15 Ways to Upgrade Your LinkedIn Profile

1. Add a great profile picture. Should seem obvious, but a lot of people don’t have them. Make sure it's a professional photo (for your industry) and features your smiling face. This one step will triple your visibility, connections, and benefit from LinkedIn.
2. Write a headline that sells you. Make sure you describe what you do, what you are good at, what you offer to customers or clients. Here is my current headline for you to copy and paste: Helping Businesses Profit w/ Social Media Marketing | President - Redline Digital | Successful Social Media Strategist
3. Make your Summary a sales letter. Write a personal statement that tells people who you help and how you can help them. Use keywords that you want people to find you for.
4. Update your work experience. Treat this like a resume. Whatever you would put on a resume, add it in your work experience. Use specific numbers where applicable. "I increased sales by $13.4 million." Numbers capture attention and point to a specific result.
5. Add keywords to your interests section. Use keywords that you want people to associate with you. As an example, if your profile is for social media consulting you might have the following keywords: Social media consulting, social media marketing, Facebook advertising. Hopefully you get the idea.
6. Update your education. Tag your university. People will find you by searching your school. Include any certifications or awards.
7. Get more endorsements. Add skills that you want people to endorse you for. Endorse your connections for skills that they have. With endorsements, the more you give, the more you get. Trust me.
8. Add photos or links of your work product. Each job and summary allow you to upload sample images or links to your work. Upload graphics, presentations, links to websites you have built, etc. This is a relatively new feature that most people don’t utilize. This will set you apart immediately. Check out how I did this here.
9. Add publications. If you were ever published, quoted in an article, etc. Add a link to the article if it's good.
10. Add certifications. Anything you’ve been certified for. Real estate, website design, etc. Make sure to link to the company on LinkedIn.
11. Follow influential people in your industry. This will associate you with the biggest names in your industry. People listen to people with influential friends.
12. Post regularly. Your work updates, interesting articles you’ve read, projects you have completed, things that you have worked on with team members. It’s even a good idea to post funny stuff. Most people don’t so it will set you apart. Just remember to keep it professional. Or not. Push the envelope.
13. Post on the blog. LinkedIn now has a blog feature where you can post articles. Write an article, comment on an article, add announcements. Anything you post in this section will be announced to all of your connections. Here is a link to an article that got 700+ views.
14. Add lots of connections. Everyone you know. People you’d like to know. Add all connections from your gmail or outlook account. All connections from your iphone or android. This is the fastest way to get a lot of new connections.
15. Update your profile regularly. Add new projects, new connections, new jobs, new publications, new groups.

This is not an exhaustive list by any stretch. Just my brain purge for today. Hope this helps you get a start with this.

If you only do half of the things on this list, you will be ahead of 90% of professionals on LinkedIn.

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