How to make a good LinkedIn Page – Crafting an impressive LinkedIn profile is no longer just an option; it’s become a critical necessity in the professional world. In this comprehensive guide, the expert recruiters at BrainSource.io share invaluable insights and expert tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn presence. From creating an eye-catching profile picture to strategically using keywords, and from building a strong network to sharing engaging content, this article is your go-to resource for unlocking the full potential of your LinkedIn page and elevating your professional brand to new heights.
Table of contents for How to make a good LinkedIn Page:
- Introduction
- Your Profile
- LinkedIn Background Photo & Profile Picture—The First Impression
- Use the Correct LinkedIn Background Photo Size
- Design Your LinkedIn Background Image by Yourself
- LinkedIn Background Photo Ideas to Consider
- How to Choose the Perfect LinkedIn Headshot?
- LinkedIn Headline—The Precious Space Most Users Don’t Take Up
- Summary/About Me
- Experience – Language – Education
- Keep Your Location Updated
- Declare War on Buzzwords
- LinkedIn Skills and Endorsements—Another Keyword-Based Way to Help Recruiters Find You
- Take a Skills Assessment
- Request Recommendations
- Showcase Your Passion for Learning
- LinkedIn Background Photo & Profile Picture—The First Impression
- The Basics
- Your LinkedIn Network—Best Tips On How to Make the Most of It
- Key Takeaway
What is Linkedin?
LinkedIn is a professional networking site.
For you, it’s something between a social network and a job board. You use it to stay in touch with your professional connections and look for new career opportunities.
But for recruiters, LinkedIn is a search engine more than anything else. They use it to look for candidates in a very similar way you use Google to find any information online.
They search for candidates based on:
- Job titles
- Skills
- Industries
- Keywords
If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet—get one! It’s not a matter of choice or preference. It’s a necessity.
A recent study revealed that 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn to look for new employees.
Perhaps even more importantly—this report has shown that almost 40% of all employers might not interview you if they can’t find you online.
LinkedIn is where they’ll start looking.
YOUR PROFILE
- LinkedIn Background Photo & Profile Picture—The First Impression
Here’s a challenge. Find a more clichéd phrase than:
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Hard, isn’t it? But it’s equally hard to find a more truthful one. (All in all, why do you think Tinder became so successful?) You judge by appearances. I do, too. And so do recruiters visiting your LinkedIn profile.
Actually, this Harvard study suggested that viewing images might sabotage our ability to analyze verbal signs. This means the wrong image will send the wrong signal.
I’m not saying that posting a great LinkedIn background photo and profile picture will get you hired. But I am suggesting that the wrong images (or no images) will be a turn-off for most recruiters. Professional, visually appealing images guarantee to bias recruiters in your favor.
Here are some tips for picking and optimizing a LinkedIn background and a cover photo:
- Use the correct LinkedIn background photo size
The official size is 1584 x 396p. But remember that much of this space will get cropped out on smaller screens, for instance, mobile phones or tablets, plus, the bottom part will be hidden behind your profile pic.
Picking a background image size of around 1291 x 324p will be your safest bet.
- Design your LinkedIn background image by yourself (in no time!)
Even if you’re not a graphic design pro, you can find free tools and templates online to help you make a great-looking LinkedIn background.
For instance, you can check out these free LinkedIn background templates, pick one you like, and customize it.
You won’t believe how easy it is.
- Here are some LinkedIn background photo ideas to consider:
Ideas for your Linkedin Profile Pic:
- Your office
- Your product(s)
- A reference to your company’s visual identity
- A poster with your credentials and achievements
- A banner with a call to action (for instance, your contact details and an invitation to reach out to you)
- How to choose the perfect LinkedIn headshot?
First of all, DO NOT use your ID photo. It would make your whole LinkedIn profile look sloppy, unprofessional, and yourself—like a missing person.
Most candidates pick a photo taken during their company photoshoot—and it’s perfectly fine. These pictures usually make one look elegant and respectable.
Don’t have such a photo at hand? Don’t worry! With modern smartphone cameras, you don’t need a professional studio to take a flattering pic.
Just follow these tips:
- Use a lot of light.
- Choose a plain, neutral background.
- Dress the way you’d dress to work.
- Make sure your face takes up over 50% of the frame.
- Aim for your eyes to be in the top third of the picture.
- Take a lot of photos, trying out different angles and expressions—and then take your time to choose the best one.
Pro Tip: Don’t even consider skipping your LinkedIn profile picture. Recent study revealed that profiles that include a cover photo receive 14x more views from recruiters.
