How to use the LinkedIn Profile Features to Optimize Your Presence..

Stand out With New Profile Image Options Making your profile visual can be a great way of creating the image you want to portray of your professional self. The trend towards getting more visual has taken over all social media sites and LinkedIn profiles are about to get the same treatment.

Some new image features to be on the lookout for are:

• Larger headshot photos
• Expanded profile headers
  

Business pages can also be edited with imagery to portray a particular brand message to your B2B and B2C markets.

A great example of use of imagery on a personal profile is Richard Branson’s profile, in his profile picture he is gazing upwards towards a background image of clouds, which we assume symbolizes the fact he owns a successful airline, and also aims for sky high ideas.

Get Found With Keyword Optimization Suggestions

Including the right keywords in your LinkedIn profile is one of the best ways to increase your chances of showing up in relevant search results. LinkedIn is aiming to help by providing personalized keyword suggestions.

Some key areas of your profile to include keywords:

• Headline
• Summary
• Experience
• Skills

Think about what words may be regularly searched by customers or recruiters when looking for a company like yours on LinkedIn. Ensure you use these keywords to enhance your profile’s popularity and accessibility.

Open Up Your Profiles Accessibility

One of the defining characteristics of LinkedIn has been the privacy of your profile details and inbox from members who are not close connections with you. LinkedIn is now introducing a new setting called Open Profile. This option allows you to make your full profile visible to all LinkedIn members as well as allow anyone to send you direct messages. This may result in more spam messages, however it may also result in much more views - and customers! If it doesn’t work out for you, you can always turn it off.

Measure and Compare Your Visibility

One of LinkedIn’s greatest features is the ‘Who’s viewed your profile report’ and it’s about to get an upgrade that allows for viewing a full 90 day time range of profile views.

The new ‘How You Rank’ report will show where you fit into the top 100 most viewed profiles among your company and first degree connections. This will mean you can see how you rank compared to your competitors and peers, and then are able to check out their profiles, and see what they are doing to get more views - or what they are doing wrong that you can exploit and turn into a competitive advantage.

LinkedIn is becoming more and more popular for B2B and B2C interactions and company updates, so it’s vital to ensure yours is the best it can possibly be!