How to make a great LinkedIn profile?

If you’re looking for a job or some career advancement, you need a LinkedIn profile. It is the largest professional network. However, having a LinkedIn profile is not enough. You need a LinkedIn profile that draws attention and helps you connect with people that can help you with your career.

Here we have tried to sum up everything important while making a perfect LinkedIn profile -

1. Choosing the appropriate profile picture — Always make sure that you have a professional photo against your name on LinkedIn. A huge number of profiles are just pushed aside because they do not have a profile picture. An ideal profile picture for LinkedIn is one that is professional Looking, has a crisp resolution, includes only your face, and has a neutral background.
2. Using relevant cover photo — Your background photo is the second visual element, it helps in making your page stand out and sets context about what matters to you. The cover photo can be images of you showcasing your work, this helps in increasing the credibility.
3. Make the most of your headline — It is the first thing a profile visitor reads and hence, is of prime importance. You can make the headline more than your present job role, with a limit of 120 characters you can use this space to write concisely about what you have to offer and bring to the table.
   - Quick Tip: Experienced professionals can write something like “Freelancer | UI/UX Design”, “Product Manager | Google”.
   - Quick Tip: Freshers can write about their internship or the job role that they aspire for like ” Aspiring Project Manager | Senior at IIM Indore”, “Seeking Web-Development Internship”
4. Curate an interesting summary — Your summary can be a longer form of your headline. With a 2000 characters limit, you can tell a story about your career and your professional aspirations.
   - Quick Tip: Experienced professionals can write something like — “[Job Title] with [Number] years of successful experience in [Skill] and [Skill]. Recognized consistently for performance excellence and have the ability to succeed in a challenging and deadline-driven environment.”
   - Quick Tip: Freshers can write about their aspirations like — “Enthusiastic student currently studying [Area of study]. Strong [Skill] and [Skill] skills with the ability to work at the Implementation level with minimal supervision.”
5. Add all the necessary information — Highlight your education, experience, and certification. You can also take a skills assessment. These assessments are online tests that enable you to demonstrate the level of your skill. It also reflects a verified skills badge on your profile.
6. Listing relevant skills — Selecting relevant skills from LinkedIn has made listing down skills easy. Listing skills can substantiate your headline and summary while giving others a chance to endorse you.
7. Customize your URL — The LinkedIn profile URL is the web address for your profile. This URL is editable, you can use this option to make it look more neat and relevant. An ideal URL should consist of your first name and last name.
8. Connect with more and more people — The whole idea of LinkedIn is to connect with people professionally. The more people you connect with, the higher is your visibility to others.
9. Stay active on your page — LinkedIn is a networking social media site and hence, to get the most out of it, it is important for you to remain active. For the same, you can react to other people’s posts with a like, share, or comment. You can also join groups on LinkedIn as per your interest, it is also a great way to meet people and share ideas.
10. #OpenToWork photo frame — LinkedIn has a feature that highlights and makes your resume visible to recruiters that are actively hiring. This feature when activated adds a frame to your profile picture saying #OpenToWork.

LinkedIn is the biggest platform to connect with people for your career growth. You can make the most of it by making your profile stand out and doing activities that make your profile more visible to others. These tips should come in handy to you while making or updating your LinkedIn Profile.