10 Best Practices of Growing your Professional Social Media Account on LinkedIn

Memorandum

To: Jake’s Friend, Students of ENGL301

From: Kelly Kim, ENGL301 Student

Date: February 22, 2022

Subject: 10 Best Practices of Growing your Professional Social Media Account on LinkedIn

 

LinkedIn has been widely used as a professional source of social media to self-market yourself and to develop and publish your professional brand online. Although sometimes, LinkedIn can be deemed to be egotistical, we also miss a big job or networking opportunity if we don’t utilize the platform – especially, during the pandemic. To efficiently develop and utilize your LinkedIn profile, here are 10 ways to grow your professional network:

 

Personal profile:

1. Choose a professional profile picture for your LinkedIn: If you are seeking an opportunity in Securities or Investments, a professional photo shot may be best fitting to attract the recruiters. For the tech industry, a more warming and welcoming headshot could be fitting. As it is the first introduction to your profile, one must remember that the photo will govern their first impressions.
2. Add buzzwords to your deadline and summaries: One tip to keep in mind when choosing the buzzwords is to make sure that the adjectives chosen are not overused. For example, ‘leadership’, ‘passionate’, expert’, etc. are words that have been used too much that people do not value those words anymore when they read the profile. Therefore, adding in creativity and care writing descriptions is imperative.
3. List the relevant skills: The skills mentioned should be relevant to you. A long list of skills not relevant or not the core of who you are should not be part of the profile and be cleaned periodically.
4. Take a skills assessment: LinkedIn offers multiple certificates and courses. Adding verified skills to your profile will display your strength. moreover, data shows that verified skills are 30% more likely to be hired for the roles they apply for.

Networking:

5. Request recommendations: Endorsements verify from the third person’s point of view, your character and visual sense of who you are. They are a great reference that employers or your potential connections would want in getting to know you on a personal level.
6. Add Comments: By adding comments to your shares, you give yourself a greater prominence within your feed and your connections. Sharing your opinion, although should be shared with caution to not offend your connections, raises your profile across LinkedIn.
7. Grow your network: LinkedIn network allows you to sync your email to your profile. This enables LinkedIn to determine people that could potentially be part of your already known network. By adding connections, you can also visit your connection’s connections which could help you gain more connections within the professional industry.

Marketing:

8. Share media or marketing collateral: LinkedIn can also be used to market your business or your company. By sharing new products or even your personal experiences, it helps people to understand you or the company you work for. It also demonstrates passion and commitment.
9. Make a custom profile URL: When you first generate your profile, you automatically generated an URL, one with string and random numbers. Having a more professionally cleaned name-only URL is much easier to find and share. It can be changed by going into settings.
10. Add projects or work that you have published: You can add them in the “Featured” section. They will pop out, look good, and stand out for the recruiters.

 

I hope everyone can benefit from these tips and apply them to their profiles!

 

Borsellino, Regina (2021). “The 31 Best LinkedIn Profile Tips for Job Seekers.” themuse. https://www.themuse.com/advice/linkedin-profile-tips

 

“LinkedIn Pages Best Practices (2021).” LinkedIn Marketing Solutions”. LinkedIn Corporation.  https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/linkedin-pages/best-practices.