- Are you wondering how to get started on LinkedIn
so that you can create a profile
that stands out from your competition?
Maybe you're wondering what information
to include in your profile
and what information just isn't relevant.
If you're not confident when it comes to using LinkedIn,
then tune in, because in
this video you'll learn exactly what you need
to do to get started on LinkedIn
so that you can show your real potential
and land higher-quality career opportunities.
(upbeat music)
And hey, if you want even more
powerful LinkedIn profile tips,
make sure you take a look
at my free five-day LinkedIn minicourse
where you will learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile.
I'll link the course below.
And if we've never met before,
I'm Heather Austin from ProfessorAustin.com
and The Career Club on Facebook,
and on this channel, I teach working professionals just
like you how to build their personal brand
so that they can land their dream job
and grow in a field they love,
so if you're new here, make sure
you hit the Subscribe button down below.
Also, don't forget to hit the Bell notification,
so you're notified when I publish a new video
or when I go live every week.
And hey, real quick.
Tell me in the comments below
this video what do you struggle
with the most when it comes to using LinkedIn?
Let's continue the conversation down there.
Now, before we jump over to the computer for an easy,
step-by-step tutorial, there's a few things
to keep in mind when it comes to using LinkedIn.
Think of LinkedIn as your personal sales page.
It's one of the only professional social media platforms
where you can sell yourself,
look for new job opportunities
and network with others in your industry.
So if you're someone that's trying
to get noticed by hiring officials,
grow your personal brand or even grow your own business,
you definitely need a strong LinkedIn profile.
Not only that, LinkedIn now has 600 million users,
with two new users joining the platform every second.
LinkedIn is not slowing down anytime soon.
Now, this tutorial that I'm gonna walk you through assumes
that you already have a LinkedIn account created.
If you don't already have an account created,
you need to go to LinkedIn.com to set your account up,
and then once you're done with that,
come back to this video
and I'll walk you step-by-step
how to get started on the platform.
So let's jump over to the computer.
So here we are, looking at my LinkedIn profile.
I'm gonna walk you through the steps
to help you get started using LinkedIn.
Now, step number one is to start with the basics.
So what do I mean by starting with the basics?
You always want to make sure
that you start with your headshot
and your LinkedIn headline,
and when it comes to a really good headshot,
you wanna make sure that the picture you use
has you smiling, has you dressed
appropriately for your industry.
You also wanna make sure that you're looking directly
at the camera and that we can see you really well,
so you don't want to take a full body shot.
My recommendation is to take a headshot
that is from the waist or from the elbows up,
and also make sure that you are not wearing hats
and sunglasses and anything
that might be a little bit distracting.
Another thing to keep in mind when it comes
to a good headshot is to make sure
that you're not using selfies
and here's the key: LinkedIn profiles
with professional headshots
actually get 14 times more views.
So if you can, make sure you get
a professional headshot in there.
Now let's talk about the headline.
So when it comes to a really good LinkedIn headline,
you wanna make sure that it grabs the attention of anyone
that might be viewing your profile.
Now, think of your headline as your tagline.
These are keywords and keyword phrases
that others might be using on LinkedIn to find you.
Now, by default LinkedIn actually uses the job title
of your current or most recent position.
So my recommendation is to change that.
Now, you'll notice in my example here I actually
am just using my title for my business.
Now, I'm not a job seeker,
so my headline might be written
a little bit differently than yours.
If you are a job seeker,
you wanna make sure that the headline you use is tailored
to the position or to the industry that you want to go in,
and of course always making sure you use as many keywords
and keyword phrases in there.
Now, you do have up to 120 characters
to use inside your headline.
I'm not necessarily recommending that you use all 120.
Just make your headline as long as it needs to be.
Now, you also wanna make sure
you incorporate your specialty.
So your specialty will help you get found in searches
if others are looking for individuals
that might do what you do.
So here's an example.
Let's say that I was a senior project manager.
So one way that I could spice up my headline
is by saying senior project manager specializing
in implementation and relationship management.
Now, step two to getting started
on LinkedIn is the About section.
So I'm gonna scroll down on my profile
to show you what my About section looks like.
I'm gonna go ahead and click on the Edit icon
to pull up the About section,
and I can even click on this toggle
to make the section a little bit larger,
so that you can read it better.
Now, when it comes to a really good summary,
you wanna make sure that you have it organized.
You want to intrigue your audience
or intrigue your viewer to keep reading more.
Now, the About section is such a great way
to share your skills, your talents,
and your expertise a little bit more in detail.
It's also the perfect place
to let your personality and character shine.
Now, you'll notice inside
the About section there's two main areas.
