This is part 2 of DGG’s Guide to LinkedIn. If you missed part 1 of this guide, you can give it a read here before proceeding!

Now that you have learnt about the benefits of LinkedIn, you might feel motivated to go ahead and create your own superstar LinkedIn profile right away.

Before you do so, let me offer you some actionable and valuable LinkedIn Profile tips that you can make use of!

This guide will be presented in 2 sections:

Section 1 will offer LinkedIn profile tips to improve and optimize your profile, while section 2 will suggest ways to best engage with your connections.

Using these LinkedIn profile tips, go forth, create and optimize your profile and use the platform effectively!

 

1. PROFILE

 

Completing of Profile

 

The first tip is simple, yet extremely important:

As you create your LinkedIn profile, you might feel like procrastinating, and leaving out certain parts of the profile, to update them in future.

While this might sound like a reasonable distribution of workload, this comes with one key caveat: Your profile will not stand out among others in the search tool.

I know that many of you want to use LinkedIn as a platform to find more opportunities in your career.

Not completing your profile will then defeat the purpose of you creating a LinkedIn profile, as you might potentially be losing some key opportunities!

You should try your best to complete your profile and achieve All-Star status, to allow your profile to be easily found by potential connections.

 

Headline and Summary

 

Your headline and summary are arguably two of the most important areas to focus on in your LinkedIn profile. How so?

1. They can make or break the first impression you give to visitors, so it is imperative that you create an excellent headline and summary for yourself.
2. They allow your profile to come up in the search results when other users search for similar relevant keywords.
3. They also allow profile visitors to get a grasp of your skills and experience as a professional, seconds after they land on your page.

 

Your headline should

• First, state your area of expertise/specialization clearly.
• Next, include a few key skills that you are strong at, followed by the industry you work in

This gives a quick overview on who you are and the strengths you possess.

 

Your summary should include a few key pieces of information:

• Brief career summary
• Your notable achievements
• Top skills you want to highlight
• Invitation to engage + Contact information

Having this information will give you a succinct but insightful understanding of your experience, and if done well, will make the visitor want to connect and know more about you.

 

Custom URL

 

Did you know that you can have your own custom LinkedIn URL, instead of the original one provided?

 

Having a custom URL makes it easier for you to introduce your LinkedIn URL to other friends, and makes it look way more professional!

Simply go to the button ‘Edit your public profile’, and change your custom URL to one that is more professional and easy to remember!

 

Skills

 

In this section, be sure to add 8-10 core skill sets.

You can also choose the order you want to display them in your profile. Naturally, you would want to give the priority to skills you are most confident in.

As you gain more connections, a good way to gain more endorsements is by endorsing other connections first.

There is great power in reciprocity, so connections are much likelier to endorse you once you have done the same for them.

 

2. ENGAGEMENT

 

Following the right people/pages

 

As discussed in part 1 of the guide, a key benefit of using LinkedIn is to stay updated with industry trends and news.

A great way to do that is to follow relevant people/pages on the platform with significant influence. They tend to provide valuable content on a regular basis, so you should definitely follow them to absorb the content and learn from insights.

 

To do this, I would recommend first following large content and news companies, as they would provide a good flow of news in general.

You can then proceed to following industry-specific influencers.

If you already have a few in mind, simply search for them in the search bar. Otherwise, you can search for keywords in your industry, and browse through the top profiles that appear.

 

This would provide you with a good mix of latest news and insights from professionals that you can explore and learn from!

 

Groups

 

Another great way to engage with LinkedIn users is through Groups.

These are smaller communities of people that gather to discuss and engage about specific topics of interest.

You should consider joining groups related to your industry, your career role, your alma mater and more.

Simply go to the search bar, and type in keywords of your interest. Then, just select results that have the description ‘Group’, and you will be directed to the specific Group.

 

Contributions

 

As you receive so much valuable insights from the platform, you should definitely give back by contributing your own thoughts and opinions as well.

When you come across interesting and relevant articles online, do share them in LinkedIn too!

Don’t forget to value add to the post with your personal opinions. You can also ask relevant intriguing questions to invite connections to discuss the topic.

Remember that you can share them with your connections and your groups as well!

If you have more thoughts that can become a more in-depth piece of content, you can also publish your own notes.

 

With these LinkedIn profile tips at hand, I’m sure you are ready to go on to optimize your LinkedIn profile!

Of course, LinkedIn is not a one and done effort, so do regularly use the platform, engage with connections and explore new content.

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed our guide to LinkedIn, and that it has inspired you to start using LinkedIn more often.

What better way to keep updated and receive exclusive content from DGG Resume than to sign up for our newsletter!