- LinkedIn Headline—The Precious Space Most Users Don’t Take Up
A vast majority of LinkedIn users have headlines that undersell them like their current professional titles, and nothing more than that.
But think about this—the character count limit for a LinkedIn headline is 120. And it is so for a reason. Best LinkedIn headlines make smart use of that space. Use the headline for your LinkedIn profile as a short “advertising” slogan for your professional self. List your most relevant areas of expertise and skills.
Also, make it rich with your industry keywords—it’s one of the first things recruiters will see on their LinkedIn search results page.
Have a look at these examples of great LinkedIn headlines:
- Digital Marketing Manager | SEO | Google Analytics | Conversion Rate Optimization | Maximizing Profits
- Customer Service Representative — Successful in increasing customer retention — Salesforce — Zendesk — Talkdesk
- Babeș Bolyai Law Student; Interested in Immigration and Personal Injury Law; Babeș Bolyai Law Blog Editor
- Summary/About me
How to make a CV, how to make a resume
In the CV article, I advised you to tailor this part differently for each job application, while on LinkedIn, it can be a more general section. Your LinkedIn summary can be much longer than your resume summary, up to 2,000 characters. Max it out. Use as many industry keywords as possible (but make sure it’s readable nonetheless!)
Here’s how you might structure it:
- Introduce yourself. Who are you as a professional and what do you do? What value do you bring to the organizations you work for?
- Highlight your key skills, experiences, and achievements in paragraph form or a bulleted list.
- Talk about who you are outside of work. This is optional, but you never know which of your interests might resonate with a recruiter, future employer, or professional connection.
- Call the reader to action by asking them to connect with you to discuss growth marketing, contact you about job or speaking opportunities, or do whatever you’re currently looking to get from your LinkedIn profile.
Unlike your resume summary, you can get truly personal on your LinkedIn profile. Tell a real-life story. Be entertaining yet professional. Reveal the human within. Make it easy for others to contact you by adding contact information to your LinkedIn summary.
Your LinkedIn summary is the perfect place to add your portfolio—articles you’ve authored, graphic design projects, videos, and so on.
Here you have one example:
“Delving deep into the digital realm, here you have a professional that brings over a decade of expertise in marrying creativity with analytics.
Every campaign led has consistently resulted in enhanced brand visibility, engagement, and profitability.
The goal?
To leverage innovative strategies that produce tangible outcomes and drive business growth.
🔹 Key Skills & Achievements:
- Strategic Planning: Successfully steered a 12-month roadmap for a renowned e-commerce brand, resulting in a 45% uplift in sales.
- SEO Mastery: Enhanced organic website traffic by 60% within six months for a major tech company.
- PPC Campaigns: Managed a budget of $500k+, achieving a 3:1 ROI for a startup, skyrocketing their brand recognition.
- Content Marketing: Directed content creation that increased blog engagement by 70% and newsletter subscriptions by 150%.
- Social Media Management: Boosted a client’s social engagement rate by 40% while maintaining a consistent brand voice.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Leveraged Google Analytics and various digital tools to refine marketing strategies, ensuring maximum efficiency.
Beyond the professional realm, there’s a passion for trail running, culinary explorations (though my lasagna still needs work!), and a strong advocacy for sustainability initiatives.
I believe that our personal passions often echo in our professional lives – my drive on the trails mirrors the enthusiasm I bring to every marketing campaign.
The next chapter is poised for revolutionary digital strides.
Whether it’s brand evolution or insightful discussions at a conference or workshop, the expertise here promises transformative value.
It’s time to optimise your Linkedin Page!
🔗 Connect with me and let’s make digital magic together!”
- Experience – Language – Education
Here’s an article I’ve made about how to create your CV. The information from the experience, languages, and education sections is the same as what you can include here.
- Keep your location updated
It’s also worth keeping your location up-to-date to help connections and recruiters find you more easily.
For example, let’s say your name is John Doe and you’re a software developer in London, UK.
When recruiters go looking for new talent, location is a key factor — including your location helps companies narrow their search more quickly and increases your chances of getting a message.
- Declare war on buzzwords.
Buzzwords are adjectives that are used so often in LinkedIn headlines and summaries that they become almost completely meaningless.
LinkedIn rankings of the most over-used buzzwords include terms like ‘specialized’, ‘leadership’, ‘focused’, ‘strategic’, ‘experienced’, ‘passionate’, ‘expert’, ‘creative’, ‘innovative’, and ‘certified’.
