A strong LinkedIn profile can connect candidates with potential employers and assist professionals looking to advance their careers. Have you taken full advantage of this powerful networking tool? With our comprehensive guide, we present LinkedIn profile tips to strengthen your LinkedIn presence and create an influential profile.

LinkedIn is a powerful networking platform that connects qualified candidates with other industry professionals and potential employers.

We know that an optimized LinkedIn profile can add significant value to a candidate’s profile and help users make connections, stay informed and find new opportunities. To help you realize the full potential LinkedIn has to offer, we’ve gathered the best LinkedIn profile tips to make sure your profile is gaining the traction it needs to help you succeed.

Here are a few of our favourite LinkedIn profile tips to get you noticed!

Before you get started on LinkedIn profile tips

Build your personal brand

Before jumping into the best LinkedIn profile practices, consider your personal brand. LinkedIn is a prime platform to market yourself and, as such, it’s imperative to remember your beliefs, goals and professional values. Your personal brand will help guide you in creating a profile that is both consistent and focused, while being true to your beliefs and values.

The basics LinkedIn profile tips

Create a custom URL

Creating a vanity URL is the first step to customizing your LinkedIn profile. The default URL combines your name with a series of numbers. To clean up and create your custom URL, go to the “Edit Public Profile & URL” screen on your profile. Under “Edit URL,” change your public URL; we’d recommend switching to linkedin.com/yourname. Once you’re finished click “Save.” Best of all, it’s completely free!

Add a profile picture

Did you know that a LinkedIn profile with a picture can get you 21 more views than one without? Make a picture perfect impression on potential employers by uploading a professional head shot or a picture of you at work. Make sure your photo is in line with your personal brand and that it emits a professional yet approachable vibe for future employers and professional connections alike.

Set a LinkedIn profile background photo

Elevate your LinkedIn profile by creating a custom profile background that highlights your brand. Include an image that reflects your accomplishments, company branding or a scenic view of your city. LinkedIn even provides thorough direction on background image sizing and instructions to upload.

Add your location

Location settings are particularly beneficial for members actively looking for a job. Recruiters will filter potential applicants by location to find the best candidate in their area. For instructions on setting your location and updating your desired commute time, click here.

Optimize your headline

Your profile headline will always default to your current job title, which can be limiting for candidates looking to switch careers or move up in their field. When editing your headline, make sure to clearly define your role and the value you bring to your organization. It should act as an attention grabber, making potential employers and connections want to click to learn more.

Manage your content

Create an engaging LinkedIn summary

The best LinkedIn summaries will wow potential employers by highlighting your top accomplishments and skills. Be sure to include your current position and accomplishments, past roles and other experiences, quality of work and what you are looking for in your next role. Learn from these high impact LinkedIn summary examples.

Highlight your experiences

Prove your value to potential employers by highlighting your professional experience. Using your resume as a reference, include job title, company name, start and end dates, role description and any media (video, projects, case studies) you have created.

Add your skills

On the job hunt? Make sure to add skills to your profile. It will pay off: LinkedIn users with 5 or more skills listed in their profile are contacted 33 times more by recruiters than other users. Keep your skills list relevant to your industry to ensure your profile matches with the right opportunities. Adding skills to your profile also enables other members to view and endorse you for those skills. Don’t forget to add and update as your career progresses and you gain new skills.

Post updates

Sharing public posts on LinkedIn is a great way to expand your reach, engage with your connections and connect with other professionals in your industry. Not sure what to post? Consider sharing blog posts, industry news, quick tips, photos and videos. Don’t forget to tag your posts with relevant hashtags to help other members connect with your content.

Other helpful content tips

Mind your tone

Keep in mind that LinkedIn is a social platform. For your profile to do well, your tone of voice should be approachable. Don’t copy your resume, but rather keep your profile content conversational. This will help identify you as professional without coming across as pretentious.

Complete your profile

It’s not enough to fill out your headline, summary, experiences and education. Completing your profile helps round you out as a candidate and makes you a more attractive applicant for those potential employers.

Update your profile to reflect promotions

Managing a strong LinkedIn profile is an ongoing process. Taking the time to update your profile with promotions, newly gained skills, or additional education proves to potential employers you are invested in your professional development.

