Nowadays, personal branding is one of the most powerful methods to show your professional skills, expertise, motivation and achievements. It is no secret that many headhunters go through your LinkedIn page before hiring you. One of the best ways to find the job of your dreams or to be in touch with colleagues and business partners is to have a strong LinkedIn profile. In this article, you will learn some tips on how to create a better LinkedIn profile in 2020.

Clean Old Info

One of the key features of the successful LinkedIn profile is that it is always up to date. Try to keep only essential job positions and do annual cleaning to get rid of the outdated information that might deter future employers. Also, when you update your profile regularly it is easy to remember, which goals you achieved in what position and what professional milestones you passed through.

Choose the Right Profile Picture

Despite all the seriousness of your LinkedIn profile, don’t forget about the importance of the profile picture. Make sure your profile picture is recent and looks like you do right now. Choose a portrait picture, where your face takes up not less than 60% of the photo, this way it will be easier for people to recognize you. Don’t choose long-distance photos or artistic captures where you can not see the face clearly.

The headline doesn’t automatically have to be your job title, you can use it as a moto, or the main paragraph that explains why you love doing what you do, what drives you, or what your professional goals and aspirations are. Be free and creative!

Create a Story Out of Your Summary

The summary, as well as the headline, doesn’t necessarily have to be formal and impersonal. Use this field to tell your story, your career aspirations and not only the list of jobs and skills you’ve got. These lines will be the first ones that your future employer will see, so make sure you’ve included the most important things about yourself in a non-trivial way.

Avoid Using Buzzwords

Buzzwords are words that are so popular on LinkedIn that sometimes you don’t even notice them because they are so abundant. Moreover, algorithms often filter these parasitic words. Try to avoid generalizations and buzzwords such as, «passionate leader», «creative», «innovative», «revolutionary» etc. Words like that don’t have as much sense and weight as they did before and sometimes it can be hard to understand if the person referring to them, actually has all these qualities and skills.

Expand Your Network

A quantity of professional connections shows how successful you are in your field, how your coworkers and colleagues communicate with you and what your role is in the professional community. Don’t hesitate to add people you know using email addresses, search and mutual connections. Make sure to accept connection requests to build a bigger network.

Spotlight Your Skills

Your skills are very important for any future employer because he or she also has a list of requirements with which your profile will be eventually compared. List your professional and soft skills, but always be true and stay relevant. Place your key skills at the beginning of the list finalizing it with less important competences.

Use Endorsements

Endorsements are the key to increase your credibility meaning that your colleagues or partners appreciate your professional skills. Don’t hesitate to ask your community for a relevant endorsement and do the same for others: confirm the skills of your colleagues that you value the most.

Join Groups

LinkedIn groups are an important part of professional networking, where you can meet an expert that you were looking for and make a connection for future projects. Also, through the groups, you can be notified about any important meetings and conferences happening soon that you might have missed.

Share Your Success and Achievements

LinkedIn is a social network, so try to be socially active there. Share your latest achievements and react to other people’s success. This will not only create a warm atmosphere and a good vibe but will also show your future employers or partners your professional life, challenges you accepted and overcame as well as your engagement in the work.

Photo – Unsplasom; 123rom.