Now I’m not saying you can’t describe yourself as these things – or that they don’t matter. However, just using these words won’t convince people that you have these qualities. You need to demonstrate them as well – both in the way you describe yourself and in the way you use LinkedIn profile features to show what you’re about.
- LinkedIn Skills and Endorsements—Another Keyword-Based Way to Help Recruiters Find You
LinkedIn allows you to add up to 50 skills in your Skills & Endorsements section. While you can max this section out, only the top ten skills will show up in the top part of this section. So, you will want to make sure that the first ten skills you add are your top skills.
You will also want to make sure that these are keyword skills.
Pro Tip: When you add skills, LinkedIn will autosuggest things to you as you go. Choosing a suggested skill is better than entering one manually. The suggested skills are based on what recruiters search for on LinkedIn.
Be sure to add both hard skills and soft skills.
But anyone could just list a bunch of skills they think they have, right?
That’s where LinkedIn endorsements come into play.
They help verify your skills—the only way to get them is by other people from your network.
How do you get LinkedIn endorsements?
LinkedIn is a very reciprocal site. If you scratch back, your back will get scratched. If you want endorsements and recommendations—start by giving them.
When you start building your network, ask the people you’ve worked with, your friends, your old professors, and fellow students to endorse your skills.
And make sure you’ve already gone ahead and endorsed theirs in return.
- Take a skills assessment.
A skills assessment is an online test that enables you to demonstrate the level of your skills and display a Verified Skills badge on your profile.
Data shows that candidates with verified skills are around 30% more likely to be hired for the roles they apply for.
Displaying proof of your abilities strengthens your personal brand more generally.
Displaying the results of your skills assessments is entirely voluntary, and you can retake the tests as often as you like before showing that you’ve passed.
- Request recommendations.
Endorsements give people viewing your profile a quick, visual sense of what you’re valued for.
Recommendations take things a step further.
They are personal testimonials written to illustrate the experience of working with you. There’s a handy drop-down menu in the Recommendations section of your profile that makes it easy to reach out to specific contacts and request recommendations. Take the time to think about whom you would most value a recommendation from – and personalize your request.
It’s worth the extra effort.
- Showcase your passion for learning.
When you complete a course on LinkedIn Learning, you’ll have the opportunity to add a course certificate to your LinkedIn profile. You do this from within the Learning History section of your LinkedIn Learning account – where you can also send updates about your learning to your network if choose.
THE BASICS
- Get a LinkedIn custom URL
Why is it so important?
People will see it, read it, and might even have to type it.
Plus, a LinkedIn profile link is a must in your job application contact info.
What would you rather click:
“linkedin.com/in/john-smith/” or “linkedin.com/in/HGygbg752ngugwg974”?
Exactly.
- Name Pronunciation
In an increasingly globalized professional landscape, names from various cultures and regions can sometimes be challenging to pronounce accurately. LinkedIn, understanding the importance of getting names right, offers a solution—not in the form of phonetic spellings, but through an audio name pronunciation feature.
By integrating this feature, LinkedIn has underscored the importance of personal branding and respectful interaction in professional settings. Mispronouncing a name can often be unintentional yet embarrassing, and this tool helps alleviate such awkward moments, fostering clearer communication.
Here’s how you can integrate this feature seamlessly:
- Access Pronunciation Feature: On your profile page, find the edit link situated on the right of your name, under your cover photo. Within this section, you’ll spot the “Add name pronunciation” option. Dive in!
- Time to Record: LinkedIn provides you with a 10-second window to pronounce your name. Ensure you’re situated in a silent environment to enhance clarity during this recording.
- Review Your Input: Post-recording, play it back. It’s essential to ascertain that your pronunciation is audible and precise. If all sounds good, save your recording.
Once you’ve successfully added your pronunciation, profile visitors will notice an audio symbol adjacent to your name.
A simple click on this icon will educate them on your name’s proper pronunciation.
- Go public.
If you want connections to find you and recruiters to track you down, you need to make your profile public.
It’s an easy process: Head to your LinkedIn page and click on the “Me” button under your profile picture at the top of the page, then select “View Profile”.
Now, you’ll see an option for Edit Public Profile and URL — select this option and you can toggle your public profile status on and off, and control who can see your profile picture.
- Want to get more job offers via LinkedIn? Let recruiters know you’re open
In your Dashboard, just below your LinkedIn summary, there’s a “Career interests” bar.
Click “Off” to turn it “On”.