Stay away from buzz words

Buzz words such as “team player” and “hard worker” do not define your skills or experience and should not be used on your profile. With a limited number of characters allotted for your headline, summary and experience, wasting these characters on buzz words does little to enhance your profile.

Incorporate keywords

Consider keywords relevant to your industry or target position and incorporate them into your headline, summary, experiences and skills. Incorporating industry-relevant keywords will help your profile rank in employer searches and ensure the right LinkedIn members are viewing your profile.

Improve your connections

Get connected

Don’t wait for connections to come to you. Inviting a professional colleague or acquaintance to connect can open the door to their personal connections. Utilize LinkedIn’s free tools to help increase your connections. The “People You May Know” page helps to connect you to contacts based on your profile, mutual connections, education and work experiences. Also, think about syncing your contacts to find people you may know on LinkedIn.

Engage with connections

Your interaction with your LinkedIn connections should not end when your request to connect has been accepted. Develop your relationship with your connections by liking or commenting on their posts, sharing content and engaging with your connections. This will help keep you top of mind when these connections hear of an opportunity that matches your qualifications.

Request LinkedIn recommendations

Not only do LinkedIn recommendations look great on your profile, they also act as public references and can distinguish you from other professionals in your field. To request a LinkedIn recommendation from one of your connections, visit their profile, click the “More” button and select “Request a Recommendation”.

Endorse your connections

Endorsing skills is a great way to recognize the professional abilities of past and present colleagues and professional acquaintances. Consider endorsements a digital compliment that fosters your relationship with your connections and improves their profile strength. Not to mention, an endorsement given may just turn into an endorsement received. To get started endorsing your connections, click here.

Join LinkedIn groups

Ready to grow your network? Tap into the unlimited potential LinkedIn groups can provide. With the ability to join up to 100 LinkedIn groups, connect with like-minded individuals or other professionals within your industry. Add value to these LinkedIn groups by answering questions and posting relevant content including news articles, images and videos when applicable. Participating in LinkedIn groups will help turn you into a networking pro!

Consider your privacy settings

Is your profile public? Are your connections being notified about your profile updates? Taking the time to review your privacy settings will make sure your hard work developing a strong LinkedIn profile pays off.

Take advantage of LinkedIn tools

Publish content through LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform

Are you an expert in your field? Prove it! Using Linkedin’s Publishing Platform, you can write and distribute your original content. Available to the entire LinkedIn community, content created through the platform can help identify you as a thought leader to potential employers and connect you with other professionals in your field. Find it by clicking “Write an article” from your home dashboard.

Invest in a Premium account

Connect with hiring managers, gain access to courses to learn new skills and compare your profile to other candidates in your field. Investing in a Premium account can equate to investing in your future. Try your first month free and watch your network grow!

Make a profile badge

Drive LinkedIn members and prospective employers to your profile by creating a custom profile badge. With options to promote your profile, website or media content, visit the public profile badge builder to get started and get noticed!

Follow industry thought leaders

Keep up to date with news and trends by following industry thought leaders. 2018’s Top Voices identified LinkedIn members who spark conversations and included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Melinda Gates and Richard Branson.

Don’t forget!

Proofread your profile

Typos or grammatical errors have no place on your professional LinkedIn profile. Proofread your headline, summary and experiences content before saving your revisions to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward.

By Kara Gehbart Uhl

Maybe you’re a telecommuter, independent contractor or freelancer with a home office. Perhaps your employer is experimenting with a work-from-home-on-Fridays perk. Or maybe you don’t typically work out of the house, but the dishwasher is broken and you were given an 8-hour window for someone to come and fix it. There are innumerable reasons parents work from home these days at least occasionally.

I have years of experience working in a corporate office environment. It’s safe to say the pleasant vision I had of freelancing as a stay-at-home mom while pregnant with my oldest child didn’t exactly come to fruition. Sharing space with people who are younger – and much louder – than your typical coworkers can certainly be challenging. (My surprise that my toddler wouldn’t sit on a blanket and quietly play with wooden blocks while I typed for hours is now quite laughable.) Things aren’t necessarily easier now that my children are older. An example:

It’s late afternoon and I’m conducting an important phone interview in my home office. The door opens and a note is placed on my desk. “Owen called me a meanie.” Owen’s twin brother stands there, waiting for a response. I write on the note, in all caps, “WAIT!” as I continue conducting my phone interview. He writes back “OK” and then loudly runs off to play some more.

