Consider your LinkedIn Profile to be the equivalent of your professional story. Your profile should spark interest, stand out from the LinkedIn crowd, effectively and efficiently sell your skills, and be build in a strategic manner that will directly lead people back to your profile. Your profile will either reflect that you are simply on LinkedIn or that you are truly LinkedIn!

1. PHOTO/HEADSHOT
 Professional Head-Shot-first impressions matter! Dress for Success!
HEADLINE
 The default setting is your most recent job title. Edit this to reflect an interesting brand
statement to “catch” attention. Think about your UVP-Unique Value Proposition.
 Think of a it as a mini “elevator pitch”
 Think “key word” rich
RECOMMENDATIONS
 Minimum 3. Best to get recommendations based on different experiences.
 Your recommendations must come from a LinkedIn connection
 Customize the recommendation request to be specific so it covers different aspects of your skills
and qualifications.
 Nobody can write on your profile without your acceptance, so make sure your
recommendations meet your standards and have no spelling mistakes.
 Always give back and recommend others as well.
CONNECTIONS
 Always customize connection requests. LinkedIn will always have a generic message to back up
what you do not fill in. Make sure to personalize invitations to connect and requests for
recommendations.
 As you meet new people at networking events or future jobs, connect with them right away.
Wait no more than 72 hours to send out a request.
 Use the “tag” feature to manage and filter your connections. You can have 200 unique tags.
LinkedIn has 5 default tags.
 The best Networkers are those who think and give to others first. So, “like”, “share”, give
endorsements, and recommend others. And always be professional! LinkedIn is not Facebook!

2.  Keep in mind that if you request a connection via your I-Phone or “the people you may know”
feature, you will not be able to customize your message. Wait until you can go online.
WEBSITES
 Link to blogs, websites or other supplemental websites that can offer information about you.
Change the default title “Website” to the specific name of the website. Personalize everything!
PUBLIC PROFILE URL
 Customize your Public Profile URL (delete numbers and put name) and add your LinkedIn URL to
your resume and other marketing materials like signatures and business cards.
 Make sure to keep your public profile open if you want to be found by potential
recruiters/employers.
SUMMARY
 Create a professional summary written in the first person.
 Focus on answering (1) Who you are professionally (2) What you do, have done, or want to do?
(3) What your offerings are (4) what your specific skills, specialties, attributes are (5) what you
want your target audiences to do as a result. In other words, what is your call to action?
 Be sure to include keywords for your industry as well as your contact information
(email/phone).
 Review job descriptions for keywords or let LinkedIn help you via the “Skills & Expertise” section.
SKILLS and EXPERTISE
 Add industry and technical terms related to your field(s) of study/interest. Do not be general
and avoid “BUZZ” words like creative. Focus on keywords that may be used when employers
are conducting searches. There are many buzz words like “creative”. The word, creative, is too
broad and not word employers/recruiters will search for. Use the 80-20 word rule- 80%
industry-related and 20% additional skills or interests.
 Ask and give endorsements. The top 10 will follow you and they are the skills you really want to
get recognized for. Think about the key words that fit with your current career or where you
see your career taking you. As you get more and more endorsements, the order will change.
 Use bullet points for easy scanning and start your bullets with action verbs. Break paragraphs
up, use sub-titles, and use characters (bullets, stars, etc. can be cut and paste).

3.  You can add up to 50 skills but do not rush. You are still building on your skills/knowledge. You
will need room to add new ones. Once you delete a skill, you automatically delete the
endorsements you received.
EXPERIENCE
 List important points from your resume and important points not listed on your resume. Think
of accomplishments, software or technical know-how, recognitions in addition to
duties/responsibilities.
EDUCATION
 All education as well as awards, activities, significant projects, relevant courses, etc.
APPLICATIONS
 Use Slide-Share to post past presentation materials, writing samples, portfolios or other industry
related materials to highlight your work.
 Other applications available: My Travel, Portfolio Display, Slide-Share, Word-Press, Box Files
Amazon Reading List. LinkedIn is continuously moving and building in a way to promote your
Visibility.
 Edit, rich media, and movement are what the symbols stand for.
There are four places you can add rich media to your profile. You can also move sections of your
profile so that you are able to brand what you deem to be most important.
GROUPS & COMPANY PAGES
 You can join up to 50 groups. You can rearrange the order of your groups and hide the visibility
of group membership.
 Join both professional and social groups to highlight your professional career interests. Think
about industry, major, alumni groups, etc. If you are a job seeker-there are many industry-
related and general job/ career search groups.
 Groups are powerful because you can freely communicate with other group members and it is a
great way to build your network.
 Monitor your groups on a regular basis and remove yourself from inactive groups.
 Search companies you may be interested in and “follow” their pages. They will show up on your
profile.

4. INTERESTS
 Use the 80-20 rule. 80% industry-related, 20% personal
CONTACT INFO
 List your contact information (e.g. email and phone number) as well as to specify how you want
to be contacted.
 Select all contact categories (job opportunities, reconnecting etc.) to open up all possibilities.
 Personal information is not obligatory to put.
ADDITIONAL SECTIONS
In the “edit” mode, LinkedIn will suggest to add additional sections to your profile. This will help build
your profile and show your uniqueness and additional/supporting information that can help tell your
professional story. These additional sections were added with students’ needs in mind. Take full
advantage of these sections-differentiate yourself. This section was made for students.
Certifications, Courses, Honors and Awards, Languages, Organizations, Projects, Patents, Publications,
Test Scores, volunteer work and causes.
PRIVACY SETTINGS
 Keep your profile open so that potential employers/recruiters can find and reach out to you
about opportunities.
 You can control how people view your information and status updates in the Settings tab on
LinkedIn. Review everything!
 Read the User Agreement on the LinkedIn site so that you understand the rules/regulations.
Shelly Elsliger
Online Branding and LinkedIn Specialist
Founder and President, Linked-Express