Linkedin Profile Optimization for Dummies

Give your LinkedIn profile the makeover it deserves—and get the attention you deserve 

Look at your profile: you know it could be a little better. Too many LinkedIn users are just posting a basic resume and hoping for the offers to come flooding in, missing out on the incredible opportunity the platform offers to properly showcase their talents, products, and services to 610 million professionals in over 200 countries. LinkedIn is way more than a resume tool—to display your professional past and present—it’s also your career future and personal brand. Used to its fullest extent, it helps you demonstrate the unique value and culture you provide, the skills and aspirations that make you different, to get the outcomes you truly want. But how’s it done?

Profile branding expert Donna Serdula pioneered the concept of LinkedIn Profile Optimization and through her Website, LinkedIn-Makever.com, has helped over 5000 professionals use LinkedIn to achieve increased success. In this guide she applies that experience to help you use all of LinkedIn’s capabilities to meet your goals, whether they be job search, reputation management, or sales—including how to:

• Create a memorable, successful profile
• Optimize personal keywords
• Showcase your experience, accomplishments, and unique value
• Use LinkedIn features to grow your network and more

You never get a second chance to make a first impression—and people are Googling you right now: Get a fresh online look and get results!  

Donna Serdula is the leading authority on LinkedIn profile optimization. Her company, Vision Board Media, provides branding services to individual and corporate clients. She is also an in-demand speaker. She can be found online at www.LinkedIn-Makeover.com and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/todonna.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part 1: The Strategy Before the Siege 3

Part 2: Getting Your LinkedIn Profile Started 3

Part 3: Detailing Your Career Trajectory and Creating the Ultimate First Impression 4

