If you are looking for a free but effective way to constantly keep in touch with people from your professional industry, as well as to be visible and easily sought after by employers, then Linkedin is the best place for this.
Resumes posted on job portals tend to gradually go down in search, and it is very likely that a potential employer will prefer someone else whose resume is in the first position.
However, on Linkedin, this is not possible.
Here your profile is visible and always available, everyone has the ability to respond quickly using a mobile application, and the audience is interested and responsive.
In this article, we give practical tips on how to improve the visibility of your profile, expand your network of contacts and get even more business opportunities with Linkedin.
Proper photo and relevant headline – must have
You probably heard about the fact that the opportunity to make a first impression is given only once. This is also true for Linkedin. All users who will view your profile should immediately understand who you are and how you can be useful to them.
In this context, a profile photo is a must. When most people on the planet have social profiles, a faceless profile is subconsciously perceived as non-existent or even fraudulent. Therefore, it is important not to hide your face, but rather, to give people the opportunity to meet you in absentia.
It is also necessary to choose the right photo. Photos from parties or vacations are best for Instagram, and in the case of Linkedin it is best to choose a modest, but the high-quality photo. Your look at the photo should be directed straight, the face should be clearly visible, the clothes should be either casual or classic.
As for the headline, the easiest and most effective way is to say directly who you are, what you do and how you can be useful to the business. If you are looking for new opportunities, it is also possible to add this phrase to the headline.
Do not hesitate to get in touch with new people
The best way to promote yourself on Linkedin is to take action on your own and not wait until the right people find you. They can find more active competitors without reaching your profile. Therefore, your task is to increase your professional network on your own.
The type of activity of the specialists to whom you will offer to accept your invitation depends on your goals in Linkedin. If you are looking for a new job, then the most obvious way is to establish contact with HR managers. Use the search, which allows you to filter the desired results by industry and location. If you are looking for business partners, it will also be productive to use a similar approach.
If you are promoting your products or services on Linkedin, then here, of course, everything is a little more complicated, but it is still realistic to find your target audience. Technological solutions are advancing best here. For example, if you have developed an HR management system, then your target audience is the owners of large and medium-sized businesses, as well as the HR managers themselves.
In summary, feel free to contact people you are interested in first. The audience at Linkedin is certainly demanding, but quite responsive. Most of those to whom you send your invitation will immediately accept it because they are also interested in expanding their network of contacts.
Make your profile personal and customized
We already started talking a little about this in the first paragraph about photography and the headline, but this is the least you can do to attract new people to view your profile. You need to make your profile personal and customized.
To do this, start by filling out personal information about you. Tell about your activities, as well as indicate your goals on the platform, and explain how you can be useful for business. Be sure to end your story with a call to action, for example, to contact you in any convenient way (of course, you also need to indicate the actual contact information). If you have a professional blog, portfolio or personal website, be sure to add these links to your description.
Next, you will need to talk about your career path. Here, everything works the same as when compiling a usual resume – you indicate your work experience and your main achievements. Be sure to add links to your projects for greater clarity.
Give before you get
A good way to attract attention is to confirm the skills of other participants or give recommendations to those with whom you have already worked. Many users start communication with this particular request, and this is normal practice.
Therefore, do not wait to be asked. Be active on your own, as we said. For you, this is just one click of the mouse, and for another user, this is a good advantage for which he wants to thank you in return, or will analyze your profile again and think about the opportunity to make you an offer.
Stay involved
If you have done all of the above, then you are already clearly ahead and are more likely to be noticed by the right people. But there is another way that you should know about. You need to actively participate in discussions that relate to your area of activity. This will give you the opportunity to show your knowledge, once again tell about your experience and make a positive impression.
And if you will not only participate in discussions but also create your own expert articles and notes for Linkedin, then very soon you will no longer need to invite people to your network of contacts. They will invite you on their own. This is perhaps the best result of self-marketing on Linkedin that can be achieved.
Main findings
So, let’s briefly summarize everything that we discussed. Regardless of whether you are a professional or a beginner, self-promotion on Linkedin is not difficult, and in most cases, it is free. Fill in all the columns in your profile and concentrate on your results. Choose the right photo and create a capacious headline, plus add a call to action after your story about yourself. Show your work visually by adding links to projects, and provide the link to your portfolio as well. Feel free to send invitations, give recommendations and participate in discussions. With this approach, the audience you need will form around you on its own.
About the Author
William Rodgers is a content writer working for The Word Point, an international translation service. As he knows several foreign languages, William’s main focus is writing SEO articles for businesses that want to drive their brand in the international market. His goal is to continually help more marketers fill Google search results with content that really matters.