My daughter is 11, my twin boys are 9 and I’ve been freelancing since before they were born. My husband and I have never hired a full-time babysitter. Some truths: During the school year, I work when my children are at school. During the summer, I work less on weekdays and more in the evenings or on the weekends. I’m attentive at sports games and piano recitals but regularly take my laptop to practices and lessons. I got some good news when my husband was told he could start working from home with his full-time, corporate job, allowing me more flexibility if I need to leave the house.

The last few years have taught me some important lessons, and those lessons have made me both a better freelancer and a better parent. Here are some tricks of the trade, along with advice from fellow “Not now, I’m on the phone!” parents who sometimes have to turn their kitchen table into a makeshift office.

Set clear expectations

Kids are not colleagues. But what they lack in brain development and maturity is made up with love and humour, and sometimes, frustration. One afternoon, when my daughter was a toddler, our entire family was in the minivan and my husband needed to make a work call. After explaining the importance of being quiet, there was a brief pause and then my daughter yelled, “Do you want to hear how good I can make a sheep sound?”

Following are tips to make your day a bit less stressful.

• Choose a designated work space (an office, a desk, the dining room table, even your bed) that sets the expectation among your kids that when you’re in that space, they need to leave you alone unless it’s an emergency.
• Kids like order, routine and knowing what’s ahead. Be clear about the day’s itinerary (“I’m working until 4 p.m. today; we’ll hang out after 4 p.m. If you behave, I’ll even take you to the park.”)
• To head off noise and interruptions, equate your work to their homework, reminding them of how irritated they are when they’re trying to do their school work and a sibling (or parent) is being disruptive.
• Yes, kids need to learn to entertain themselves, but don’t set them up to fail. Suggest quiet activities if it’s raining. (Puzzles or crafts are great.) Stock up on books at the library. Provide easy access to Legos, board games, cars, dolls – whatever they’re into. Allow them screen time if you need to. Make a long list of “things to do when you’re bored” and post it for easy access.
• Know they’ll make mistakes. Kids are kids. They’ll forget, they’ll lose patience, they’ll get into an argument with their siblings and they’ll break rules. Show some leniency to avoid ever-building resentment. When quiet is crucial, talk with them beforehand. Explain the importance of the next hour and their obligations, and let them know what emergencies warrant interruption and what consequences they may face if an interruption proves unnecessary. Follow through.

Consider investing in a babysitter or a ‘parents’ helper’

For several years when my kids were younger, I refused to spend money on an outside sitter, fearing it would cut too much into my profits. Instead I would start working as soon as the kids went to bed, staying up until the wee hours of the morning. Everything suffered: the work I did at 3 a.m. and then my parenting a few short hours later.

So, I began using a babysitting service or calling one of the many high-school babysitters in my area. With older children, you might consider hiring a parents’ helper — an older teenager to “hang out” with your kids and drive them places as needed.

Yes, this costs some money. But the upside is stronger work and better parenting. If you’re looking for a more cost-effective option, consider forming a babysitting co-op. Fellow parents agree to watch your children for free, and in exchange you return the favour when they’re in need of a helping hand.

Enlist help

If you live with a partner, don’t be shy to ask for help. With many employers becoming more flexible regarding work-from-home policies, you might be surprised with what can be worked out. Consider both of you shifting your work hours so only a few overlap. Ask your partner to try negotiating some work-from-home hours so you can take turns cleaning up snack spills or helping with homework. Share drop-off and pick-up duties. Drop any guilt you might have. Talk with your partner and come to an understanding. You both, equally, deserve uninterrupted work time.

