Once you’ve juiced up your Name, Title, Summary, and Experience on LinkedIn, you’re in prime position to tweak the last few sections that will make your Profile 5-star tested. If you missed Part 1, review it here. Let’s move on to the Skills section.
Skills and Certifications
The Skills and Certifications sections are a quick an easy way for you to be found on LinkedIn. Here, you’ll want to pick all of the key attributes that make you a qualified professional in your industry. These attributes can be skills, languages, patents, certifications, or even publications.
Think back to your original reason for joining LinkedIn. If it’s for business, you want to think like a potential customer. What skills will they search for when they’re in need of your product or service? If you’re looking to find that dream job or career, think like a recruiter. What skills does a recruiter require of someone in that field or position? One thing to avoid is stuffing your Skills section with 100 + skills! We’ve all seen the résumé that seems a bit overstated in terms of actual proficiencies. Like the saying goes, “jack of all trades, master of none.” You want to be perceived as an expert, not the gal or guy who has an introductory level of knowledge across all industries.
Remember, the goal of your profile is ALWAYS to stand out. Therefore, go the extra mile and pump up these sections
Education
This section is self-explanatory. One thing to consider here, though, is using the Additional Notes section to your advantage. For instance, if you’re a recent graduate looking for a job, include everything in the collegiate experience that displays leadership and scholastic excellence. If you’re years removed from your good ol’ alma mater, include information such as graduating Cum Laude or tout the fact that you sit on the Alumni Board. Collegiate connections are some of the most powerful and you never know when these extra details could truly pay off.
Recommendations
The Recommendations section is arguably the most important section on any LinkedIn user’s profile in terms of differentiation. Let’s face it, reviews, testimonials, and recommendations are the most powerful advertising tools used by marketers because they know people are social buyers. In other words, if someone else says it’s good, people are more likely to assume it’s good. The same applies for your Profile through the recommendations section. You want to amass as many recommendations as you possibly can because for anyone viewing your profile, it validates your experience and expertise.
“I once pulled Jeff Zelaya, a rockstar social media consultant, into a deal with a valuable client largely because he had over 100 recommendations on Linkedin!”
So, go tap every colleague, supervisor, board member, etc, that you can and ask for a recommendation. It’ll feel uncomfortable to ask, but you deserve it. If you don’t feel that you deserve it, then don’t ask because you probably don’t deserve a Recommendation.
One strategy that you may want to employ is bartering for a recommendation. Find professionals that you have a positive relationship with and offer to recommend them in exchange for a recommendation. That works almost 100% of the time. Here’s a script that I use:
Hey Janina,
It’s been a while! How’s life at Sherlock Staffing? Hopefully you’re having a wonderful end of year! Janina, I’d like to exchange recommendations with you here on LinkedIn. I know that we haven’t spoken in a while, but based off of the conversations we’ve had in the past, I know that you’re awesome at what you do. Hopefully, you have a sense of how talented I am in my endeavors as well. Having high-quality, trustworthy recommendations here on LinkedIn can be extremely valuable to our careers now and in the future.
The recommendations we write don’t have to be lengthy. We’ll just write what naturally comes to mind.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Best Regards,
C. Payne
Additional Information
Yes, fill these sections in. Pay close attention to the Websites, Twitter, as well as Honor and Awards section. You never want to block the opportunity for someone to learn more about you and your business by not listing your other pertinent online real estate (i.e. website, blog, Twitter, etc.). Also, use the Honors and Awards section to again differentiate yourself and trumpet your pass successes.
If you follow these simple strategies, you’re well on your way to becoming a LinkedIn aficionado.