Part 4: Rounding Out Your Profile and Adding Finishing Touches 4

Part 5: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 5

Part 1: The Strategy Before the Siege 7

Chapter 1: Determining Your LinkedIn Strategy 9

Determining Your LinkedIn Goal 10

Job search 10

Reputation management and branding 11

Sales and prospecting 12

Figuring Out Your Target Audience 13

Creating a Compelling Tone 14

Using the Different Versions of LinkedIn 15

Chapter 2: Getting Found on LinkedIn 17

Using LinkedIn as a Search Engine 17

Using the search bar 18

Using search filters 19

Ensuring a Compelling and Attractive Search Result 21

Understanding the Importance of Keywords 24

Using Online Keyword Tools 28

Using WordArt.com 29

Using LinkedIn’s job postings 30

Using Good Ole Google 32

Ranking Higher with Profile SEO 33

Building Off Profile SEO 34

Chapter 3: Understanding Endorsements and Recommendations 37

Showcasing Your Skills 38

Adding skills 39

Grouping skills by category 41

Pinning your top skills 41

Rearranging skills 42

Showing Recruiters What You Know 43

Obtaining Endorsements 45

Hiding an endorsement 46

Opting out of endorsements 47

Endorsing a connection 47

Removing an endorsement 49

Soliciting endorsements 49

The Importance of Recommendations 50

Identifying people to recommend you 51

Asking for a recommendation 52

Ditching the default request text 55

Accepting a recommendation 55

Reordering recommendations 56

Removing recommendations 57

Recommending others 58

Part 2: Getting Your LinkedIn Profile Started 61

Chapter 4: Optimizing the “Behind the Scenes” Sections 63

Managing Profile Changes 63

Turning off update alerts 65

Removing competitors from your profile 66

Turning On Your Public Profile 68

Creating a Personalized URL 70

Using your name 72

Oh no, my name is taken! 72

Marketing your public profile URL 73

Scanning Your LinkedIn QR Code 73

Improving Your Profile’s Strength 75

Expanding Your Network 77

Chapter 5: Establishing Your Calling Card 81

Using the Name Field Correctly 82

Editing your name 82

Adding prefixes to your name 83

Keeping your profile confidential 84

Filling Out Location and Industry 85

Choosing your location 85

Using multiple locations for job search 86

Choosing your industry 89

Suggesting a missing industry 90

Including Your Contact Information 91

Adding your email addresses 92

Making your email visible to all 94

Adding a phone number 95

Adding your IM address 96

Adding your work address 97

Adding your Twitter account 97

Adding websites 98

Chapter 6: Impressing with the Right Profile Picture 103

Why You Need a Profile Picture 104

Determining If You Need a New Profile Picture 104

Using a Photo Already Taken 106

Working with a Photographer 107

Professional photographer rates 109

Delaying the shoot with excuses 109

Taking Your Own Profile Picture 110

Understanding the importance of light 110

Finding the right background 111

Framing the shot 112

Finding the right outfit 113

Choosing and Uploading Your Profile Picture 114

Cropping to profile picture dimensions 114

Resizing and saving a high-res image 115

Uploading your photo 116

Using LinkedIn’s filters to make your picture better 117

Changing photo visibility settings 118

Chapter 7: Developing a Compelling Headline 123

Grabbing Your Reader’s Attention 123

Adding Flair to Your Headline 124

Saturating Your Headline with Keywords 128

Add your job title 129

Add your specialty 130

Add an extracurricular hobby 131

Add a happy ending 131

Creating a Benefit Statement Headline 132

Adding Your New and Improved Headline to LinkedIn 134

Chapter 8: Reinforcing Your Brand with a Background Photo 137

Finding the Right Image to Showcase Your Brand 138

Working with a Professional Graphic Designer 140

Using Online Graphic Tools to Create an Image 140

Adding a Background Image to Your Profile 143

Chapter 9: Showing You Are Open for Business or Job Opportunities 145

Showing You Are Open for Business 146

Turning on the Open Profile setting 146

Enabling the Open for Business feature 147

Choosing your business focus 149

Showing You Are Open to Job Opportunities 153

Enabling the Open to Job Opportunities feature 155

Selecting only recruiters or all LinkedIn members 156

Part 3: Detailing Your Career Trajectory and Creating the Ultimate First Impression 159

