January 5, 2016
I’m sure you’re on LinkedIn but have you made sure you have the basics covered before you spend time connecting with key influencers or future job prospects? I believe there are 3 must-have’s in your LinkedIn profile before you should spend the time building it out, connecting with others or joining Groups.
First, your LinkedIn profile HAS to be accurate. This is a non-negotiable. List the title you had not the one you wished you had – don’t write down ‘hands-on manager’ if the only management experience you truly had at that position was over yourself! Don’t eye roll, you’d be amazed what people think is true and what really is. I had someone tell me that he had an MBA listed but hadn’t even applied to the program but been thinking about it – that’s NOT accurate!! If you don’t have enough to put on your profile then find a place to volunteer to build your experience.
Second, be consistent with your resume/CV & social media profiles such as LinkedIn. I’m not saying you need to have your resume verbatim on LinkedIn but the timeline should be the same, the companies you worked for should be the same. It’s easy when doing your LinkedIn profile to skim over details and guesstimate on dates/titles held. True-up your resume with your social media profiles.
Third, be REAL in how you portray yourself especially in your profile picture. Most of us have heard “leave off your high school graduation date” so a future employer doesn’t know how old you are by looking at your resume & I agree. However, LinkedIn captures you as a professional, not as a high school graduate, this isn’t time to walk down memory lane so don’t post a picture from your high school year book or your wedding from 20 years ago because that’s the last time you had a ‘nice picture’ taken.
Have a nice picture taken of you & put it in your LinkedIn profile. Don’t post a picture walking your dog, at your kids 1st birthday party, washing your car…(unless your profession is directly related to those).
One prerequisite for my profile pics (a sampling is above) is a smile – I want to convey happy & be relatable in my profile so I always pick a picture where I’m smiling. In each you’ll see a person cropped out, I’m ok with the picture not being ‘perfect’. I personally like to see the real person in their profile picture that helps the profile come to life!
These are the basics of a profile, get these down and you will be ready to build our your profile. More on that next week…
If we aren’t already connected on LinkedIn connect with me! If you’d like a free LinkedIn profile review shoot me an email.
Go & Do Social on LinkedIn and be more connected with other professionals! Liz