Leave the house (even briefly)

One fellow creative professional told me that her copywriter friend traveled often when her kids were young, so they would be used to their mom being away at times. Whether you’re packing your bags for a conference or a short-term contractor gig in another city, or you’re simply spending a few hours in a coffee shop to work, give yourself permission to work out of the house when childcare is available. And now that my kids are older, I let them stay home alone for an hour or so. I give them my undivided attention upon my return and they like the feeling of new responsibility. I also sometimes bring them with me. Now that I don’t need to keep a constant eye on them I let them browse books at the library or play at the park while I work for a bit. The change in scenery benefits us all.

Develop a routine

My work hours tend to be deadline-driven, but many freelancers and telecommuters work better with a set, daily routine. If your kids are older, enforce a schedule. During the school year, this is easy. During the summer, create working hours (8 a.m. to noon is my working time) and set boundaries. Again, make sure your children know that you’re only to be interrupted in an emergency. When working, have self-discipline and ignore the housework and your personal to-do lists. One friend I spoke with said that when she’s really busy, she sets timers to impose deadlines and breaks. Pick a plan, and stick with it.

The bottom line is that working from home when children are present can work. It does work. But every family is different. Find what’s best for you and those you love, and stop feeling guilty. You deserve your on-the-job time (and, in many cases, your family’s finances depend upon it). I believe time spent not parenting makes me a better parent. And there is great value in your children seeing you succeed professionally, personally and creatively. Show them, through your actions, the importance of a balanced life, filled with a variety of passions.

After employers have placed a job ad, they might have to go through hundreds of resumes to sort out which candidates they would like to interview. Why not give yourself a fighting chance by avoiding these pitfalls?

Not Qualified for the Job:

Why apply for a job that you are not qualified for? You shouldn’t apply for a job when you do not have the essential skills being sought. Of course, if you have the skills, and are just shy some experience, you can certainly try. But if they are looking for someone with 5 years experience, and you only have 2 year’s worth, you will likely not get the job. And that’s wasting an employer’s time.

Not Sure?

One of the biggest time wasters is people that apply for jobs they aren’t sure they really want. When you apply for a job, whether through an employment agency, or through an employer directly, make sure you would be ready to take the job should it be offered to you. If you aren’t, if you haven’t talked to your family about it, or you aren’t sure you’re ready to leave your present employer, don’t wait and see if they call you before deciding if you want the job. Of course, it’s okay to change your mind later, but if you aren’t sure in the first place, why waste their time?

Embellishments:

You might not see it as lying, but essentially, it isn’t too far off. Saying you are qualified at a certain aspect of the job requirement when you clearly aren’t is a waste of time. We once had someone apply to us for a job that required French language skills who couldn’t speak a word of French, despite his resume implying he could. Obviously on essential skills, you will likely get tested or evaluated somehow. Exaggerating to get a job is definitely NOT the way to go.

Confusing Resume:

Nothing slows down an employer like having to figure out what the heck your previous job was, and reading through a 10 page resume. Some job titles aren’t really clear, so make sure you explain what the major duties and requirements were of your past jobs, that way employers know what skills you have and what sort of work you can do. Your resume should be succinct and to the point. It should not exceed two pages at the most. Avoid wordy paragraphs about your life goals. Your resume should tell the employer what you skills are and really, be a walking endorsement of your abilities, confidence, and previous experience.

Make sure there aren’t any typos or spelling mistakes. Some common ones are “alot”, “seperately”, and “definately”. Check with a dictionary if you aren’t sure of a word before submitting your resume. If they hire you, you will be a reflection of the company and they will be looking for someone who presents an accurate, professional, and careful representative.

Applying Incorrectly:

If an employer looking for email resumes says they don’t want you to include an attachment but would rather see your resume in the body of an email message, why wouldn’t you do that? Many companies won’t open attachments for security reasons and when you are not following instructions on how to apply for a job, you are telling employers you don’t care. It shows a lack of respect and an inability to listen to directions, two things employers are certainly not looking for. Take the time to find out how employers want you to apply for a position. Then follow the instructions. If your resume isn’t properly formatted for an email message, do up a plain text version of your resume so that, you’ll have it for those employers not wanting a Word version. If you can’t follow simple application instructions, how will you be able to do the job?

Not following instructions, applying for a job you aren’t qualified for, and having an unprofessional resume are all ways to indicate to an employer that you aren’t really serious about applying for a job. Why not increase your chances of being hired by making sure you don’t waste their time or yours?