I’m just as guilty as the next guy of neglecting my social media accounts. I realized recently that I needed to update my LinkedIn profile.
Let’s face it. We all get busy. We forget to do things.
I was doing some research for a LinkedIn article that led me to scan my LinkedIn profile. Things were not the way I left them, whenever it was that I last dropped in.
Some images I had added to my profile Experience section were corrupted or missing. It probably didn’t reflect well on me that my profile looked a bit shoddy.
My advice to you: If you can’t remember the last time you updated your LinkedIn profile, it’s probably been too long. Set aside some time very soon to review it, clean it up, and update it.
Go back over all the items in my Essential Checklist to Optimize LinkedIn For Executive Job Search, and make sure you’ve taken care of the things noted in the article.
Then take a close look at how your profile looks overall.
Like all social networking sites, LinkedIn continuously upgrades features and functionality, to provide a better user experience.
So your profile may look quite a bit different than even a month ago . . . things may have moved around, some things may not be there anymore.
Or, you may not have initially built your profile very well, but now you know how to do it better.
Some Ways and Places To Update Your LinkedIn Profile
Scan your whole profile first for these things:
✅ Make sure all the content is aligned with what makes you a good-fit candidate for your target employers.
✅ Does the content reinforce your personal brand and differentiate your unique value to your target employers, above your competitors?
✅ Do the images or visuals you put up on your profile still look okay? Sometimes images get distorted or vanish over time, like mine did.
✅ Did you break up big chunks of content in the About, Experience and other large blocks, adding white space for better readability?
✅ Did you highlight achievements and contributions with bullet points, or better yet, with special bullet point pizzazz?
Then, take a close look at these things:
✅ Are there new sections where you can add compelling content or information? Add in any new jobs, responsibilities, achievements, contributions, training, honors, awards, etc. with as much content in each of those sections as possible. Delete whatever you have in those sections that is now irrelevant.
✅ If your most important relevant keywords have changed, get them into your profile wherever you can. Switch out the irrelevant ones.
✅ Make good use of the “Featured” section, with videos, images and other rich media.
✅ Do the first 2 or 3 lines of your About section capture attention and make people want to click “See more”?
✅ Do your jobs in the Experience section include logos for the companies? Check to see if the company appears in the drop-down as you type in the name. If the company has a LinkedIn company profile, it should appear so you can add the logo there – a good visual.
✅ Do the same as above with schools in the Education section.
✅ Are your Skills & Endorsements piling up the way you’d like? Are your top 3, in particular, ones that don’t really apply or matter to your target employers? If so, re-prioritize them.
✅ Take a look at your Settings & Privacy, and the LinkedIn User Agreement. Be sure things are the way you need them to be now, and be sure you’re adhering to the User Agreement.
More About LinkedIn and Executive Job Search
Worksheets for Today’s Executive Job Search
The Value of Blogging with LinkedIn Publishing (or Pulse)
Do Executive Job Seekers Really Need LinkedIn Premium?
How to Connect on LinkedIn with People You Don’t Know . . . and Get Action