LinkedIn hosts more than 600 million professional profiles, meaning nearly an unlimited supply of connections and potential job opportunities. From finding a new job to developing and maintaining a professional brand, having a strong LinkedIn profile plays a vital part of being a fully-fledged young professional in 2022.
In this post, we'll cover how to optimise your LinkedIn profile for success and achieve the oh so sacred 'All-Star' status, ultimately leading you to more job opportunities and more valuable connections.
What exactly is LinkedIn's All-Star status, and why does it matter?
There are five levels of status that can be achieved with a LinkedIn profile: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and All-Star, from least complete profile to the highest level of profile completion.
According to LinkedIn, users with an 'All-Star' status are 40% more likely to receive opportunities, including job offers, new connections, and visibility to the industry you hope to get in to. This means that achieving 'all-star' status as a graduate or young professional is vital and will definitely help get you on recruiters and employers' radar.
But how exactly can I achieve all-star status to land more job opportunities or grow my network?
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, you need to understand that the purpose of your LinkedIn profile isn't just to copy and paste your resume/CV. Your LinkedIn profile is an avenue to tell the story of YOU in an interesting and meaningful way - which we'll touch upon in the steps below.
1. Nail your Profile Picture
The first step to achieving all-star status is making sure you nail your profile picture. Adding a profile photo can result in 14 times more profile views, create a sense of familiarity, and, importantly, put a face to your story. It's important that your picture is current and shows you in a relaxed yet professional manner - this means no selfies, pet, family, or group photos allowed!!!
2. Tell the story of YOU through your headline and summary/about
Think of your summary and headline as an introduction to you. Your headline should include more than just' internship at X company' or 'student at X university'; it should consist of keywords and phrases representing you, the roles you are interested in, and the value you provide! Your summary/about section should be an expansion of your headline and reflect your strengths and passion for your chosen field or industry, as well as experience, and interests.
If you're looking for a job do NOT write that you are 'actively seeking opportunities' - not only is this terrible for your ranking on LinkedIn search and hinders your chances of being found and approached by recruiters but it also makes you look desperate.
If you don't have any work experience, use your summary to talk about the experiences you do have, including assignments, projects, group work and volunteer work you've been involved with at school or university.
Don't forget to let people know how you become interested in the particular field/or industry you are seeking a job in.
3. Showcase your impact via your experience section
The experience section of your profile continues the story you have begun telling in your headline and summary. Make sure to focus on the impact you've had in each role, who you worked with, and what exactly you did.
TIP: Avoid simply listing tasking or responsibilities, instead focusing on impact. For example: 'in charge of managing the company's Instagram page" (responsibility) VS 'grew Instagram following by 20% by creating unique content and generating conversations with followers' (impact).
You'll still need to list a current position under the experience section to achieve all All-Star status if you're unemployed. If you don't have any work experience, you can feature volunteering, extracurricular activities or society experience in this section, making sure to highlight what exactly you did and the impact you had.
4. Highlight your knowledge and how suited you are to your desired industry with skills and endorsements
To be ranked as All-Star on LinkedIn, you need to have at least five skills listed. Skills are a way to showcase the things you know about and are skilled in to your network. It's best to match the skills you showcase on your profile to those that are necessary for entering your desired industry field or particular internship, graduate job or apprenticeship.
You can find out the skills that are required for your industry or job role by typing in the job role you are looking for into LinkedIn Search and clicking 'Jobs'. Choose a posting and scroll down to the skills or experience section and identify the skills, tools or platforms mentioned in the job description, then cross-reference these to the skills, tools or platforms you know about or have experience in. Those that you do have experience/ knowledge of can be added to your profile.
Once you've listed your skills, ask people you know to endorse to verify you have knowledge in that tool or platform.. The more endorsements you have for a particular skill, the more likely you are to appear in search results when a recruiter searches for someone with that skill.
5.Update your industry and location
These two areas tell others where you are located and what industry you work in or are interested in working in.
When editing your profile, click the edit button, scroll down to the bottom, enter your country and postcode - (this won't be visible to others and is just used to generate your location) and then enter your industry and click Save. This way you can be found by recruiters that operate in your industry or are looking to fill roles in your location.
6.Get networking and build your Connections!
For All-Star status, you need at least 50 connections. To get to 50 connections, you should start by connecting with people you know, such as teachers, lecturers, friends, family friends and professional contacts you may know from past internships or work experience.
You can use the search feature to search for companies you have worked at to find former colleagues and to search for your school to connect with old school friends and teachers.
TIP: If you feeling like adding someone you don't know, make sure to send them a personalised note when connecting otherwise they may not accept your invitation.
7.Create a personalised LinkedIn URL
Creating a personalised URL makes your profile look cleaner and more professional. It also looks much better to add to your CV and makes it easier for companies interested in interviewing you to find you on LinkedIn.
When you first create a LinkedIn profile, you are given a default URL consisting of jumbled numbers and letters.To customise your URL, Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, then click View profile and click Edit public profile & URL in the right rail, you'll then be redirected to the Public profile settings page where you can find the Edit your custom URL section.
8. Get teachers, lecturers or ex-colleagues to write about how great you are!
LinkedIn allows others to give you 'written recommendations,' which is a great way to add credibility to your profile and as supporting evidence for your passion and determination. People you ask for recommendations from could be: teachers, lecturers, colleagues/ex-colleagues, family friends and mentors.
9. Get posting!!!!
The truly best way to stand out and get noticed on LinkedIn is by posting. Posting on LinkedIn is the cherry on top for building your professional brand and continuing to add to your story. It also allows you to have a voice and contribute to your industry and gives the opportunity to meet new people and expand their network.
10. Have patience and be consistent
So you've made all of the changes and well.... nothing? Don't be disheartened if the job offers and messages from recruiters don't come flooding in instantly. Like everything in life, all good things come with time and patience.
Like we mentioned above the single best way to get noticed on LinkedIn is to start posting, and not stop. Consistency is key, the more you post, the more your posts will be shown to your network and others outside your network.
LinkedIn is a fantastic tool if you use it correctly and following each of these 10 steps is guaranteed to increase your visibility and land you more opportunities.
Do you need a little extra help figuring out how to make the most of your profile? Check out our LinkedIn review here.
