If you’re following social media trends, you’ll have noticed that LinkedIn appears more frequently than it did before. There were several million profiles on LinkedIn earlier as well, but less than 25% people used them. However, people are reconnecting with their LinkedIn profiles and it’s becoming the perfect hotspot for job seekers, companies, freshers and others.

However, a default grey profile picture and a tired summary won’t land you any opportunities. With changing social media trends, it has become imperative to have not just good, but great profiles on LinkedIn. A detailed profile with good pictures and well written summaries make your profile more ‘legit’. So get ready to be seen by following our tips for the perfect LinkedIn profile!

10 Do’s and Don’ts for the Perfect LinkedIn Profile

Do:

1. Upload an appropriate Photo

This is the first thing anyone serious about LinkedIn should do – upload a decent photo. Having no photo will land you at the bottom of LinkedIn’s search results. A picture is worth a thousand words, so one glance at your photo should be able to project a good impression. It should look pleasant and approachable, professional but not uptight, and definitely neat and well groomed!

2. Personalize your URL

LinkedIn’s default profile URL is a messy combination of numbers and letters with your name in there somewhere. Look like a pro with a personalized URL – which is super easy to make. It’ll look something like this – “linkedin.com/yourname” – so much neater! Include this in all your business correspondence and on your web page if you have one.

3. Include Past Successes

While boasting isn’t recommended, it’s perfectly fine to include successful projects you’ve worked on in the past. If you can quote numbers, even better! Clear and concise information about your successes indicate that your profile isn’t just gas – it’s got real worth. Being specific will also get you the connections and opportunities that are best suited to your skills.

4. Include Links to your Work

Most LinkedIn experts recommend linking to your blog or other published work in your profile. If you have written an eBook, a white paper or a rocking presentation, be sure to include them all. You can also put in pictures of yourself in action. LinkedIn also allows you to become an author, so you can exhibit your talents by posting original content relevant to your field.

5. Include Contact Information

You’ve listed out all your successes, linked to all your published work and uploaded an awesome photo. All this have got you some valuable connections but when they try to contact you – poof! You’re nowhere to be found! After updating your profile, ensure that you have included ways for people to contact you – email, website or phone number.

Don’t:

6. Hesitate to ask for Recommendations

Many people undervalue the importance of recommendations, or they think that the bare minimum required by LinkedIn is sufficient. Get at least 10 good recommendations from reliable sources that are in sync with your skills, interests and other information in your profile. Most people will be happy to provide you one, and you can request them to be as specific as they can.

7. Let it get Resume-ish

We’ve all heard tons of advice about keeping resumes as minimalist as possible, including strictly essential information. The beauty of a LinkedIn profile is that there are no such restrictions and you can include more information about yourself. So go ahead and put in interesting tidbits about yourself, like volunteer programs or other talents. Keep the tone light and conversational.

8. Use Done-to-Death Cliches

With over 460 million LinkedIn profiles out there, you don’t want to appear as part of the crowd with cliched terms like ‘creative’, ‘dynamic’ or ‘passionate’. Why, LinkedIn itself tells you the words and phrases you should avoid! Instead, use the right keywords in your profile that’ll connect you to what’s right for you. Tools like WordCloud or the Google Keyword Tool help you find the exact words that’ll make your profile stand out.

9. Leave any Section Incomplete

It requires work, but taking the time to complete every section of your LinkedIn profile is completely worth the effort. The more complete your profile, the better it’ll feature in searches and the more impressive it’ll be to others. So completing your profile doesn’t just grab eyeballs, it gives those eyes something solid to see!

10. Go OTT

Yes, you should complete every section, include all relevant information, upload your work and get recommendations – but you also need to know when to stop! Once you start updating your profile and you discover all the cool new features on LinkedIn, it’s easy to get over-excited. The result is an unnecessarily tedious profile, which isn’t exactly attractive. Once you’re done with your profile, go have some coffee and then get back. You’re sure to find many details that can be trimmed.

Some of these tips for the perfect LinkedIn profile may seem like common sense, but as Voltaire said, common sense is not so common! So take a good look at your profile and identify the areas that can be improved and get working on them one by one!