There’s no doubt about it. If you’re in business, you should be on Linkedin. The Internet’s first and longest living professional network turned ten years old in 2013. Growing at a pace of two new members per second, LinkedIn’s 225 million current members is nothing to ignore.

With that in mind, Burchard and Associates wants to share our top 5 tips to get the most of your Linkedin profile.

What’s Your Goal?

Think about your end objective for being on Linkedin. Do you just want to connect with other professionals? Looking for that dream job? Trying to cultivate potential sales leads?

One size will not fit all. If your goal is that corner office position that you’ve been dreaming about, position yourself as the perfect candidate. Only list skills and experience that would be important and convincing to hiring managers.

Photo

You don’t have to use a professional photographer or be a super-model to have a great profile photo. Have someone take your picture that is easy to laugh with. Make sure the photo is high-resolution and current. Nothing is worse than meeting someone and being shocked by the difference between their real self and their profile picture.

Last but not least, consider changing your photo every now and then. Your connections get notified when you do this. It’s an easy way to stay top of mind to your network.

Headline

Those 120 characters that show up under your profile pic are pretty important. Your headline needs to align with your objectives for being on Linkedin. Pick keywords and phrases that are relevant to your industry and objective.

For example, “Super Organized Project Manager Seeking Employment in downtown St. Louis” works much better than just “Project Manager”.

Endorsements

Brainstorm all the skills that are relevant to your field. Having those listed makes it very easy for people to click and endorse you. Once you’ve gained enough endorsements you can start to manage them. Delete skills from the top ten listings that aren’t relevant to your objectives. Sure you’re proud of your Game of Thrones knowledge, and it was funny to have your friends endorsing you, but when you’re looking for a new position this might not be the best skill to have in your top ten.

Also consider who has endorsed you. Maybe an endorser has received some less than stellar local press. You can simply choose to not have their endorsement listed.

Experience

Even though you can now feature your accomplishments in the experience section people have only recently begun using this feature. Stand out from the crowd by feature that awesome PowerPoint you created for a quarterly meeting. Upload an infographic that was created by your team. You’ve worked hard. Let people see the fruit of your labor.