You should be treating your LinkedIn profile like your resume. There should be no grammar mistakes or misspellings, so make sure to proofread a few times before you update your information. A misspelled name of a company or person will look especially bad, reflecting a lack of attention to detail and general sloppiness.
Being vague and writing “Student” or “Unemployed” in your profile headline doesn’t communicate anything that matters to a potential employer. Even if you are still studying or don’t have a job, relate your profile to your professional aspirations, goals or experience so that a potential employer can get a sense of what kind of professional you will be. “Marketing graduate with international social media experience” is way better than “recent graduate”, for example.
LinkedIn is all about the connections that you make. Take advantage of the different ways in which you can connect with fellow professionals on the website. Join alumni groups, search for alumni with the “find alumni” option and browse through connections to add. Be sure to accept connection requests as much as possible. This is as easy as networking gets.
If you want your profile to show up in search results, it is crucial to have a descriptive summary written out. Use searchable key words in your summary that are related to your career so that you can be more easily recruited.
If you decide to make your LinkedIn profile public, you’ll have more opportunities to connect with other professionals. If you’re private, you can’t see the information of people who have looked at your profile. If you’re public you can – the only catch is that if you’re public and stalking someone’s profile, they can see your information and how many times you’ve viewed the profile, so make sure to stalk responsibly.
Your LinkedIn profile is 14 times more likely to be viewed if you’ve uploaded a profile photo, Business Insider reported. It should be one of the first things that you add to your profile. The photo should be professional, with a plain background featuring you alone, dressed in professional attire and smiling. It can even be a nice work selfie – just as long as you’re not making a goofy face and you’re looking nice.
If you list your experience into the different sections offered through LinkedIn, it can help break up your profile so that it is more easy-to-read. A recruiter will be able to navigate more quickly on your page and jump to relevant experience.
LinkedIn offers great opportunities to connect. If you’re not using it to search for jobs, interact with your networks, list recognized skills or request recommendations, you’re not getting the most out of the experience.
Under the relationship tab on your connections’ profiles, you can manage your professional relationships with others. You can write down a note (that only you can see) that reminds you how you met this person and what their interests are. There’s also a way to set a reminder to yourself to remember to reach out to this person on a certain date.
Sources: http://www.businessinsider.de/common-linkedin-mistakes-youre-making-2016-6?r=US&IR=T#/#you-havent-put-any-thought-into-your-profile-headline-5, http://www.businessinsider.com/7-simple-tips-to-take-a-better-linkedin-profile-photo-2015-5?op=1&_ga=1.72530451.1479562549.1469188530&IR=T
Photo 1. LinkedIn pen, by Sheila Scarborough, CC-by-2.0
Photo 2. based on Linkedin, by Mambembe Arts & Crafts, CC-by-2.0
Photo 3. by Elizabeth Trovall