Building a Powerful Profile on LinkedIn: The Importance of Selling Yourself

LinkedIn is a powerful social network used by professionals.  In June 2016 it was announced that Microsoft would be acquiring LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion.  While reports suggest that the growth of LinkedIn has been slowing over the past couple of years, in Q1 2016, LinkedIn reported that they have 105.5 million monthly active users.  So it is still one of the most popular networks for professionals and business to hang in.  In fact data as recent as October 2015 suggests that LinkedIn is the third most popular social network behind only Facebook and Twitter.

LinkedIn has had a reputation of being one of the more trustworthy social networks out there, mainly due to its members being professionals, career aspiring folks who are looking to make the right connections in hope of landing their dream job.

Building a strong profile on LinkedIn can be a great way to share your experience and resume.  If done properly, your LinkedIn profile can communicate that you are a trustworthy, quality resource that may be a great addition to someone’s business or organization.  LinkedIn is used by both job seekers who are looking to be found and employers who are looking to find the best talent.  For both job seekers and employers, LinkedIn is a great opportunity to sell yourself or your brand.

5 Tips for Building a Powerful Profile on LinkedIn

  1. List Your Experience (and provide details) – avoid inflating your experience but do feel free to brag a little about some of your greatest accomplishment. After all you want to stand out from others.
  2. Understand your audience – know who you want to market yourself or your business to. For job seekers that means understanding what employers are looking for in candidates and for employers it means communicating why your organization may be more attractive that others out there.
  3. Share your success – communicate a case study of projects that you have successfully completed. Tell the story of how you accomplished what you did.  Make it personal and create a unique “selling advantage” for yourself or your business.
  4. Get Recommendations – leveraging testimonials is one of the best ways to build trust. Building trust can lead to long lasting relationships which can lead to positive career or recruiting moves.  Work on getting recommendations that are of quality as opposed to quantity.
  5. Update your Profile regularly – do not just create your LinkedIn profile and let it sit in limbo. Spend some time weekly (or daily of you have that luxury) to keep your profile fresh.  Read some articles and share some great content.  Write a post or share a post from your blog.  You can increase your visibility on LinkedIn by being more active with your profile.

Looking for more tips on how to optimize your profile on LinkedIn?  Check out this great post from Hubspot.

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for job seekers and employers to connect.  Work on building a great LinkedIn profile and use your experience and success to make that connection you need to take the next step in your career path.

Are you a job seeker looking for a job?  Or perhaps as an employer or HR Manager, you need assistance with your recruiting efforts or need help developing an HR Strategy?  Contact Aspire Recruitment Solutions at 778-484-0161. Aspire Recruitment Solutions is the leading human resource solution and employment agency provider to clients in Kelowna, Vernon, Kamloops, Northern BC and Alberta. We connect great employers with the best candidates every day.