10 tips and tricks to boost your LinkedIn profile

Social networks (RRSS) live a sweet moment today. In 2014, a survey conducted by ComScore indicated that that year there were 1280 million people registered to social networks worldwide.

Today, Facebook is the most popular social network and, at least in the West, few people (if not any) are unaware of social media more important on which large communities of Internet users are created: Twitter, YouTube, Instagram ...

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LinkedIn: a social network geared towards professionals

There are different social networks and each one with different characteristics. At a professional level, LinkedIn stands out, a network oriented to business and the workplace, which has become a great tool when looking for a job and getting professional contacts.

If you use this social network, and taking into account the boom that the 2.0 world has experienced in the last decade, it is essential that you pay pay attention to your profile, because it is very useful for professional promotion and for searching and sharing information related to your field of job.

In today's article, you can find 10 tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

1. Define a strategy

Why do you want to be on LinkedIn? What is the reason why people use this social network? Before reading the following tips, you should ask yourself and define why you or your company want to be in this professional network. For this you need to know the objectives, the target, the tools you are going to use or how you are going to interact. This is the best way to use this digital medium to your advantage.

2. Complete your profile and use good keywords (keywords)

If you want people to contact you or visit your company's website, you must seduce them. Take the development of your profile seriously, and think about the keywords that best define you to be able to apply them. Doing the latter will enable your profile to appear in search engines such as Google.

You should know that every profile can be improved, so you have to review it periodically.

3. Add a professional photo

LinkedIn is a great way to network professionally, and also is our cover letter for other companies or entrepreneurs. Therefore, just as if it were a CV, you must take care of your image. If in the previous point the importance of completing the profile was mentioned, it is especially relevant to add a professional photo, because in the face of others it communicates who we are. In addition, a good image makes it easier to remember, while profiles without a photograph create a certain rejection.

Related article: "The 10 tips to improve your CV"

4. Spend time on the excerpt

The extract allows you to explain in a few lines how much you can offer and it is your cover letter. That is, the section where you sell yourself. To create interest it is necessary that you treat this section with care, this way you will avoid a bad extract focused, causing rejection and distancing potential entrepreneurs, clients or investors from your profile interested.

5. Increase your connections

It is important that you increase your connections to reach more people. To do this, you need to be proactive, because every time you do something on LinkedIn (for example, update your profile or respond to an event) is displayed on the home page of your contacts. It is also important that you consider the possibility of inviting members of other groups to connect with you.

6. Use the groups to your advantage

This point is related to the previous one but it is necessary to highlight it. When choosing a group of your professional interest, it is important that you reflect on its potential. In addition, within it you must be participatory (sending notes, making comments, etc.). to increase your connections. It is not a bad idea to create your own groups so that you have control.

7. Share valuable information for your sector

To be proactive, another strategy that can be successful is to share important information for your professional sector, as it will increase your visibility and create added value to your profile. Publishing news or articles from your own blog will be well received by your contacts, who perceive your profile as a source of useful data. Undoubtedly, an action that will favor the loyalty of your followers and will allow you to obtain more recommendations.

8. Create a solid foundation for your network

LinkedIn not only allows us to find potential clients, but also gives us the possibility of identifying contacts that we have in common with them. Do not forget that LinkedIn is not a social network for fun, but rather a professional social network, so we must exploit the possibilities it offers.

For best results, it is necessary to build the foundations of your network and not carry out random actions. This is the only way that will allow you to use this social network more effectively and efficiently.

9. Customize your URL

Customizing your LinkedIn URL brings many benefits, for example, it positions you better in the search engine, allows you to show a more professional appearance and You can include it in your curriculum vitae in a shorter way than the original one that LinkedIn gives you proposes. The following format, “ http://linkedin.com/tu-nombre-y-apellido”, is the ideal.

To customize your LinkedIn URL, you just have to carry out these steps:

1. Go to the "Edit Profile" menu and hover over the URL that you can see below your name. You will then see a configure menu icon appear.
2. Click on it and you will see it appear on the right of your screen, a link with the text "Create a custom URL".
3. Finally, click on that link to edit your URL (with the format shown above).

10. Get recommendations

Including recommendations in your profile (for example, from your ex-employers) can be of great help if you are looking for work through LinkedIn. References are very positive in these cases and therefore there is nothing wrong with asking someone to write a recommendation for you. Also, if someone wants to offer you a recommendation and you would like them to emphasize certain aspects, do not hesitate to tell them because it may be important for your future work.