Memorandum: LinkedIn Best Practices

To: Jake’s Friend, ENGL301 Group

From: Jake Moh, ENGL301 Student

Date: February 22, 2022

Subject: 10 LinkedIn Best Practices

LinkedIn is a social network that focuses on professional networking and career development. This memorandum explains the 10 LinkedIn best practices according to research done online.

1. Treat your LinkedIn profile differently from your resume. Usually, a resume is compact and is customized to a specific position. Unlike a resume, a LinkedIn profile can be more length and should target all potential employers. Therefore, keep the summary generic and elaborate on the skills, projects, interests, and certifications in relevant sections (Arrive).
2. Use a professional headshot because members with profile photos receive up to 21 times more views and 9 times more connection requests. An ideal headshot for LinkedIn should not have a distracting background with the face in the majority of the frame and have a friendly expression (Arrive).
3. Write a compelling headline. The headline should describe how you are and should represent your professional brand. It should be unique and capture the recruiter’s interest (Arrive).
4. Craft an engaging professional summary. This is the place to elaborate your professional brand with experience. Write one or two sentences about who you are, three to five sentences about your experience, skills, and passion, and one or two sentences about your future goals (Arrive).
5. Utilize the advanced search filters while finding new connections. You can use the search bar to find new connections by their name, current or previous company, location, and general keywords related to their title or role (Arrive).
6. Know your audience. As you are creating your profile, keep in mind who will be reading it. Think about what recruiters will want to see in a job candidate. Think about certain technical skills, experience, and qualities (Borsellino).
7. Mention keywords. Search for keywords for the job you are looking for and include them in the headline, summary, experience, and skills (Borsellino).
8. Complete your profile. The LinkedIn algorithm favours users with complete profiles and those users are far more likely to show up in search results. Also, recruiters are more impressed with a completed profile than a barebones profile (Borsellino).
9. Focus on top sections. As recruiters are busy, they will not read every word of your profile. The key is to hook them from the start and include the most important skills, experiences, and qualities high up in the profile. If you have a big accomplishment mention it at the top (Borsellino).
10. Add a cover photo that reflects you. The cover photo is the very first thing on your page and should be a non-offensive image that means something to you (Borsellino).

Borsellino, Regina. “31 Linkedin Tips to Make Your Profile Shine.” The Muse, The Muse, 3 Mar. 2021, https://www.themuse.com/advice/linkedin-profile-tips.

“Top 10 Tips to Optimize Your Linkedin Profile.” Arrive, 13 July 2020, https://arrivein.com/career-ca/top-10-tips-to-optimize-your-linkedin-profile-for-job-search-in-canada/.