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5 Tips to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

As working professionals, we all know how valuable LinkedIn is to our long-term networking strategy and industry visibility. But ask yourself: is your LinkedIn profile maximizing its potential?

There are many quick, easy ways to ensure your profile and professional experience is highly visible for colleagues, recruiters, and hiring companies. By implementing a few of these tips, you can take full advantage of LinkedIn’s networking opportunities.

Tip #1: Leverage every relevant profile section

LinkedIn offers a plethora of content that you can highlight on your profile. While sections like your professional experience, and educational background may be well defined, ensure you’re also taking advantage of other sections like ‘Projects’, ‘Volunteering Experience,’ ‘Honors & Awards,’ and more! The more you can highlight your skill set and your personal passions, the more compelling you will be to recruiters and industry professionals who may be evaluating your profile.

Tip #2: Add skills and endorsements

Besides showcasing your skills and strengthening them with your colleagues’ recognition, skills are highly indexable in LinkedIn search. If a recruiter is searching for LinkedIn users with a background in tax planning, if you highlight ‘Tax Planning’ as a skill on your profile and have garnered a strong level of endorsements, LinkedIn will rank you higher for relevant searches around ‘Tax Planning.’ The more skills and endorsements you can curate, the stronger your visibility in industry-relevant searches. It just might unlock your next job opportunity!

Tip #3: Optimize text-rich profile sections with industry-relevant keywords

LinkedIn also weights core areas like your headline, summary, and experience heavily in its search engine. Boost the potential of these sections by adding relevant, industry-specific keywords that recruiters and hiring managers are likely to search for.

A friendly reminder: don’t “stuff” your profile with keywords in pursuit of search rankings. Ensure your summary and experience sections flow naturally and then pepper-in core industry keywords that will strengthen each section.

Tip #4: Leverage rich media

Don’t underestimate the power of rich media! Upload and share relevant powerpoint presentations, videos, images, and more. LinkedIn allows you to add rich media directly into your work experience and summary sections to further beef up your professional profile. By adding visually compelling and premium work samples to your LinkedIn profile, you further increase your ability to present yourself as an industry leader.

Tip #5: Be active and present

Don’t lose sight of the fact that LinkedIn is at its core a social network. Many professionals treat LinkedIn as a glorified resume portal, when it is so much more than that. LinkedIn provides the ability to house and grow your professional network in one central hub. LinkedIn also gives you access to the recruiters and companies that can propel you to your professional goals.

Engage regularly on LinkedIn by posting relevant articles, engagement-rich questions, and industry content. This increases your visibility in your colleagues’ newsfeeds and keeps you top-of-mind within your industry.

But don’t stop there! Research relevant professional groups and start participating in their discussions to expand your professional network online and showcase your industry knowledge amongst your extended peers. Additionally, follow new companies that may interest you professionally to stay current on their news and job opportunities.

These are just 5 easy ways to jumpstart your LinkedIn influence. When in doubt, start engaging in discussions, and continually expand your network with your known colleagues. By implementing the above tips and dedicating regular, quality time on the network, you’ll have a well-groomed LinkedIn presence that will position you strongly for continued career success.

Burchard & Associates specializes in accounting and finance recruiting across all business sectors, including manufacturing, retail, wholesale/distribution, healthcare, financial services, and more.

Burchard & Associates provides a personal approach to accounting and tax recruitment for St. Louis and beyond. We are ready to listen to YOU.

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