You have your summary and then you have your media.
Let's talk first about the summary.
The summary section needs to address who you are,
who you help, and how you help them.
You wanna start with a sentence
that mentions what you are most passionate about
and what drives you most about your career.
So if you look at my example,
notice I say career in business strategy is my passion,
and then I go on to say I
am a driven business owner dedicated to teaching
and then I mention a little bit more in there.
After you've mentioned what you are most passionate about
and what drives you, you want to then include a paragraph
that mentions your greatest accomplishments
or even some of your greatest strengths.
So you'll notice that I
go on to say my greatest strength
is in helping others find solutions
and strategies to launch their perfect career.
So you can use this exact same
format when you write your own summary.
Now, to make your summary section easier to read,
you wanna make sure you are using paragraphs
that are no longer than two to three sentences,
and you can use bullet points to break up the content
and make it so that the viewer can
easily read your information.
So you'll notice in this example I just
have an arrow bullet point
that I am using to break up the content.
Now, if you want to learn other symbols
that you might be able to use inside of LinkedIn,
just go to Google and type in symbols for LinkedIn profile
and you'll come up with quite a few options.
My recommendation is not to go overboard with the symbols.
I've seen a lot of people that try
and stuff their headlines
and their summary to get attention using symbols
and bullet points and I don't recommend doing that.
I like using them but not in an extreme way,
just use them enough up so that it breaks up the content
and it keeps your reader easily viewing your profile.
After your bullet point section you can then go ahead
and include an expertise section.
Now, my summary section is written as a business owner.
Yours will be very similar,
but at the very end you always wanna make sure you have some
sort of specialty or expertise section.
Now, this section is keywords
and keyword phrases that will show up in a job posting
that you can put into your profile,
so that, again, you can be found in search results.
Now, after the summary section you also
have the option to add media.
So you can add a link to external documents,
photos, sites, videos, and even presentations.
Now, inside of my media section,
I've just uploaded a handful
of videos from my YouTube channel.
These are videos that are viewed most often.
So I've popped them here into my LinkedIn profile.
So you can consider what type
of media options do you
want to add to your LinkedIn profile.
Okay, moving on to the third step to get started
on LinkedIn, and that is
going to be your experience section.
So I'm gonna scroll down to the experience section,
and you'll notice as I'm scrolling down I have my dashboard.
Now, my dashboard is unique to me,
just as your dashboard will be unique to you,
and then I also have my activity.
So this is going to be, again, unique to you.
But I'm gonna scroll down to the experience
section and this is where
I would start adding all of my experience.
So think of your experience section as a better way
to tell your career story.
The point to the experience section
is to really show your audience who you are
and how you got to where you are.
Remember that LinkedIn is
a little bit more informal than your resume,
so this is the perfect opportunity to let your personality
and your character shine.
In fact, inside your LinkedIn profile you actually can write
in first person which I always recommend you do.
However, you don't want
to write in first person on your resume.
When it comes to the work experience section,
I like to use two to three sentences in a couple paragraphs
that explain some of the greatest accomplishments
or some of the things that you are most proud
of while you were in that position,
and a bonus tip here is to include
at least one quantifiable accomplishment.
So these are things that you can measure based on a number,
a data point, a percentage,
maybe a dollar amount or maybe even time.
And to break up the content,
you can add bullet points to your work experience section.
Just make sure that you're not copying
and pasting directly from your resume.
And remember, you don't want
include too much information here.
We just want to give the audience a teaser into
some of the greatest things that you've done,
so that they will reach out to you to learn more about you.
And another point when it comes to your experience section
is to place keywords and keyword phrases
that are showing up in the job posting inside
that work experience section.
The fourth step to help you get started on LinkedIn
is your education section.
So I'm gonna scroll down past my work experience section
all the way to my education section.
Now, here's a great thing about your education section
is this actually helps you build your career story.
If you have been out of high school for more than five years
and you have an associate's degree
or maybe even a bachelor's degree,
you don't need to list your high school education on there.
Your education section allows you to list the type of degree
that you received, the name of the institution
that you received your degree from,
and it even allows you to list any awards
and honors that you received while
you were at that institution.
Now, this is a great place to add any special training
or certifications that you've received
that directly relate to your industry.
Now, an an example of this would be if I went
to a trade school or some type
of short-term training program.
This could be something like a certified nursing assistant.
This could even be a commercial driver
or a massage therapist.
If you really want your education section to shine,
you want to add things like your clubs
or organizations that you participated in
and any relevant coursework that might apply to the position
or the industry that you are applying in.
The fourth step to help you get started on LinkedIn
is your skills and endorsements.
