3 Tips to Keep Your LinkedIn Profile Working For You
You may have your profile set up just they way you want it, but that's not how LinkedIn algorithms work.
You may think that after you get your profile perfectly set up that you should leave well enough alone and not mess with perfection, right? Unfortunately, that’s not how LinkedIn’s algorithms work for making your profile ’pop’ for people in your network or looking for talent.
LinkedIn, like Google, is addicted to FRESH content. The latest content is always assumed to be better, more relevant, and more engaging for their users, and so both companies tend to place a lot of emphasis on the newness of content, even if it’s a job description!
That means that even though you’ve worked hard to get your resume looking ’just right’ -- it may benefit you to plan for an update every couple of weeks - or even more often if you’re actively looking for a new job or to attract some attention. You don’t have to decimate your profile every few days, however, and the changes don’t have to be big, but if you’re careful you can turn this potentially annoying necessity into an advantage.
Here are a few ideas that may make you consider updating your data on a semi-regular basis:
1. Roll With The Changes: Every industry goes through style shifts and changes in jargon and nomenclature. If no one is using the term Direct Marketing anymore, and Multi-Channel is now all the rage in your company, then update your profile to change your skills listing to reflect the new ways that people are talking about your capabilities. LinkedIn and search engines can only have people find you if you’re using the right terminology, and the fashion of the corporate world is famously fickle.
2. Results Matter: Did you just finish a big project? Then take this time to update your profile with the results of your recent accomplishments (keeping in mind that you wouldn’t want to disclose anything proprietary to your company). Not only will it give your profile a boost in terms of recency (which LinkedIn loves), but it’s a good reminder when it’s performance review time about how you’ve contributed to the bottom line. Don’t forget to use numbers whenever you can (’>20% increase’ is better than ’significant increase’).
3. Check Your Competition: How are other people in your industry talking about their accomplishments and skills? It can be enlightening to take a look around at what definitions/words/phrases other people are using in your company or other companies like yours. You shouldn’t look at it as a free pass to plagiarize, but you may get some ideas about what you haven’t considered by checking out how other people are talking about the environment you work in every day. And, if you make a few more connections with people because of your visits to their profiles, well, that can’t hurt either, right? What else can you think of to keep your content fresh without throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
Yooniko (a brand of the MetaMorph Corporation) is dedicated to creating the future of personal branding. Find out more here.
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