Your LinkedIn profile has to be an ad of sorts for your personal brand. This means that it must reflect your strengths and be as professional as possible.
A lot of people make seemingly small mistakes on their LinkedIn profile and this ruins their credibility. To help you, we have put together a list of these common mistakes that you must be careful to avoid. Let's dive right in:
Using an unprofessional photo:
LinkedIn is not the place to showcase your favorite picture from your family holiday or a goofy selfie. Research shows that people with professional headshots as profile pictures get fourteen times more profile visits than people who do not. This reason is why you must choose a good picture that is both professional and shows your features from your shoulders upward.
Having a boring summary:
LinkedIn allows you 120 characters to impress people who visit your profile. More often than not, people are not interested enough to click the “see more” tab because the first lines are not catchy. Be careful not to use business-like jargon, such as “Result-oriented fast learner, Purpose-driven entrepreneur.” Your summary and headline must be as personal yet professional as possible.
Not personalizing requests for connections:
LinkedIn has a default message that gets sent when you request for a connection. However, this message shows no indication of mutual interests that would make a person accept your connection. This is why you must take time out to personalize your connection requests. This way, it shows the reason why you are sending the request. Now, the LinkedIn platform available on mobile phones does not let you customize messages for connections, so you have to use your desktop to create and send it. Doing this is essential because the more people flag your requests as spam or unknown, the more likely that your account gets restricted, and we wouldn't want that.
Failing to monitor your new connections:
Getting new connections on LinkedIn should not be just for the sake of it. The number of your connections will not matter if you do not take advantage of it. Send a personalized message after your connection request gets accepted. Your follow-up strategy has to be diligent if you intend to reap the benefits of good social networking.
Not maximizing the use of your LinkedIn:
Your LinkedIn is not just a social network platform; it is your billboard. Your potential clients, recruiters, employers, and entire network expects to get a wholesome idea about you from your profile. This reason is why your profile must not just be all about you; it must include the services, or things you can offer. Doing this makes people consider you as a good connection.
If you are not already doing all the things mentioned above, it's time to fasten your belt and get better. An easy way to get it right once and for all is to get a LinkedIn profile optimization service. This would help you find out the necessary gaps that need filling and get you an irresistible profile. And one of the best tools you can use to find keywords to optimize your resume and profile for your industry is Jobalytics Chrome App. To learn more, visit Jobalytics today.
We are also offering a beta-releasing of our "Curate" service for free! We will analyze your resume and search across the the web for the latest jobs that perfectly match your profile with the highest match scores, sending you weekly curated list of your best job matches so you can choose which positions to apply to. Maximize your opportunities for landing phone calls and interviews with Curate!