PROFILES
1. Set up your profile on LinkedIn, you will receive a confirmation email to activate your profile.
. Complete your profile. Your profile should be 100% complete. A complete profile will increase your visibility and help you get found.
. Upload a profile photo.
. Get recommended.
. Promote your company – include a link to your company’s website.
2. Optimize your LinkedIn profile for SEO.
. Customize your public profile URL with your name. You should edit your profile so that your LinkedIn profile URL looks like:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname. To edit this URL, visit your profile, click on “Edit” next to your public profile URL, and then “Edit” once
again on your public profile settings page.
With your name in the URL, it is more likely for your profile to rank for searches for your name because search engines look for relevant
keywords in the URL. Additionally, this is a much easier URL to remember and share with others as you meet them.
. Add custom anchor text to links. You can have up to three links on your profile to other websites. By customizing the anchor text on these links,
you can rank higher for certain keywords because search engines look at the text of links to understand more about the content of pages they link to.
. Optimize keywords in your summary section. This is a full text section which is indexed by Google. Including your favorite keywords in your
summary helps you rank higher in search engine results for these keyword searchers.
TWEAKING YOUR PROFILE
Follow these guidelines to make your profile stand out:
. include keywords people would use to find you. Similar to search engine optimization, you place these keywords in
key positions in your profile. The most important spots to add your keywords in a LinkedIn profile are in:
Your earlier job titles.
. Your summary.
. Your status updates.
Dig up the list of keywords you compiled for your search engine optimization efforts.
. Study the profiles of your contacts and other professionals in your industry. Take the best information you see form the profiles you study
and put your personal spin on it.
SETTING UP YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE
To set up your profile follow these steps:
1. Create a new account, as outlined in the earlier section “Setting up a LinkedIn Account”.
When you complete the final step, you see a page with options to build your network by way of email. Notice the welcome message followed by your name at the top of the page.
2. Click your name. Your profile page appears. It’s blank except for the titles for the information you provide.
3. Click Add Photo. The Upload a Photo page appears. Click Browse, navigate to the image, and then click Upload Photo. You can upload a GIF, JPG,
or PNG file. The file size limit is 4MB. Use a professional looking photo, preferably a head-and-shoulders portrait on a plain background.
4. Fill in the What Are You Working On Text field. In this brief description of your current project, you’re doing in regard to your business,
you can update this section as often as your want, and this information appears in the Network Activity Section, along with other updates from
people you’re connected to.
5. Add your employment information and click the Save Changes button. Click the current link to enter information about your current position
or the Past link to enter information about your previous positions. You can add as many past positions as you want. However, try to limit this
section to your current position and the past two previous positions.
6. Click Add Education. The Add education tab appears.
7. Enter the required information and click the Save Changes button. If you joined any societies while in school or did something special, be sure to
note them in the Activities and Societies section. If you achieved any outstanding recognition. If you received any awards, be sure to note this information
in the Additional Notes section.
At this stage, you can find some recommendations.
8. Click the Add Websites link. The Additional Information appears.
9. Choose an option from the websites drop-down menu. You can choose from My Website, My Company, My Blog, My RSS Feed, My Portfolio, or other.
10. Enter the URL of each website with which you’re associated. You can add as many as three URLs on your LinkedIn profile. Choose an option
for each URL from the drop down menu.
11. Enter information in the Interests text field. This step tells people the topics you’re interested in. Choose topics related to your business or
business goals. Refrain from entering any personal interests.
12. Enter information in the Groups and Associates text field. Enter any business groups or associations to which you belong, such as local
networking groups or Toastmasters. This information tells more about your business goals and the type of activities you do to support your business.
Enter information in the Honors and Awards text field and click Save changes. This information concerns honors and awards you’ve received that are related to your business. Eg. If you’re a sales professional and you were salesperson of the year, include the information here.
1. (Optional) To connect Twitter to LinkedIn, click the Add Twitter Account button. You’re not in LinkedIn any more, your in Twitter.
2. Enter your Twitter username and password and then click Allow. You’re redirected to LinkedIn.
3. Choose an option. Choose to share all tweets with your connections or only tweets with the hashtag (#) in. If your tweets aren’t all discreet, the
latter option is wonderful. That way, whatever happens to Twitter stays on Twitter.
4. Click Save. Your Twitter posts are now shared on your profile.
These steps add lots of meat to your profile, but you can do more to beef up your profile. Click the Edit My Profile link, and scroll to the bottom of the page to add the following information to your page:
. Personal information : If you want people to be able to get in touch with you, navigate to the Personal Information section, where you can add
your phone number, address, instant messaging (IM) information, birthdate, and marital status.
. Contact settings : Edit this section to tell people on LinkedIn how you. You can specify the type of messages you accept and your opportunity
preferences, and leave a bit of advice to those who attempt to contact you. Completing this section alleviates a lot of contact requests from people you
may not want to be in contact with.
. Account settings : In this area, you have a lot of options you can change. To change your account settings, click the Settings link to open your account
page. From there, you can: . Edit your profile. . Change your account picture. . Manage your recommendations. . Monitor your feed visibility. As your marketing
goals and the type of people you want to be in contact with change, you can change your account settings and profiles to match your current needs.
Notice also the option to upgrade your account. In essence, you pay LinkedIn for additional features.