Creating a professional profile is easy if you follow these steps..
LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful way to sell yourself in an increasingly competitive marketplace. So creating a profile that is both professional and complete can give you a huge advantage.
- LinkedIn has over 2 million South African users and almost every major South African company has a presence.
- There are more than 238 million LinkedIn™ users worldwide in over 200 countries and territories. That’s more than twice the population of Mexico.
- Of those subscribed to LinkedIn™, the majority are from the USA (84 million). But India (21 million), Brazil and the UK (both 13 million), Canada (8 million), France (6 million), Italy (5 million) and Australia (4 million) are all prolific users.
- More than 3 million companies have profiles on LinkedIn™.
It’s all in the detail
A LinkedIn profile is similar to a work resume, where you display your past education information, work experience, skills, current work position and profile picture. You can follow LinkedIn’s Profile Completion Tips when editing your profile.
Besides that, adding a profile headline and summary would be real helpful to make a first impression.
The headline gives you a professional ‘identity’, a front that may or may not showcase some of the more detailed parts of your profile, hidden away from viewers who are not connected to you. A summary would bring out your personality which can complement your Curriculum Vitae (CV) if an employer were to view your profile.
It’s also important to use keywords in your headline, summary and throughout your entire profile. The keywords could consist of your main passion or profession and will help your LinkedIn profile turn up more often on search engine results. these key words mean that your profile appears when prospective employers do a search for skills and competencies.
