In today’s world, everyone is a salesperson, whether they know this fact or not. The wealthiest and most influential people sold themselves to their customers, audience, or the world. Selling yourself is the best way to succeed.
Musicians sell themselves to their music streamers/concert ticket buyers. Athletes sell themselves to their sports fans and brands. Politicians sell themselves to their voters through their manifestos. Artists sell themselves through their art. And the list doesn’t end.
The best way to sell yourself to employers as a job seeker is through your resume. Similarly, the best way to sell yourself on LinkedIn is through LinkedIn optimization.
In this article, I will share 10 tips for LinkedIn Optimization for more visibility.
Choose the right profile picture for your LinkedIn profile.
I like to call people’s LinkedIn profile pictures their ‘packaging.’
Since we are selling ourselves to possible connections to follow, we package ourselves with a nice-looking picture. No one wants to buy something with ugly packaging. Be it a perfume, makeup products, books, or food. Most people will only purchase nice clothes according to their beauty standards and style. That’s the same thing your profile picture does for you. It draws people in to want to get to know more about you. So use an excellent package to sell your brand.
Humans are visual beings (this means we like what we see), so use a professional picture to help people have a great first impression of you. Don’t forget to smile, it does wonders.
Your background photo is the second visual element, don’t play with it.
Your background photo is another way to optimize your LinkedIn profile, don’t sleep on it!
Since it’s at the top of your profile page, it grabs people’s attention and is one of the best places to make yourself seen.
Adding the right background picture can make your profile stand out, especially if you add things that matter most to you (e.g., your brand’s logo, your mission, what you stand for, how you help people, and so on).
Your headline should be more than just a job title.
Instead of just adding your job title as your headline, you should elaborate more on your role.
Example: Instead of adding only the job title ‘content writer”, you should elaborate it into something like this below.
Content writing|Digital marketing| I help brands create, publish and sell quality information about their products and services in other to attract and engage and convert them to platinum customers.
If you need to learn how to do this, check out people who are sales representatives on LinkedIn, and you could learn a thing or two about how to go about it for LinkedIn optimization purposes.
Your connections in sales would be a great example because nobody sells anything better than them. You could attract people just by having a perfectly crafted headline.
Your summary should be your story.
Everyone’s story is what makes them unique. Your summary should be your story. Talk about your past experiences and skills with a personal touch. Let people connect to your experiences. Just don’t write your summary like a robot. Give people reasons why they should connect with you, brands why they should work with you, and your followers why they should be inspired by you.
Invest your time writing an excellent summary that connects and sells you to others, and you’d be amazed at the fantastic LinkedIn optimization results you’d get.
List your relevant skills.
List all your relevant skills, as this helps people endorse you and gives your headline and summary an authentic feel. Ensure that the skills you add are relevant to what you currently do and have done in the past.
Avoid irrelevant skills like your culinary or dog walking skills, except you do either of these professionally. Any skills that do not highlight your abilities career-wise should be avoided.
Related: How to use your transferable skills during your job search
Highlight the services you offer
LinkedIn introduced this feature “services” to help smaller businesses, freelancers, and consultants showcase their services. Doing this helps with your visibility in search results and can even connect you to the right set of people; customers or clients.
Limelight the services you offer, and you could have your profile standing out in no time. People interested in your services or knowing what you do would want to connect.
Accept skills assessment offers.
Often, LinkedIn offers skills assessments and a verified skills badge to its users to help them prove the level of their skills. Humans are visual beings. We like seeing to believe. These voluntary skills assessments will demonstrate your abilities and may help you get hired if you are a job seeker utilizing LinkedIn.
Complete a course on LinkedIn Learning.
A LinkedIn course comes with certifications that can give your profile a more professional look. While this won’t break your LinkedIn profile optimization, as you are equally free to add certificates from Coursera, Udemy, Hubspot, and the rest, it is also a great way to show people you are well-skilled in the industry you work.
Utilize your LinkedIn feed for LinkedIn Optimization.
Sharing content with your network of connections from your LinkedIn feed is a great way to optimize your LinkedIn profile. The best way to gain visibility is by sharing content with your contacts. You could share exciting posts and content relevant to your network.
Consistently doing this will help you gain visibility. Thereby increasing the number of your connections and opening ways for potential relationships with influential people in your industry.
Follow relevant people in your industry.
LinkedIn is a world for professionals as there are so many great-minded people you can connect with and learn a few things, regardless of who they are. Following relevant people in your industry helps you find helpful content you can share and comment on that can showcase your genuine passion/interest for the things you currently do.
It gives context to your LinkedIn profile for LinkedIn optimization.
Conclusion
LinkedIn optimization is the act of gaining visibility. And as professionals, everyone wants to be seen or heard in their industry. If people can’t see you, they can’t buy what you offer. If you market yourself, you will be seen. And the significant part is that LinkedIn optimization doesn’t take time. You can start by adding that great profile picture before you go on with other tips.