So I'm gonna scroll down to the skills
and endorsements section here on my profile,
so you can see what I'm talking about.
Now, this is a great way also
to help you show what your expertise are.
Now, LinkedIn will display the top three skills
on your homepage, so make sure you get those listed first,
and then add additional skills from there.
LinkedIn does allow you to add up to 50 skills,
but I don't recommend adding all 50 skills,
because I feel like that waters down your profile.
I would start with the top three things that you
want to be known for or
that you are an expert in or that you specialize in,
and then build on from that.
Hiring officials use the skills section as a way
to find talent, so if there is a specific skill set that you
want to be recognized for,
you need to make sure you add it to your profile.
And keep in mind if you add a new skill,
it will take some time
to accumulate endorsements for that skill.
You only wanna focus on the skills
that you want to be known for.
You want to get as specific
as you can when it comes to your skills.
So rather than adding the term training
which doesn't really tell me a lot,
you could add something like corporate training.
Now, these skills are what hiring officials,
recruiters, and hiring managers are
looking at when they view your profile.
And over time, you may need
to rearrange the top three skills based on what
you want to promote about yourself
and what you want to receive endorsements for.
Now, the fifth step to getting started
on LinkedIn is recommendations.
So I'm gonna scroll down to my recommendations section here
and I'll show you a little bit about that.
Recommendations are the perfect way
to get recognized for what you do.
A recommendation is a statement written
by another LinkedIn member to recognize
or commend you for things that you've done on the job.
So people who view your profile will often read
the recommendations that you've received
from your connections,
and they'll see what others have to say about your work.
One thing you can do is to ask for recommendations.
So if I click on the Ask for recommendations icon,
it actually walks me through
how to ask for a recommendation.
Now, I recommend that you get
as many recommendations as you can from individuals
that are in leadership positions,
so maybe previous supervisors or previous managers.
You might even have a colleague that you worked
with that thought really highly of you.
I would highly recommend getting a recommendation
from those types of individuals as well.
And don't be shy about asking for recommendations.
A lot of people will freely give you one
if you just ask for it.
And then I have a bonus tip for you
to getting started on LinkedIn and that
is to check your security settings.
So let's go ahead and review the security settings.
You're going to click on the Me icon
at the top of your LinkedIn page,
and then you're going to click on Settings and Privacy.
Now, there's a lot we could dive into inside this section,
but I'm only going to cover a few key areas.
The first one is the Privacy tab.
So the Privacy tab covers all privacy
and security settings related
to what others can see about you
and how your information can be used.
So let's go ahead and check out
the Edit your public profile.
So I'm gonna go ahead and click on that
and one thing I want you to be aware
of on this page is how to edit your custom URL.
So you'll notice at the top of
the page it says Edit your custom URL.
You can go ahead and click on that pencil icon
and if LinkedIn has not yet given you a custom LinkedIn URL
or if you have not yet created your custom LinkedIn URL,
this is where you can do it right here.
I always recommend using your name,
some variation of your name if it's already taken.
You could even add a middle initial if you need to.
Anything that shows who you are
so that your LinkedIn profile isn't a string
of letters and numbers.
So I'm gonna go ahead and cancel out of this,
and the other area that I want you to be aware
of on this page is the Edit Visibility.
So this allows you to control your profile's appearance
for people who are not signed in to LinkedIn.
It also goes on to say the limits
you set here affect how your profile appears
on search engines, profile badges
and permitted services like Outlook.
So this is a fantastic way
to make sure you are showing certain sections
that you wanna show and maybe not showing other sections
that you don't want to show.
So again, go through that
and make sure that you have your settings exactly
how you would want them.
Now, I'm gonna go ahead
and click on the Back button
because I want to jump back to another section inside
of our privacy, and that is your Job seeking preferences.
So I'm gonna click on Job seeking preferences
and that takes me to a number
of options inside of the LinkedIn page.
Now, one of my favorite areas inside this section
is the job application setting.
So this allows you to choose what information LinkedIn saves
when you submit a job application.
So you can go in there and make sure
that your settings are exactly how you want them to be.
Another area in here that I really
like is the Let recruiters know
you are open to opportunities.
This allows you to share that you're open
and appear in recruiters' searches when they enter a keyword
or a keyword phrase to find a specific individual
in your area or with your expertise.
Now that you know how to get started using LinkedIn,
make sure you take a look
at the video I made right here
where you will learn how to find a new job using LinkedIn.
I'll also place a link below this video,
and if you like this video,
make sure you hit the thumbs up button down below.
Make sure you subscribe to this channel for more videos just
like this and I will see you in the next video.