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Want to start your LinkedIn profile? Click here if you would like to engage our services to help you with your LinkedIn profile!

We have other guides that you might be interested in as well! Explore them here:

Resume writing tips 

 Job interview strategies

Preparing for Networking events

 

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When you think about your top networking platforms, what comes to mind?

I’m sure Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are some that you think of off the top of your head.

But what about LinkedIn?

 

What is LinkedIn all about?

 

LinkedIn is a platform that specializes in professional networking. It has the largest professional network on the Internet, with more than 500 million members worldwide. Unlike other social networking platforms, LinkedIn focuses on being a platform that provides professional and career-related engagement.

This explains why many of us probably know about LinkedIn, but few of us use on a regular basis.

For one, you can’t find viral videos and funny memes on the platform!

 

 

 

Despite its benefits for our professional careers, it is much less popular social media platforms.

Take a look at some statistics in Singapore:

 

 

To help you have a better understanding, we created our DGG Resume’s Guide to Linkedin!

We will be delving into different aspects of this unique professional platform.

We will first begin by exploring the history of this intriguing platform:

 

Where did LinkedIn come from?

 

Let’s start with the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman!

 

Reid Hoffman had always valued the importance of networking.

 

Before starting LinkedIn, he networked his way to a job at eWorld (one of the world’s first social networking platforms by Apple).

He subsequently launched his first company SocialNet (with a focus on online dating and local meetups).

After leaving SocialNet, he joined Paypal as an executive Vice President of Business Development.

 

After PayPal was sold to Ebay, Reid finally consolidated all his lessons from past experiences in the internet industry.

In 2002, he started Linkedin, right out of his living room! LinkedIn’s website was officially launched in 2003:

 

 

Fun fact: LinkedIn is now over 14 years old, older than other popular social media platforms such as Youtube and Facebook!

 

All the useful features of LinkedIn that you might be familiar with today were not present from Day 1. Here is a short summary of some important LinkedIn’s developments since its initial launch:

2004: Launch of Groups – helping users to join smaller networks of interests, fields, colleges etc.

2005: Launch of Paid job postings

2006: Launch of Recommendations section – Improve social proof aspects of LinkedIn

2008: Developed its First mobile application

2010: Launch of Company profile pages – Allows businesses to list their products and services

2012: Launch of Skill endorsements – Users can now attest to talents that their connections have

 

 

Why should I start using LinkedIn regularly?

 

Now you might have a better idea of what LinkedIn does and where it originated. But you might also be thinking: What’s in it for me? Why should I use LinkedIn?

Here are 3 key benefits that you can gain from using this professional platform:

 

 

1. Keep updated on latest news and trends in your industry

 

Be it a student or an industry professional, being well versed in the latest industry trends is paramount.

 

Having a good pulse on industry trends can help you ask converse and discuss topics like second nature. Furthermore, it establishes you as a knowledgeable professional, who can contribute meaningfully to industry-related conversations.

LinkedIn acts as a curated feed of relevant industry news and information.

You can uncover this treasure trove of content simply by following industry-specific influencers and pages.

 

2. Increase visibility among potential networks

 

Many LinkedIn users connect with relevant friends and networks, put effort into personal branding, and participate actively in different groups.

Doing this allows you to maximize the potential of using LinkedIn, versus other social networks.

This also helps to increase your exposure and visibility among professional contacts.

What’s more, 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find suitable candidates!

 

You are definitely missing out on opportunities if you fail to use LinkedIn regularly.

 

Who knows, someone from another company might even invite you for new opportunities after visiting your LinkedIn profile!

 

3. Engage with other professionals and share insights

 

One of my favourite aspects of LinkedIn is that it allows me to easily engage with other professionals.

This is especially valuable, as many industry professionals and influencers are based outside of Singapore. Even for local professionals, it can be hard to reach like-minded professionals without this platform.

LinkedIn allows an easy mode of professional discussion in public, be it in the comments section of posts or in different interest groups. Alternatively, you can start a private conversation easily, through the messenger tool.

 

LinkedIn provides an easy bridge between yourself and other connections.

 

This makes it easy for both parties to engage in professional discussions. Such networking opportunities might also lead to other doors being opened for you in future!

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed our introductory guide to LinkedIn, and click on here to read our the 2nd part of our Guide to Linkedin!

What better way to keep updated and receive exclusive content from DGG Resume than to sign up for our newsletter!

Email *

 

Want to start your LinkedIn profile? Click here if you would like to engage our services to help you with your LinkedIn profile!

 

If you appreciated this article and enjoyed the tips, do give us a like on our Facebook page and share this article with your friends!

 Also, click on the following links if you are interested in resume writing tips or job interview strategies!