12 Steps to Optimize Your Professional LinkedIn Profile

Why optimize your LinkedIn profile?

LinkedIn is not just a social network based on exchange and sharing.

It is also an excellent way to apply for job openings, conduct your prospecting campaigns, invite prospects to an event, or present your services and offers.

It is the social network of excellence on which LaGrowthMachine relies to carry out many B2B lead gen strategies for high-performing growth marketing and quickly achieve your business objectives.

Indeed, at LaGrowthMachine, we observe that the quality of the profile has a real impact on the performance of your prospecting campaigns.

More than a CV, LinkedIn is your digitized professional business card. It is the pillar on which your credibility and expertise rest.

More and more marketers and sales professionals are using it to:

• Showcase their experience
• Develop their brand universe
• Share their professional anecdotes
• Integrate it into a complete inbound marketing strategy
• Boost their response rate
• Generate direct sales
• Create online or offline events
• Strengthen their company’s credibility…

Learn how to integrate LinkedIn into your inbound marketing strategy by consulting our guide dedicated to prospecting on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn reflex has become inseparable from the habits of recruiters, your service providers, your partners, your clients, or your prospects.

It’s better to polish your image to close deals.

Here are the 12 steps to consider to become indispensable on LinkedIn, the leading professional social network.

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12 Tips to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Most professionals are content with creating their profile and adding a profile picture. This is not enough to be visible on LinkedIn (and even less so when you are inspected with the social network’s private mode). To be well-ranked by the algorithm, in a good position in search results, and visible to the contacts you are interested in, here are the tips to follow.

1. Customize Your Profile URL

This is the very first step to follow to be well-indexed on search engines. Simply enter your first and last name in the slug, and you’re done.

It’s a mini SEO trick that will allow someone searching for you to find you quickly, on Google, Bing…

2. Choose a Good LinkedIn Profile Photo

A LinkedIn profile with a profile picture has infinitely more chances of being viewed than an account without a visual. It’s the first thing a LinkedIn user will look at.

However, it’s better to follow a few rules to capture the attention of a recruiter or prospect from the first few seconds:

• Use a colored background: this is the hack of all LinkedIn influencers who have emerged this year. By creating their own visual identity, they have become instantly recognizable. This is the case, for example, for the employees of Coudac, an SMA agency, who have filled all their profiles with yellow.

• Use a minimally presentable photo: we assume we don’t need to dwell on this? We’ll just remind you that LinkedIn is a B2B social network. All your prospects, recruiters, employers, and partners see what you do.
• Hire a professional: don’t be afraid to get in front of a professional photographer’s lens. It will add a bit more depth to your profile and allow you to showcase your personality with ease.
• Stand out by being creative: the more creative you are, the more likely you are to capture the attention of the person visiting your profile. Use accessories, play with the cover photo…

3. Pay Special Attention to Your LinkedIn Cover Photo

Many mistakenly consider the LinkedIn profile picture as a mere graphic interest.

However, the LinkedIn banner, or cover photo, is a determining element for making contact. More than a visual element, it is a real tool allowing you to affirm your value proposition.

It is the very first thing a recruiter will see when you have responded to a job offer, or a prospect who visits your profile.

Here’s what your LinkedIn cover photo can be used for:

• Let your brand universe shine through and play with your graphic charter

• Use calls-to-action and encourage your visitors to download assets necessary for their business

• Briefly describe what you do (in a catchy sentence)

4. Take Care of Your Graphic Charter

We touched on this for the profile picture and cover photo. Overall, your graphic charter must be reflected everywhere.

If a prospect visits your LinkedIn profile and sees a well-crafted graphic charter, they are more likely to remember it.

After identifying your graphic charter, its advertising memorability will allow them to associate your account with the services offered by your company at a glance.

5. Carefully Fill Out the About Section

In the About section on LinkedIn, you have up to 2000 characters to describe yourself.

A factual and academic description will interest no one. As with the rest of your profile, you’ll need to show a good dose of creativity.

