Here's the thing, if you're a working professional and you're not utilizing
the power of LinkedIn to expand your career opportunities and to network then
you are missing out my friend. In this video, you'll learn six steps to help you
build a professional LinkedIn profile and if you stay around until the end
you'll learn where you can access a free LinkedIn mini
course. If we've never met before I'm Heather Austin from ProfessorAustin.com
and #thecareerclub on Facebook and on this channel I provide simple
solutions to help you grow a business or launch a career you love so if you're
new here consider subscribing and don't forget to
hit the bell notification down below so you don't miss a thing.
LinkedIn is considered the world largest social network for working professionals
now with almost 600 million users LinkedIn is the perfect place to develop
new connections network for new job opportunities and even write articles so
let's jump into how to create a great LinkedIn profile step number one
optimize the top half the top half of your LinkedIn profile is by far the most
important this is where hiring officials and new connections will go to learn
more about you to optimize the top half of your profile include a professional
headshot that shows you from the elbows up and then include a catchy industry
specific headline that tells others what you do and what your specialty is follow
this with a well-written summary that includes who you are who you help and
how you help them now here's the cool thing I have a playlist that goes into
detail about each of these items I'll go ahead and link that playlist up below
step number two include relevant experience the experience section on
your LinkedIn profile will be formatted a little bit different than on your
resume you don't want to just copy and paste from your resume however you do
want the two sections to mirror each other rather than using bullet points to
explain what you do or what you did I had a personal touch with a paragraph
written in first person you want to outline your main responsibilities and
what your key accomplishments were in two to four sentences
here's the cool thing relevant work experience can also include a volunteer
experience volunteer experience is a great way to show how you give that to
your community and in fact it's been reported that 41 percent of employers
value volunteer work as much as they do regular work experience step number
three add your education and training your education section can really help
you stand out especially if it directly relates to the position you are applying
for it gives a hiring official a better understanding of your background here's
a good rule of thumb when it comes to your education section if you are more
than five years out of high school and have an undergraduate degree you don't
need to list your high school on your LinkedIn profile to make your education
section really shine add activities and societies that you belonged to such as
fraternities sororities or even extracurricular activities and clubs
that you participated in you can also use the description area under the
education section to add awards and honors or even committees that you
served on and as a special note LinkedIn also allows you to add licenses and
certificates this is the perfect way to showcase your skills with your
credentials step number four add keyword specific skills the skills section is
the perfect way to showcase your talents your abilities and your strengths as a
professional LinkedIn allows you to add 50 skills to your profile use a
combination of hard and soft skills to let others know what you do best soft
skills are things that represent your personality and behavior like
communication leadership and teamwork now although these skills are necessary
and important employers really like to see tangible skills like hard skills
hard skills are based on your education and experience they are things like
graphic design accounting project management you want to list your most
important skills first and you can reorder your skills based on a certain
category and feature your top 3 skills step number 5 add special
accomplishments the accomplishments section on LinkedIn allows you to
showcase other and in areas of your life such as
publications courses projects and even languages this is a great way to turn up
the heat on your LinkedIn profile and lets others note that your experience
and education aren't the only reason why they should want to get to know you
better and if you're looking for a step-by-step tutorial on how to use
LinkedIn I created a video just for you that I'll go ahead and link below step
number 6 request recommendations recommendations are the perfect addition
to your LinkedIn profile they validate your special skills your expertise and
most importantly how well you work with others reach out to colleagues managers
teachers and leaders in your network and request a recommendation from them now
here's a special tip if you're not getting the feedback you hoped
compulsive recommendation for the person that you requested one from chances are
they'll return the favor now if you want to take your LinkedIn
profile to the next level take a look at LinkedIn lift-off it's a free five day
mini course that will help you develop the most important sections on your
LinkedIn profile I'll go ahead and link it up below and if you like this video
be sure to hit the like button down below make sure you share this with
anyone you know that might benefit and of course don't forget to subscribe and
I will see you in the next video