3 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile

This guest post by Sabrina Woods, an independent career/life coach, features 3 tips for strengthening your Linked In profile. Woods is also the associate director of career services at Northeastern University  and a career workshop leader for Harvard Extension School. www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinawoods. She’ll share several more LinkedIn tips in January. So stay tuned!

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You’ve got a profile on LinkedIn and you have started to tap this incredible professional networking tool. Now let’s enhance your profile for a strong online presence, showing off more of what you have to offer to a future employer.

Tip #1: Ask for recommendations

One way to show some additional facets of yourself is by having others recommend you. While most people think about asking a past or current supervisor for a recommendation, it doesn’t have to end there. You can also ask co-workers, past or current clients, and even vendors whom you might have worked with closely.

If you don’t want to seem too pushy, you could send them a regular e-mail message asking if they would consider writing you a short recommendation, rather than asking via the LinkedIn request section. Keep in mind that the one writing the recommendation also has to be a member of LinkedIn.

Tip # 2: Customize your public profile for use on business cards and in your e-mail signature

In the top section of your profile, that summarizes your key information, you’ll see a section called public profile. In “Edit Profile” mode, you can edit this section to display, ideally, only your name. This shorter version is now much easier to put on a business card and add to the signature of the e-mails that you send. Including that link will allow others to see your LinkedIn profile instantly, without having to log into LinkedIn or even be a LinkedIn member. Think of it as your own website URL.

Tip # 3: Add additional sections to your profile

Recently, LinkedIn created some new sections that you can choose to add to your profile. Right above your summary (when you are in “Edit Profile” mode) you’ll see “NEW Add Sections.” This new profile section gives you the opportunity to highlight achievements, classes, certifications, and more to potential employers. Here are a few for you to consider:

• Projects: If you are currently taking classes, show off the academic projects that you have completed that most closely relate to the type of work you are currently doing or for the field or type of job you are trying to land.
• Courses: List the courses you have recently taken to demonstrate a particular skill you have gained or knowledge area or to simply show your interest in a topic that is relevant to your sector.
• Organizations: Include the organizations that you belong to, especially when they are professional organizations related to your field to show that you are constantly learning the latest information in your industry.

Do you have your own LinkedIn tip to share? Comment below. And don’t forget to watch for Woods’ follow-up post in January, with more tips.