More and more employers are skipping cover letters, CVs and resumes entirely and simply asking candidates to provide their LinkedIn profile link as part of their application. Here’s how and why you should boost your profile.
Here’s What the Stats Are Saying
As of June 21, 2024, LinkedIn has over 1 billion registered members from more than 200 countries and territories. This makes it the world’s top professional platform. About 134.5 million users are active on LinkedIn each day, and over 48% are active monthly.
TO PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE
- As of February 2024, 77% of the 67 million companies on LinkedIn regularly use LinkedIn to recruit.
- Another study found that 122 million people received an interview through LinkedIn with 35.5 million having been hired by a person they connected with on LinkedIn.
- 77 Job Seekers submit an application on LinkedIn every second.
- Every minute, 6 to 8 people are hired on LinkedIn.
- 49 Million Users look for jobs through LinkedIn weekly.
- 75% of those who recently changed jobs leveraged LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn is well trusted. According to recruiters, 67% of recruiters hired on LinkedIn are of higher quality.
- 72% of recruiters use LinkedIn when hiring new talent.
LET THAT SINK IN!
LinkedIn has become a frontline tool for marketing your skills and experience to prospective employers. This shift is a reason that your LinkedIn presence should shine. So if you’ve been deprioritizing LinkedIn, it’s time to give your profile a serious revamp.
A Few Tips On How To Boost Your Profile
Your Header Should Stand Out
Your header should incorporate a personable but professional profile photo, a compelling headline, and an ABOUT summary section that conveys your value proposition. A professional photo gives a user 14 times more views, on average, than other types of profile photos.
A LinkedIn profile picture puts a face to your name and creates a positive visual association with the name. Your professional headshot should reflect your personality and profession.
Your headline, positioned below your name, should be more than just your job title. You have 120 characters to make a definitive impression about yourself. Your headline should highlight your specialties and your value proposition. It should be tailored to your target audience, whether they are industry peers, customers, or recruiters.
A good example: “Advertising Sales Rep helping clients create winning branding strategies. Over 300 successful clients.”
Your LinkedIn summary should tell your professional story. LinkedIn allows up to 2,000 characters to highlight your skills, experiences, and what you bring to a prospective employer. Keep it concise, ideally under 1,000 characters.
A good example: “As an Information Security Analyst at XYZ Hospital, I manage the information flow for five hospitals, ensuring critical systems and patient data remain secure and functional. My team and I stay on the cutting edge of information security trends to keep our facilities safe.”
All this should be done using relevant keywords that will improve your visibility in searches. You should identify common skills and duties in job descriptions of interest and use those terms. They will help recruiters find you easily.
Add a Detailed List of All Your Experiences
You should tell it all—both paid and volunteer experiences. It should not be a simple list of your past job duties but a detailed showcase of your past accomplishments and tangible results with specific numbers/metrics.
Don’t just copy and paste from your resume. You should highlight relevant jobs with two to four bullet points each, focusing on your accomplishments and the key metrics you achieved. Use action verbs to show your achievements.
Your Skills Profile Should Tell It All
This also should tell all you can possibly offer a potential employer. Research show that those with at least 5 relevant skills are 31 times more likely to be reached out to than those who do. Also ask connections to endorse your strengths. As to the badges, get them by taking a few of LinkedIn’s certification courses. They will help to boost your credibility.
Expand Your Connections and Grow Your Network
Connect with thought leaders and and follow professionals you aim to emulate or work in your industry. Who knows? They may open doors to new opportunities for you. A LinkedIn Page that reaches 150 followers will grow new followers at a rate 9x faster than Pages with fewer followers.
Your Profile Should Be Complete and Updated
Profiles and pages with complete information get 30% more weekly views. It is thus imperative to ensure that every section of your LinkedIn profile or company page is fully filled out, including your contact information, work experience, skills, and a detailed summary.
Also, your contact details should be up to date so recruiters can reach you. Your profile also needs to be publicly searchable to increase visibility. You can do this by going to profile setting and making it searchable.
Stay Active and Gain Visibility
This of course, is by posting as much as you can afford to. Talk about yourself and your work. React to other’s content. Join and participate in groups. Use photos and images; they increase comment rate by 98% percent.
Regularly review your LinkedIn analytics to the performance of your content. Use these insights to refine your content strategy and focus on what resonates most with your audience.
Don’t waste another day. Get started with building your LinkedIn page today! By following these strategies, you can build a robust LinkedIn presence that enhances your professional or company profile in no time and positions you for the opportunities you are looking for.
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