Espresso for Your LinkedIn: 6 Steps to Wake Up Your Snoozing LinkedIn Profile

Know that feeling when all you need is a break and a good Latte Macchiato? Well, there’s somebody else who could use an energy booster: Your LinkedIn profile. Why?

Check out these statistics:

• 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates
• There are 20 million active job listings on LinkedIn
• There are 100 million job applications submitted on LinkedIn monthly
• Keeping your profile up to date makes you 18 times more likely to be found in searches by members and recruiters

You get the picture. A huge benefit of LinkedIn is that it helps you have your dream job literally fall into your lap. Just like you need a new job, so do recruiters need the best employee they can find. And they’re searching for their candidates actively. In my own case, in the past year I’ve received several serious and high-quality job opportunities from recruiters who have found me on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn allows you to follow companies of your interest. The advantage of other job search platforms is that many recruiters post their openings directly on the platform, so you immediately get their contact information. This can help you craft a more personalized job application.

As with any other social platform, you’ll get the best from LinkedIn if you know how to work the system. Here are some of the most important rules of the game.

1. Stick to professional content. With more than 575 million users, LinkedIn is the largest professional network. Unlike Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn is not the go-to platform for your personal updates. Here you connect to people you’ve worked with or would like to get to know / interact with professionally. Nobody on LinkedIn wants to know what you ate for lunch yesterday. But fresh information from your industry or professional expertise is highly appreciated.

2. Upload your photo. Your photo should be professional, but you don’t need to obsess over it. Some “gurus” claim that it needs to be done by a professional photographer, but I’ve had my photo taken by a friend and my profile still attracted a lot of visits. I’d say you should avoid a selfie, sunglasses, and photos in your bikini.

The best way to go is to choose an outfit that best reflects the environment you want to work in. For example, if you’re looking for the position of a creative copywriter, you’ll dress differently than if you’re aiming at government jobs.

3. Fill out the summary. This is a good place to insert your “personal pitch.” In a nutshell, what is it that you do? What are your major accomplishments? What makes you unique? You may add something personal at the end so that viewers of your profile connect with you on a deeper, personal level. (“When I’m not consulting with clients, you’ll find me on the ski slopes or playing with my 2-year-old son”).

4. Write a powerful LinkedIn headline. Together with your photo and summary, your LinkedIn headline is the first thing that people notice when they visit your profile. Think of it as the answer to the recruiter’s question: Why should I read your profile? You want to pay attention to your headline because it’s your chance to

• Make a great first impression
• Have recruiters find your profile easily (it’s one of the most important components of LinkedIn’s search algorithm. Make sure to include keywords that relate to your target position.)

If you don’t write your own headline, LinkedIn automatically populates it with your current job title. To make it more original, you can instead of the title put in a statement that best describes you (For example: Instead of copywriter at company X, you can say: I help companies write copy that converts). In this case, make sure to first check what’s best practice at your current place of work. Some employers expect you to display your job title in your headline. You don’t want to set off any red flags at work.

5. Insert your experiences. What’s important here is that you focus on your accomplishments instead of work histories. Make sure to provide details about your current position as well. While on your resume, you need to squeeze all the content on 1-2 pages, on LinkedIn, you can take all the space you need. Still, avoid listing experiences that are not relevant to your future role like your summer bartending job during college.

6. To further distinguish yourself from other candidates:

• Fill out the skills section. This step will additionally help you make it through the recruiter’s search results. Why not use it? List only skills that are relevant to your future career goals.
• Add recommendations for some social proof on your profile. Do you have recommendations on your profile? If not, ask your former boss/colleagues and other people you’ve worked with to write why they appreciated working with you. Offer to do the same for them.
• Fill out the section about languages, certifications, and publications.