According to LinkedIn itself, over 67M companies are listed on its platform. This means that LinkedIn has a vast professional audience, including recruiters. That’s why it becomes highly essential for job seekers to have a strong presence on this platform. Emphasizing the importance of this matter, Forbes says applicants with an optimized LinkedIn profile have 71% more chances of landing an interview.
So, if you wish to shine among all the candidates for a job, you must work on making your profile stand out. However, how would you exactly do that? If you don’t know, there is nothing to fret about as we are here to help you. We have specially crafted this article to guide you on how you can make your LinkedIn profile shine in the crowd. So, let’s get started.
Decide Your Personal Branding Elements
People with strong personal branding get hired more than those who don’t have it. It reflects a visual hierarchy on your account, which creates a strong impact on the viewers. Therefore, before creating a profile or optimizing it, you must be clear about the elements of your personal brand. It mainly includes deciding the color palette, font, and tone of your communication.
If you are a creative professional, such as a graphic designer, video editor, or animator, choose vibrant colors with contrast and fancy fonts. On the other hand, if you fall into the category of technical experts, such as programmers, you should use decent colors and simple fonts. And the way you communicate the message on your profile depends on what type of recruiters you want to target.
Use A 800 x 800 Px Clean Headshot
LinkedIn is not a casual social interaction platform. Instead, it is a professional channel where you interact with industry experts and recruiters. When hiring managers land on an account, their eyes automatically navigate to your profile picture first. So, you must look decent to create a compelling first impression. Otherwise, you may lose an opportunity just due to a poor appearance.
So, add a clear headshot of size 800 x 800 pixels with a background color of your personal brand. Remember, your face and the upper edge of your shoulders should fill 60% of the total space. The remaining 40% is kept free to make the face appear clear. This practice ensures that you look professional, and the recruiters don’t ignore you just due to your profile picture.
Add A 1584 x 369 Px Perfect Banner
It takes just a few seconds to grab the attention of recruiters who visit your profile. A well-designed banner greatly contributes to attracting the hiring manager at first glance. It basically provides quick insights into who you are, what you do, and what you aim for. So, make sure you craft a stunning background image for your LinkedIn profile.
When designing a banner, highlight your tagline in bold and keep its size 1583 x 369 pixels. Add social proof under your tagline to build a connection of trust with the viewer. You can also use your second image in the banner, but make sure you place it strategically. The best placement for an additional picture is on the right side of your banner.
Write A Compelling Yet Concise Bio Section
Many make the mistake of either telling everything or nothing in the bio section. You must avoid this practice at all. Instead, write a compelling section, but don’t exceed its length unnecessarily.
LinkedIn offers a bio section just to provide a summary of your career, not to tell everything that comes to your mind. So, keep it focused on your professional journey, clear, and to the point.
While LinkedIn allows 2000 characters for a bio, it doesn’t mean you are required to meet this limit at every cost. So, if you notice your bio becomes too lengthy, sum it up to shorten it. However, if you struggle to condense the details, you can summarize text to decrease the length of your text while retaining the most important points.
Make Your Headline Create A Lasting Impression
Another thing that makes your profile stand out is a well-crafted headline. Remember, it’s among the top elements that viewers see after landing on a LinkedIn account. Without a catchy headline, you lose the chance to impress recruiters looking for a suitable candidate. Don’t make it less worthy by just stating your current job role.
Instead, make your headline impactful by stating your expertise and achievements. If you have particular certifications or have derived amazing results from your work, write them in the headline section. However, make sure that you don’t stuff it with buzzwords such as editing ninja, coding unicorn, or something like that.
Use The Featured Section For Your Benefit
LinkedIn offers a dedicated “Featured Section” that many don’t use. You can get an extra edge over others by optimizing this particular section. It’s the perfect place to showcase your portfolio, key projects, certifications, and other essential data. You can also add an updated version of your resume in this section.
Moreover, you can also feature your most viral posts so that if the recruiters come to your profile, they can also explore your industry knowledge. All these things together create a more professional look for your profile and make you a more deserving candidate for the relevant jobs.
Optimize Your Experience Section Wisely
After reading about yourself, most of the recruiters directly jump to the experience section. They analyze each and every listing deeply to figure out whether you are suitable or not. So, if you wish to retain the hiring manager on your profile, optimize the experience section wisely. Here, don’t focus on just your job responsibilities.
Instead, present the results and your achievements effectively. If possible, quantify the results to create a lasting impression on the recruiters. If you have been promoted to certain roles within the same company over time, list all of them in the same order in which you got promotions.
Wrapping It Up
In short, if you want your LinkedIn profile to stand out, work on every section and try to make it unique and aligned with your personal brand. An additional tip is to utilize the tags and keywords wisely so that your profile appears in relevant searches. This increases the chances of you being noticed on LinkedIn.
