LinkedIn is for everybody—including the world’s fourth-richest person. Bill Gates wrote 5 of the ten most engaging LinkedIn articles in November of 2020. He’s an active user of the platform, sharing essential information answering age-old questions like this:
Yet, did he really sit down at his computer one day and optimize his LinkedIn profile for engagement, follows, and opportunity? We’re sure that job went to his marketing team.
What happens to the business owners, full-time marketers, freelancers, and CMOs who don’t have a marketing team to lean on to write a top-notch LinkedIn profile?
Instead of flubbing around the edit buttons on each section of your profile like a fish on land—we want to give you a direct line of success to improve your LinkedIn profile instantly.
These tips come from a member of the LinkedIn Advisory Board (and former DigitalMarketer Head of Partnerships!) Marcus Murphy. They’re not random tips we collected from the internet and put together for the sake of SEO.
These are straight from the source tips that will improve your LinkedIn profile so you can get more engagement, followers, and opportunities from the platform.
Because what else are you doing there?
#1: Stop Using Terrible Profile Photos
The professional headshot struggle is apparently very real. A quick scroll through LinkedIn can come up with some questionable headshot choices, including photos with red solo cups, looks like they’re uploading the photo to their Tinder profile, or forgot to put their shirt on.
In 2021, there is no excuse for a terrible profile photo. You can take a high-quality headshot with a creatively made tripod (time to put those books on your shelf to use) and your smartphone.
Here’s an example of a great profile photo from DigitalMarketer’s Content Strategist Matt Douglas:
Here are Marcus’ tips for posting a great profile photo on LinkedIn:
- Your face should take up 60% of the frame: The rest of the frame should be a simple background that keeps the focus on your beautiful face
- Choose the right expression: This isn’t a time for blue steel, this is a time for a happy, friendly smile that makes people feel like you’re approachable
- Choose a recent picture that looks like you: If your profile photo is from over 5 years ago, it’s time for a swap
#2: Delete ‘Ninja’ From Your Headline
Unless you’re Ninja, the multimillionaire gamer, it’s time to hit the backspace 5 times.
Your headline is 120 characters of incredible real estate that you need to utilize. When you call yourself a ninja, you’re losing your audience. Clarity over cleverness…always.
Here’s an example of a headline that chooses clarity over cleverness and delivers value to the viewer:
Getting your headline right is tricky business because a lot of the time we struggle to market ourselves…even though we’re professional marketers. Here are some tips to get your headline right:
- Write a headline that has a benefit for the viewer
- Use keywords others might use when needing your services
- Use command or vertical bars (|) to separate phrases
It’s going to be tempting to put your title (Marketing Director, Chief Marketing Officer, Head of Marketing, etc.) in your headline but resist the temptation. You have plenty of room to talk about your title in the Experience section of your profile.
#3: Tell People It’s Your Birthday
We’re not going to send a group of waiters to sing you happy birthday while you awkwardly smile and wonder what to do with your hands. For LinkedIn, this personalization is like your contact form. It’s the place someone goes to find you:
- Website
- Birthday
The first three make a lot of sense, but we know you’re questioning adding your birthday. Don’t these social platforms have enough data on you already? (Books of data actually…)
Here’s the thing—when it is your birthday you’ll pop up in everyone’s feeds. This means that everybody you’ve connected with in the past will get an automated reminder that you’re still in marketing. Whether you’re growing your personal brand or looking for opportunities, this boost of engagement has so many positive benefits it’s *almost* better than eating a dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free cake that actually tastes like the real thing.
#4: Create a Narrative Summary
Your summary maxes out at 2,000 words which is longer than this article. That’s a lot of content that can be fit into a summary of your work expertise.
Where do you even start?
Start by telling people exactly what your mission is right away.
Think of this as the headline of your sales page. You need to tell people exactly what you’re about to entice them to read more. Your ideal LinkedIn connection will keep reading and someone who doesn’t need your services will click away.
That’s a really good thing. Just like with your marketing funnels, unqualified leads do nothing but clog it.
Once you’ve written about your mission, it’s time to share a personal interest that increases your likability. Marketing boils down to the Know, Like, and Trust Factor and LinkedIn is no different. Create something relatable that your audience would think, “Wow, I get that.”
Here’s more advice for writing a great LinkedIn summary:
- Be authentic and on-brand
- Share personal interests that increase likability
- Narrative
- Call to action
- Add compelling media (pics, videos, website)
#5: Boast About How Great You Are
The Experience section is the social proof of LinkedIn. It’s the section where viewers can easily scroll to see what you’ve been up to, what you personally helped accomplish, and what your expertise is.
In this section, it’s tempting to write resume-style bullet points that cut to the chase. But, that’s not what you want to do. You want to keep the narrative format going (from your Summary to your Experience section). Remember, people are reading this and they don’t want to feel like they stumbled upon a resume.
They want to read a story.
So give them one.
Here are tips for writing your Experience section:
- Keep writing in a narrative format
- Choose narrative over bullets
- Make sure you have descriptions after your job
- Make sure to link to the company you work for (or create a company page on LinkedIn so you can link it)
Join Bill Gates by Improving Your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is the professional social network. It’s the rare platform that attracts people mostly interested in talking business. This makes it the ultimate networking platform and one of the best places online to find job opportunities.
If you’d be embarrassed for Bill Gates to stumble upon your LinkedIn profile during this morning scroll, use these 5 easy tips to instantly improve it:
#1: Stop Using Terrible Profile Photos
#2: Delete ‘Ninja’ From Your Headline
#3: Tell People It’s Your Birthday
#4: Create a Narrative Summary
#5: Boast About How Great You Are
