We need to talk about why having an optimized LinkedIn profile is crucial for your career growth.
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
Here’s the thing, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network, with over 750 million members. It's not just a platform to connect with people, but it’s also a powerful tool to showcase your skills and accomplishments to potential employers, clients, and collaborators.
I know a lot of folx just throw the basics up there and walk away but there are THREE reasons why having an optimized LinkedIn profile is important:
First, it increases your chances of being found by recruiters and hiring managers. According to LinkedIn, candidates with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn than those with incomplete profiles.
That’s just if the dang thing is complete - not even optimized! So, by optimizing your profile, you're giving yourself an even better chance of getting noticed by the right people.
Second, an optimized LinkedIn profile helps you build your personal brand. Your profile is essentially your digital resume, and it's often the first thing people see when they search for you online.
By having a strong profile that highlights your skills, achievements, and personality, you can make a great first impression. You can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, an expert in your field, an experienced human who can solve problems. Whatever serves you best.
Third, an optimized LinkedIn profile can lead to more networking opportunities (I can hear you moaning through the screen).
LinkedIn is a great place to connect with like-minded professionals, and an optimized profile can help you attract more relevant connections, but it’s also an amazing place to connect with colleagues, mentors, collaborators, alumni… aka like-minded people who dig what you dig!
By sharing your knowledge and engaging with others, you can expand your network and uncover new opportunities for growth, collaboration and for doing the thing you want to do.
So what does all of this mean? It means if you take the 30 minutes (max!) needed to optimize your profile it can go to work for you. It can take you from Job Seeker to Job Shopper because you'll be showing up in more recruiter searches and networking searches.
You'll be generating inbound marketing traffic for yourself allowing for you to have choices and options. And is there a reason you don’t want those?
If you present yourself at your best, as someone who can absolutely meet and reach the goals they've set and solve the problems that hiring managers are looking to solve - then you've presented yourself as a no-brainer candidate for tons of amazing opportunities out there!
You could go from applying willy-nilly to 20 jobs a day to having choices presented to you. If you can make your professional life easier why would you not want that?
Many of you have just put your resume up there and sort of set it and forget it - but that doesn't really do much. You need to think of LinkedIn as a free digital billboard for you. It’a an advertisement (that’s free).
It's also searchable in a way that your pdf resume isn't and it's a way to show you, your story, and your personality in a way that makes sense for the opportunities that you're looking for next.
That’s why you need to optimize that profile, but unless you know exactly what you’re supposed to do you could be missing out on a bunch of features and tools that can help you stand out.
And since you want to stand out from the crowd, I've created a workbook on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile. In this workbook, you'll learn:
How to write a compelling headline and summary that grab attention
How to showcase your skills and accomplishments
How to optimize your profile for search engines, so that you're more likely to appear in search results
And much more
This workbook is packed with practical tips and examples that you can use to transform your LinkedIn profile into a powerful career asset.
Whether you're a recent graduate looking for your first job, or a seasoned professional looking to switch careers, this workbook will help you optimize your profile and attract more opportunities.
And the best part? It's completely free! All you have to do is click here. Once you sign up, you'll receive the workbook in your inbox instantly.
Don’t want to grab the workbook? No problem. I still don’t want you wandering around out there without some help so if you do nothing else to get started on optimizing your profile do this one thing: change your headline!
The default on LinkedIn is to have your current job title but that isn’t the most effective use of that real estate. Take 2 moments to think about what a recruiter would search for if they were looking for someone just like you.
A great example would be:
Marketing Strategist | Specializing in consumer goods (youth) | Data driven
It tells the recruiter what you do and how you do it and what makes you special. It’s also general enough to be searched.
Go, give it a whirl - don't wait any longer. Take your career to the next level by optimizing your LinkedIn profile today.
Yours in ‘get your face on the billboard’ goodness-
EBS
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EB Sanders | Career Coach for Creative Types
