Linkedin has never been more important than it is right now. If Fortune’s article about Linkedin in 2019 tells us anything, it’s that for the foreseeable future, Linkedin will continue to be extremely important not only for B2B marketers and salespeople, but also job hunters. People have now integrated contemporary social media strategies to Linkedin. That’s why you’ll see plenty of selfies videos on your feed. However, this article isn’t focused on that. Yes, me personally. Since I’ve been with the company for several months now, I’ve witnessed Gabe host several Linkedin workshops. Before getting into the 3 common mistakes, let’s brainstorm how they could be hurting your career: - Less connections means less views - Less recruiters/potential clients reaching out to you - Worse personal brand - Any more? Now that we know some of the downsides of having a bad profile, you can see how detrimental it can be to your career. So now, let’s get into the most common mistakes I see on your Linkedin profile so we can make sure your career gets every chance it deserves to flourish. Pictures Ok, let’s start with the background picture. Don’t leave it blank. Make it relevant to your industry, job, or company. It’s doesn’t take much effort to find a picture from the internet or simply your company logo. Now let’s talk about your profile picture. Don’t: have a zoomed out picture, have it include your only part of your face (weird angle, large sunglasses), worry about it being professionally taken, worry about being in business professional attire, don’t make it a selfie Do: smile, have it be good quality (an iPhone will work), have a blank background Bio I see some people who write like 6 long paragraphs about themselves in the bio section. Do you think a recruiter reads all of this? In some situations, they probably just scroll past your bio. Even if they do read it, do you think they’re that excited to continue on with your profile? Don’t make them read an entire essay. You should be able to describe yourself succinctly. It is also crucial that your bio isn’t too cliche. You want it to help you stand out for the right reasons. You don’t want to contain all of the overused buzz words for your industry. Having a few of them is fine. Experience There are way too many people who simply list their jobs under experience. They don’t even put in the effort to copy the bullet points from their resume and paste them on their Linkedin. It shouldn’t take too long to do this. To help you with the “Experience” section, you should not simply list your responsibilities that would be included in the job description. You should include your achievements from your time at the company. Make sure to use metrics here! -- Hope this is helpful when you are updating your Linkedin profile. You should get more connections and recruiter in-mails if you follow these guidelines. It comes down to making an effort to showcase your personality and achievements. Remember, like your resume, your Linkedin profile is your marketing tool to help you get jobs. Once you view it that way, the arrangement and content of your profile will come together naturally. -- Here are some other blog posts that would help you in your job hunt: 4 Soft Skills Employers are Looking For 3 Hardest Interview Questions (And How to Answer Them) -- We have free online sales training videos on our Teachable. The online sales training videos will help you learn some sales skills as well as give you a preview of what our bootcamp training is like. And if you're asking yourself: "How can I find a boot camp near me?" Our real sales bootcamp that includes live, instructor-led curriculum from former SDRs at Salesforce, Linkedin, and IBM, can be done virtually!
