How to Optimize Your New LinkedIn Profile (Part 4)

Before we jump into this week’s tip, I am excited to invite you to join me this Thursday, February 7 for a two-hour webinar “LinkedIn Update: What’s In, What’s Out, and Under-the-Radar Tricks to Help You Crush It in 2013.”

This webinar will be hosted by my good friend Joan Stewart, known by her friends and clients as The Publicity Hound, and will run from 2-4pm CST. We are recording it, so sign up even if the time is inconvenient, and you can watch the video replay later. As you may know, I rarely do public webinars, so this is your opportunity to join me. Read all about it and register here.

Now on to Part 4 of our five-week series on your new LinkedIn profile. Here’s a recap of what we covered in Parts 1, 2 and 3.

Week 1: Your Top Box (headline, activity updates, etc.)

Week 2: Your Professional Gallery (video, photos, documents)

Week 3: Your Unique Brand (Summary, Job Experience, additional sections)

Recommendations

You’ll like the improvements here. The headline and photo of the people who wrote the last two recommendations for each job and educational entry show up at the bottom of the entry. Thus, it’s more important than ever to get a couple recommendations for every job and educational entry. recommendation section

When looking at someone else’s profile, if you scroll over the name of a person who wrote a recommendation, you will have an opportunity to invite that person to connect, send a message, or view his/her profile.

If you have more than two recommendations and want to make sure the best two show up on your profile, you can hide any more recent recommendations. The two you want to display will then be visible on your profile. This is a bit tricky but may be worth it. Do this by going to Profile>Recommedations>job or education entry>Manage>unclick Show.

Skills & Expertise

Endorsements can be received

for each skill or expertise. The most frequently endorsed skills are at the top of the list.

This new section has created a lot of angst among LinkedIn users, but I believe it’s here to stay. So try to capitalize on this opportunity.

LinkedIn ranks your skills by the number of endorsements you’ve received. Your skill with the most endorsements is at the top of the list. Because most people will simply look at the first few entries, you will want to focus on including the skills that are currently important to you. Getting lots of endorsements for skills you have but aren’t currently using may not be very productive.

People will use the Skills section to compare you to your competitors, and I suspect this section will be incorporated in LinkedIn’s search algorithm. So you better take it seriously.

Groups

Your groups are listed in alphabetical order, and the logos of your first seven groups will be prominently displayed. Sometimes people will choose to hide religious or political groups. That’s your call. But LinkedIn groups are extremely important, and I always belong to fifty–the maximum LinkedIn allows.

For more information about groups, check out LinkedIn Groups: Are You Missing This Opportunity?

Following

You can follow news and companies, and seven of each will be displayed on your profile. If you are following your competitors, their names and logos may appear here. Since you don’t want to give your competitors free advertising, you’ll need to follow a few more companies, and then their names may drop off your front page.

Join me next week for my final thoughts on the new LinkedIn profile.

Free LinkedIn Newsletter

LinkedIn Videos for Sale

Buy the Book

Archives

Most Recent Posts

Read a Free Chapter

Buy The Book

Links

More Information

Social Networks