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4 LinkedIn Hacks From The LinkedIn Cheat Sheet

This article is more than 2 years old.

LinkedIn is easy to excel on, if you know how to play the game. Much like the greatest video game of all time, Quake, once you know the cheats and ways to game the system, you can do anything.

Power of the Profile Picture

It is absolutely imperative that you have a profile photo on LinkedIn. Don’t be a ‘grey-man,’ someone who just keeps the default image. And not only that, you have to have a good profile photo. By that, I mean that the profile photo shows the entirety of your face, isn’t blurry, or to the side. Just a front-on shot. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, so make sure your picture is close up enough for people to see your eyes.

If you don’t have a good picture to use, get one. Hiring a photographer might cost a few dollars, but a well-shot profile photo is a must. Your profile photo is the first thing people see, so you want to leave a good impression.

The About Section

Your profile photo might be the first thing people see, but the about section is what people look at the most. According to Online Credibility Unmasked for the Legal Profession, when looking at a profile your eyes first go to the profile picture, then the about section, and then ,the headline. The attention levels are as follows: Profile Photo - 30.3%, Headline - 18.1%, and About Section - 51.6%.

But what’s funny is that the summary is what’s most often missing, or, most likely, just consists of one or two lines. I find a three part format to be most successful in the summary game:

  • Introductory section - try and stick to two or three sentences here, you want it to be a quick and snappy way for people to know who you are. The more specific about what you do and who you help, the better.
  • 3 to 4 bullet points highlighting your achievements - bullet points are often what stand out the most in the summary, so you want these to be especially powerful
  • Final closing paragraph - you’ve talked about what you do, what you’ve done, now it’s time to talk about what you can do for them.

If you hit those three sections, you’ll have a phenomenal summary going in no time.

Contact Information

I always get folks who are a bit trepidatious about putting their contact info on LinkedIn. Here’s the deal, LinkedIn is by far the safest social media site; if you want to learn more about trusting LinkedIn, check out this article.

Keep in mind, if you add you phone number, only your LinkedIn connections can contact you. And if people who know you and are connected to you can’t easily find your phone number and call you to hire you, than why are you even on LinkedIn? Add your phone number in the “contact info,” section.

Recommendations

You wouldn’t buy something off of Amazon that doesn’t have reviews, so why would you work with someone who doesn’t have recommendations?

It might feel a bit embarrassing to ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn, but if you’re working with a client and they give you a compliment, just ask them if they wouldn’t mind typing it up really quick to put in LinkedIn.

An alternative is to “request a recommendation” in the Recommendations section after receiving a compliment, and then simply asking them to copy-and-paste your typed out recommendation based on what you remember them telling you. Make it easy for them and you will get far more recommendations.

Another great way to receive recommendations is to write them for others. What goes around, comes around, amiright?

All in all, these four things are incredibly simple and would take you less than an hour on a Friday to do. Is sitting around for an extra hour, twiddling your thumbs, really worth fading into obscurity on one of the biggest social media platforms?

If you want to go more in-depth on the Cheat Sheet, click here to register and watch the entirety of the webinar on-demand (for free), and, as always, feel free to tweet me @adriandayton with any questions.

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