5 Simple Steps Towards An 'All-Star' Profile on LinkedIn

With almost 7 million members in Australia alone, LinkedIn is the most popular social media network for professionals and businesses and one of the biggest social networks overall. But are you getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile?

As a business owner, if you sell your services to other businesses, LinkedIn is a really effective platform to promote yourself and your business and the starting point for this is your personal LinkedIn profile.

If you're an existing user of LinkedIn, you might already know that your profile gets a 'strength' rating, ranging from Beginner to All-Star. The good news is that creating a great LinkedIn profile isn't nearly as difficult as you might think.

Start At The Top

The first thing to do is to make sure you include a decent photo on your bio. It doesn't need to be a professional shot but a good head and shoulders photo is a great place to start.

Next, make sure that you include a professional headline. Many people simply use their current position at their company here. However, I strongly recommend writing something a little more descriptive, including a little more detail about what you do and how that might help others.

So instead of simply saying: Owner, Brisbane Small Business Marketing, mine says: Marketing Strategy, Communications and Consulting | Passionate about helping small businesses achieve measurable results.

You should also include your location and the industry you work in.

Include A Summary

Many people don't bother with a summary paragraph but it's actually a pretty important element of your profile as it provides an overview of who you are and what you do without people having to scroll all the way down. It also enables you to outline key skills and areas of expertise and counts towards achieving a higher 'strength' profile rating from LinkedIn.

Include Your Career History

You don't have to include every role you've ever had in this section but it's a good idea to have at least 2 previous positions listed as well as a brief description of each role.

It's also a great idea to have a company LinkedIn page that you can link to for your current role. If you create the company page before adding your position in your LinkedIn profile, the page will automatically be added as a link by LinkedIn and your logo will appear next to the position, providing you have uploaded one to your company page.

Include Your Skills

Including a list of your core skills is not only a great way to showcase your talents but also enables people to endorse you for those skills, further strengthening your overall profile.

Also be sure to include your education on your profile as this also plays a part in the completeness of your profile and the overall 'strength' rating.

Grow Your Network

To achieve an 'All-Star' rating, you will also need to have a minimum 50 people in your network so start connecting! Finding people to connect with shouldn't be too difficult as LinkedIn also has a feature which suggests people you may know. You can also important contacts from your emails and identify who is also on LinkedIn.

Starting your profile from scratch may seem a bit daunting and many people feel a little self-conscious 'selling' themselves but it's really not that difficult once you get started and having a browse around other people's profiles can sometimes help to inspire you.

And it's also worthwhile remembering that only you can see your profile strength rating - it's a not a visible element on your profile. It really just serves as a means to suggest what improvements you could make.

If you need some help with crafting your LinkedIn profile, establishing your company page on LinkedIn or you need some support in making the most of this great platform don't hesitate to give me a call on 0478 042536 or email: anne@bsbmarketing.com.au