Creating a LinkedIn profile can seem like a lot of work, but if you know what you want to accomplish using LinkedIn, you can tailor your profile to help you accomplish these objectives.
Don’t worry if your profile information feels incomplete. You can revise it over time – and you will if you do things like change jobs, earn degrees and otherwise make changes to your professional life.
Starting a LinkedIn profile
To start creating a profile, follow these steps.
- In a web browser, go to linkedin.com.
- In the “Join LinkedIn Today” box, type the information required and click the Join Now button.
- Follow the instructions on the pages that follow.
LinkedIn prompts you to add work history, educational history and other information about yourself.
Adding content to a LinkedIn profile
If you’re wondering where you might have all the information you need for a profile, consider the following sources:
- your current resume
- the professional reflection you did
- a photo of yourself (ideally a professional head shot – the photos are shown small in LinkedIn so choose photos of your face smiling into a camera over ones of you smiling into a camera while water-skiing).
If you already use a professional-looking photo on other social networking sites, your own website or other places online, consider using that same photo for the sake of consistency.
Refining a LinkedIn profile
You can continue to refine your profile over time. For instance:
- rewrite parts of your resume content using keywords that matter to people who would search for people like you.
- update your profile whenever you have something to add (e.g. a new job, new degrees, diplomas, certificates, and so forth).
- if you provide more than one service, mention each service in your summary and, to the extent possible, your profile headline.
Completing a LinkedIn profile
You might notice a completion bar for your LinkedIn profile. You can’t push that bar to 100 per cent on the first day you work with LinkedIn, for reasons you can learn about in the video below. Don’t worry about that – chances are your profile will be 100 per cent complete very shortly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNl9RVrXLhM