- April 10, 2016
- Posted by: Con P. Sweeney
- Categories: LinkedIn, Social Media
OK!
You now have a respectable looking headline and summary on your LinkedIn profile.
What now?
How about your experience for starters!
It’s not standalone!
If you use your keywords correctly then it’s an integral part of your headline and summary.
I call my approach the waterfall or cascade effect when working with the headline, summary, and experience on a LinkedIn profile. (Look every consultant worth his salt has to have a few catchy buzz words!)
With my approach, we start at the top of the LinkedIn profile with the headline, roll through the summary, and then into the experience using primary and secondary keywords as connectors.
Once, we arrive at the experience section of the LinkedIn profile, I have another term for what we do next.
I call it the inverted pyramid approach. (Again, what’s a consultant without a pyramid somewhere.)
What this means is that your more recent experience has more detail than your oldest.
Potential clients or employers who review your profile are going to be most interested in your more current experience especially for older individuals who have more experience. (Like for a senior financial executive in their mid-fifties, do you think anyone’s really going to care that they did petty cash counts for Touche Ross when they first got out of school?)
As you move back in your experience you only highlight key work.
For all your experiences, you should be specific about what you did, use action words, and wherever possible state the value or benefits that you delivered. (Hint: Saying that the office was a happier place because you were there is not a good idea even if it was true!)
All of this has be done within 1,000 characters for each experience!
Your LinkedIn profile is not your resume!
It’s your chance to present yourself to a future client or employer in the manner that you want by telling your story. Again, highlighting the value and benefits that you bring should you be engaged.
(Some recommend including a copy of your resume to your LinkedIn profile. I’m not a big fan of this because it can lead to people trying to reconcile your resume to your profile. Save your resume for after first contact.)
Also, having a world class LinkedIn profile is not enough!
A world class LinkedIn profile helps you if have an active program to grow your connections, publish content, and participate in Groups.
We’ll talk more about these in the future!
Better yet, LinkedIn should just be one part of your entire social media program!
If you need help then don’t be shy about asking for it!
I’m always willing to help you out!
That’s it for now!
In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!
I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.
Remember!
I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me. Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.
I can also be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com.
My Twitter handle is @conpsweeney.
Stay well!