done something in your life. Be proud of it. No one can take it from you.

What are the guidleines?

Stick to these principles – be systematic, consistent, and cohesive.

1. Refine your voice.
2. Sell your story, not history.
3. Identify common threads between personal and professional life.
4. Serve (give value), don’t sell.
5. Embrace consistency and discipline.It will support to establish your audience.
6. Make it easier to understand what you’re an expert in, it will support your positioning.

Listen to this posdact; I like Mary Henderson tips.

One more tip to go

Tailor your resume to the job description. You can do it easily with LinkedIn Resume Builder; here’s a short guide.

Wrapping-up

This blog-post includes ideas that you may have encountered in the past, but I wanted to consolidate them concisely in one place. It surely helps me whenever I update my LinkedIn profile.

Hope you find this content valuable. If you have any comments and suggestions, feel free to reach out (my LinkedIn profile).

Cheers,
Lior