Be yourself, but be concise! This is the only section of your profile where you have the opportunity to share links. It would be a shame to miss out on a good click-through rate for a copywriting issue.

Here’s how to do it:

• Start your text with a hook highlighting what you can offer the user.
• Then, detail your added value, your experience, emphasizing the elements that set you apart from the competition.
• Use emojis to break up your text and make it more dynamic.
• Add links directing to your preferred resources: a white paper or an article you’ve written, your personal newsletter, your website…
• Finish with a call-to-action, encouraging profile visitors to contact you (via DM, phone, email…). Be aware that all information displayed publicly on your profile is accessible to everyone.

6. Define the Professional Headline That Best Fits Your Role

When you publish or comment on a post on the LinkedIn feed, your professional headline is immediately visible to everyone.

By refining it, you will rank higher in search results more easily.

• Forget generic titles like: “account manager, social media manager, HR, marketing manager”.
• Opt for a very short sentence that precisely describes your role: “I optimize your social selling strategy,” “I put you on the first page of Google,” “I increase your LinkedIn reach by 300%.”

7. Define Your Areas of Expertise

Areas of expertise highlight your skills and interests by industry sector.

By looking at your profile, recruiters or visitors will immediately know what topics interest you. It’s an excellent icebreaker.

In addition to strengthening your credibility on a given topic (copywriting, social selling, sustainable development, article writing…), you also provide crucial information to LinkedIn.

The latter’s algorithm will react accordingly and suggest you follow people or discussion topics similar to your areas of expertise.

8. Showcase a Selection of Your Content

LinkedIn offers you the ability to highlight several posts or articles. The ideal is to select assets that give a general idea of the content you produce.

There’s no obligation to feature the most performant ones. Above all, be consistent with the image you want to project.

Prioritize those that build your credibility or those that will help you generate business quickly.

It’s also an opportunity to highlight a particular resource, as Nina Ramen did for her newsletter dedicated to copywriting.

9. Work on the Skills Listed on Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn skills help improve three aspects:

• Your profile will be better indexed on LinkedIn and will convert better! Users of the social network will be able to find you more easily, based on your skills.
• It’s an excellent icebreaker to start a conversation. Sales professionals can use skill endorsements from others to break the ice.

“I read your white paper. I found it particularly interesting. I took the opportunity to endorse your copywriting and growth marketing skills. I would be delighted to discuss it with you, especially the part about automating multichannel campaigns.”

You can combine your hard skills with soft skills. In 2021, 67% of recruiters said they were willing to hire a candidate with many soft skills and few hard skills.

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10. Request Recommendations

User reviews govern our consumption habits. This is true for your personal purchases, the freelancers you choose on Malt or other specialized sites… but also for the people you contact on LinkedIn.

Whether you are a recruiter, a sales professional, or a business owner looking for the next gem, the recommendations section will provide qualitative information about the profile you are looking for.

So it’s the same for someone visiting your profile. Don’t hesitate to politely ask for recommendations, once you’ve proven yourself, from:

• Your partners
• Your employers
• Your clients
• Your team

11. Consider Translating Your LinkedIn Profile

If your market is partially based abroad, translating your LinkedIn profile is a small action that takes two seconds and can make a big difference.

Translating your LinkedIn profile is a native feature of the social network. However, it requires you to be proficient in the foreign language with precision.

You will have to translate the About section, your LinkedIn summary, your skills, etc., yourself.

Doing so greatly improves your indexing among profiles set to the same language as your profile.

But if translation errors multiply, you risk jeopardizing your B2B credibility.

12. Join LinkedIn Groups in Your Industry

LinkedIn groups are real gems for sales prospecting and meeting new, similar profiles. It’s an excellent way to achieve your growth objectives.

You just need to enter the right keywords in the social network’s search bar to find groups related to your industry.

This is a factor to consider in any social selling strategy. You will likely find prospects there with challenges to which you can provide a solution.

Or conversely, find answers to your own questions. In addition to developing your notoriety in your niche segment, you will strengthen your credibility and become an essential player in the sector.