How to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out

June 30^th 2015 Sally Ormond LInkedIn profile, powerful LinkedIn profiles, using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is serious social media. That is serious in the sense that it’s about business and promoting your strengths and skills rather than telling the world what you had for breakfast.

If you’re in business it’s also a great way to drive traffic to your website.

So how can you make sure you stand head and shoulders about the rest?

1. Shout about what you can do

The ‘skills’ section of your profile is very important. Not only does it help optimise your profile for specific keywords, it’s also a great way to grab endorsements from people you’ve worked with. A shed load of endorsements is going to make you stand out because it offers social proof of your expertise.

2. Shout about your projects

The projects section is a great way to give your products and services a boost. You can link each project directly to your website, driving targeted traffic to it.

3. Written anything?

It’s said there’s a book in everyone. If you’ve actually written one, this is your chance to shout about it. Link to it from the publications section, even if it’s to a site you’re a regular contributor t. You can link to the book or article itself, or to your author bio page.

4. Won anything?

If you have awards, been voted a major player by other websites, or been honoured shout about it in the Honors and Awards section.

5. Industry achievements

Not everyone has a university degree, but the certifications section is where you can shout about any industry related achievements (educational). If you have been certified in a particular field, or have qualified in a specific skill this is where to tell the world.

6. Memberships

The professional memberships section is where you can show not only your professional memberships, but also the position you hold if more than a member.

7. Languages

Are you one of the accomplished few that is fluent in more than one language? Multilingualism is a much sort after skill, so if you have it make sure you include it in the languages section.

There are more sections beside these 7, but these are the ones that you really must complete. Your LinkedIn profile is much more than just a summary and previous work experience. It’s your soapbox from which you can tell the world who you are, what you’ve done and what you can do.

Take a look at your profile and make sure there are no gaps.