Let recruiters know you’re open to new opportunities.
This will take you to a new panel.
You can now specify your career interests (such as positions, industries, and locations you’re considering).
Perfect, get ready to receive personalized offers!
- Spotlight the services you offer.
Services is a LinkedIn feature that helps consultants, freelancers, and those working for smaller businesses to showcase the range of services that they offer.
Filling out the Services section of your profile can boost your visibility in search results.
Fine, so now you’ve learned how to craft your profile from A to Z.
Just sit back, relax, and wait for these job offers from unicorn companies.
Well.
No.
Not so fast.
LinkedIn job search is an art, all because LinkedIn is a dynamic environment.
Its power lies in the networking capabilities it provides.
Having a great profile is a must.
But it will get you nowhere unless you go out there and interact with your network!
Your LinkedIn Network—Best Tips On How to Make the Most of It
Using LinkedIn is not entirely different from interacting on any other social media platform: Facebook, Twitter, or even Instagram.
The only difference is, LinkedIn has a specific purpose: networking with fellow professionals.
- Build Your Network
You don’t need to be a super-connector with 500+ connections to make LinkedIn work for you.
At the same time, fewer than 50 don’t look great.
A small network might suggest you’re not an established expert, that you’re starting from scratch, or that people don’t like you.
You need to start building your network!
You can make it a habit to log in to LinkedIn every day and send a few connection requests to people working in the same industry as you and to recruiters who could help you find your desired job.
Keep in mind though, when adding connections on LinkedIn, it’s more courteous to send a connection request with a short message.
Here’s an example of what a good connection message looks like:
“Hello [First Name],
I’m currently on the lookout for a new job and am expanding my network with professionals in the HR field, such as yourself. Will be happy to discuss any opportunities at any point.
Best regards,
[Your Name]”
Just be careful not to send too many connection requests in a very short period, as LinkedIn may view this activity as inappropriate and could potentially suspend your account.
The limit is a maximum of 20 connections per day, but if you’re just starting out and have recently created your profile, it’s best to begin with 5 connections per day and gradually increase the number every few days until you reach 20 per day.
Beyond this, get into the habit of following up on meetings and conversations with LinkedIn connection requests – it’s a great way of keeping your network vibrant and up to date.
If you get random requests from people you don’t know, but who are in your industry, add them as well.
The general rule of thumb here is: the more, the merrier.
Really.
- Joining Groups and Adding Influencers
If you’re a new user or a student, the easiest way to start networking is to join groups.
Start with the alumni associations linked with your university.
Starting to follow influencers is another great way to keep track of what’s happening in your industry.
If you join groups and add influencers, you won’t have to look far when you need keywords for your profile or resume, when you need to do research for a new job, or when you simply need some inspiration.
- Sharing and Posting Content
Part of what you’re trying to do on LinkedIn is build up your personal brand online.
One of the ways to do that is to tap into the knowledge on LinkedIn and curate it for your connections. If you’ve read up on a topic and feel that you have strong, unique things to say about it, go ahead and write a short 300-word post. Writing will allow you to begin to craft your professional voice and build your professional brand.
The bottom line is to engage.
You want to be active on LinkedIn by liking, commenting, sharing knowledge, and posting interesting articles.
- Add comments.
Sharing is great – but it’s just the starting point.
When you add comments to your shares, you give yourself greater prominence within the feed and start to express why you think a particular piece of content matters. Well-expressed comments also enable you to share a broader range of content.
It might be that you don’t agree with a point of view but still find it interesting, for example. A comment that can express that viewpoint starts to establish your opinion and thought leadership.
It’s also more likely to draw additional comments, which then raise your profile across LinkedIn.
Bear this in mind when you’re writing your comment – and make sure you’re saying something you’re happy for people to associate with you.
- Link to Your LinkedIn on Your Resume
After you’ve put all this work into your LinkedIn Profile, don’t forget to direct people to it.
You can add your URL right to your resume and even hyperlink it so that anyone reading your resume on a computer can immediately find out more about why you’re a great candidate.
Key Takeaway
- Pack your LinkedIn profile full of industry keywords: sprinkle them throughout your headline, summary, skills list, and descriptions of past jobs.
- Have a professional profile picture and a unique background photo.
- Max out your headline to grab recruiters’ attention when they scroll through LinkedIn search results.
- Write a LinkedIn summary that showcases your best achievements and reveals your distinct personality.
- Network, network, network. LinkedIn is not your online resume. It’s a place where you engage with other professionals and build your personal brand.