Chapter 10: Getting Your Experiences Ready 161

Referencing Your Resume 162

Determining Which Experiences to Keep and Which to Merge 163

Keep your target audience in mind 164

How far back do I go? 165

Creating a Work History for Recent Graduates 166

Dealing with Employment Gaps 167

Chapter 11: Creating a Powerful Experience 169

Adding a New Experience 170

Making the start and end dates match your resume 173

Using month and year or just year 173

Getting the company logo to appear 173

Linking to your company’s LinkedIn page 176

Creating a LinkedIn Page 177

Less Is More — Stop Disqualifying Yourself 179

Optimizing your job title with keywords 180

Making your job title pop with symbols 181

Describing your roles and responsibilities 182

Crafting an impactful achievement 183

Summarizing the company with a boilerplate description 186

Giving your reader a call to action 188

Editing an Existing Experience 188

Reordering Concurrent Experiences 189

Removing an Experience 190

Examples of Great Experiences 190

Salesperson looking for a new opportunity 190

Salesperson looking for more prospects 191

Human resources professional using LinkedIn for

reputation management 192

Adding Multimedia to Make Your Profile POP! 192

Determining what to highlight with multimedia files 193

Resisting the urge to upload your resume 194

Chapter 12: Writing a Compelling About Section 197

Editing Your LinkedIn About Section 198

Writing in First Person 199

Avoiding Resume Speak 200

Revisiting Your LinkedIn Goals and Target Audience 201

Catching Your Reader’s Attention 202

Creating Your Professional Manifesto 204

Explain your benefits 205

Highlight your top achievements 206

Keep the About section focused on you 206

Create a clear call to action 207

Formatting a Sleek LinkedIn About Section 209

Examples of Compelling and Engaging About Sections 211

Healthcare (job search) 211

Real estate professional (sales and prospecting) 212

Consultant (sales and prospecting) 213

IT professional (reputation management) 214

Product management (job search) 215

Leadership (reputation management) 215

Retail (sales and prospecting) 216

Accounting (sales and prospecting) 217

Student (job search) 218

Part 4: Rounding Out Your Profile and the Final Reveal 221

Chapter 13: There’s More to You than Your Jobs 223

Adding Your Education, or Lack Thereof 224

Divulging the year you graduated 224

Preparing activities and societies 225

Adding your education 226

Adding multimedia 227

Reordering education 229

Changing the school displayed in your intro card 230

Listing Licenses and Certifications 231

Adding Volunteer Experiences 233

Citing Your Accomplishments 235

Showcasing organizations 236

Uncovering your honors and awards 239

The three P’s: Projects, publications, and patents 243

Adding courses 248

Adding the languages you speak 250

Creating a Profile in Another Language 250

Chapter 14: Following Groups, Companies, and Influencers 253

Understanding the Importance of Groups 254

Determining the types of groups to join 255

Turning off group notifications 257

Joining recommended groups 258

Searching for groups 259

Deleting groups 261

Turning off group communication email 262

Choosing which groups to highlight on your profile 262

Cultivating Your Following Section 264

Choosing the right companies to follow 265

Following companies 266

Unfollowing companies 266

Showcasing Influencers on Your Profile 267

Deciding which Influencers to showcase 267

Finding specific Influencers 269

Discovering recommended Influencers 270

Removing Influencers 271

Following Schools 271

Chapter 15: Publishing on LinkedIn 273

Showcasing Yourself as a Thought Leader 274

Keeping up with Articles and Activity 274

Understanding the LinkedIn Feed 275

Using hashtags 278

Tagging people 279

Looking at the Difference between a Post and an Article 281

Creating your first post 282

How often should you post? 284

Benchmarking success 285

Reacting and responding to other people’s posts 285

Creating your first article 287

What Happens After You Publish? 293

Marketing Your Blog Post 294

Chapter 16: Unveiling and Marketing Your Powerful Profile 297

Viewing Your Profile from the Mobile App 298

Viewing Your Profile as an Outsider 298

Getting Google to Index Your Profile 300

Your LinkedIn Profile Checklist 301

Benchmarking Your Profile’s Success 304

Marketing Your Profile 307

Alerting your connections of your updated profile 307

Adding your profile to other social media sites 311

LinkedIn profile plagiarism 312

Getting views to your LinkedIn profile 314

To Pay or Not Pay for LinkedIn 319

Features of paid accounts 320

Unique features of premium accounts 321

Choosing the best plan for you 323

Part 5: The Part of Tens 325

Chapter 17: Ten Profile Do’s and Don’ts 327

Do Use a Professional Profile Picture 327

Don’t Use LinkedIn’s Default Headline 328

Do Use Eye-Catching Symbols Sparingly 328

Do Include Your Contact Information 329

Do Add Media Samples 329

Don’t Stuff Keywords 329

Don’t Go Back 30 Years 330

Do Get Recommendations 330

Do Tell a Story 330

Do Download Your Data 331

Chapter 18: Ten Tips for a Perfect Profile Picture 333

Hire a Professional Photographer 333

Use Lots of Light 334

Use a Nondescript Background 334

Dress to Impress 335

Adjust Yourself 336

Keep the Camera Close to Eye Level 336

Say No to the Mug Shot 336

Crinkle, Smile, and Jut 337

Use Photoshop Lightly 337

Crop Your Image 338

Chapter 19: Ten Tips to Expand Your Network 339

Import Your Address Book 340

Import a Contact List 342

Let LinkedIn Help You Connect 342

Join One Hundred Groups 344

Start a LinkedIn Group 344

Make Connecting a Process 344

Link to Your Profile 345

Brand Yourself a LION or Just Connect to Them 345

Don’t Join Open Networking Lists and Groups 346

Use an App 347

Chapter 20: Ten Tips to Leverage LinkedIn 349

A-B-C Always Be Connecting 349

Connect and Stay in Touch 350

Gather Business Intelligence 351

Get the News 352

Get Social Proof and Credibility 353

Get Past the Gatekeeper 353

Rub Elbows in Groups 354

Find Assistance 354

Showcase Thought Leadership 355

Network in Your Pajamas 356

Chapter 21: Ten LinkedIn Profile Resources 357

Get Inspired and Excited 357

LinkedIn Headline Generator 358

Virtual Phone Numbers 358

Google Voice 358

Skype 359

Say No to AOL and Hotmail Addresses 359

Your own domain 359

Acceptable free domains 359

Symbol Variations 360

Stop the Typos 360

SlideShare 360

Photographer Directory 361

Background Image Libraries 361

Online Image Apps 362

Chapter 22: Ten Ways to Get Noticed by Recruiters on LinkedIn 363

Make It Easy to Connect the Dots Quickly 364

Exhibit Personality and Show a Cultural Fit 364

Turn On Open to Job Opportunities 365

Say Cheese 366

Provide Your Contact Information 366

Connect to Them 366

Comment on Their Posts 367

Post, Comment, and Hashtag 367

Keep Your Profile Up to Date and Fresh 367

Invest in Your Future 368

Index 369

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