5 Tips to Help You Create a Killer LinkedIn Profile

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCASTLinkedIn is the best platform to show professionalism. Air on the side of caution when it comes to your content such as your profile picture. A professional headshot is perfect.Remember to use your keywords on all social media, including your headline on your profile. For example, “content marketing” or “social media marketing.”For a killer “About” section, use this statement:o I work with [insert type of audience] who want to [what your audience wants to achieve]. I do this by [how you help them] and this means [the outcome for your audience].Use your profile to explain as much about you as possible as it pertains to your business. Have you published any work? If so, add it. Have you volunteered with any organizations? If so, add it!Don’t forget to post on LinkedIn regularly just as you do with other platforms. You can post your blog posts, your podcasts and any other content about your business. Use your resources!Be sure to remain professional, even in how you write what you post. Do not use abbreviations. Explain yourself more.THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…LinkedIn is the perfect place to explain what you do in detail. Your audience wants to resonate with you. Your profile should relate to your audience to build connections by speaking to how you can help them achieve their goals.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISSTip #1: Make sure you have a really great profile picture – 06:24Tip #2: Use your headline to sell yourself and what you do – 08:48Tip #3: Your “About” section should speak directly to your audience – 11:18Tip #4: Fill in as many details as possible on your profile – 16:54Tip #5: Post, post, post! – 18:57Transcript below Hello, and a really, really warm welcome from over here in California. That's right, I am recording the podcast currently, sat in LA, having an amazing time on a business slash maybe a little bit of holiday trip. I am sat outside. If you could see me you would laugh, but I am sat outside on the deck of our friend's house where we're staying, and I'm recording this podcast so you might hear some outside noises. The birds are singing away. It's about 5:30a.m. and the sun is coming up in the distance. Of course I'm sat here currently in a vest top, and although it's not super warm, it's not freezing cold either.If you follow me on social media, then you might know that I come out here fairly often, and by fairly often I probably mean three to four times a year. Most years it's been four times, and what's interesting is prior to about four years ago, I'd never really travelled at all. In fact, I could probably count on one hand how many times I'd been to other countries.Then, two things happened. I met my husband, who is in the RAF. He's a military man, and he does a job that takes him all over the world, that literally he will fly in and out of more countries than I've had hot dinners, and I started the business. One of the things that I discovered is that there's a real hub of social media experts and online digital marketing experts over here in California, and specifically around the San Diego area. Also, San Diego is where Social Media Marketing World is held every single year, and trafficking inversion, and some really big conferences.Like I said, those two things together have certainly then geared up my travels and my trips and I'm over here quite a lot, and I love it. I would move to California in a heartbeat. The sun is always shining. It's a beautiful part of the world. Not only is it aesthetically really beautiful, but when you go to things like malls or generally around, everywhere is stunning. It's a really, really amazing place to be. The best food, the best drink. Obviously I will be seeing it this way because we're here often as guests and on trips rather than I don't have to go out to work everyday. I'm sure it's not this stunning if you live here permanently.The one downside to California though is the traffic. Oh, my word. You've never seen anything like it. Over in the UK, I would used to drive on the M6 quite regularly, and I used to think that was pretty awful because of the traffic. LA is on another scale. It can take hours to drive what is something like 30 miles. It really is one of the downsides to California, but I think it's one of the only ones, so they're not doing too bad.Why am I rabbiting on about the fact that I'm sat in California? I promise I'm not doing it to make you jealous, but one of the things that I was thinking about when I'm over here is I was looking at how people are marketing themselves, and that's one of the things that I love about the American market, is they're not afraid to tell the world, this is what I'm good at and this is why you should hire me. I think often it's something that in the UK we find quite difficult. We are not very good at shouting about ourselves, telling the world we're brilliant, and when we do do it, we either A, feel like we're showing off, or other people, and I've heard it said and very possibly about me, "Who does she think she is?"They get quite, I don't know whether jealous is the right word, but they are definitely not as happy for you to promote yourself, whereas here, in the States, it really feels like they cheerleader each other on. If someone is saying, "I am awesome at this," then their friends and their colleagues are saying, "You absolutely are."While I've been over here, it's been really interesting because I've been seeing both Amy Posefield and Pat Flynn, and also, while I've been seeing them, at the same time, James Webmore has been launching his Digital CEO, which is amazing by the way. Fantastic videos, and it looks like he is going on to sell a great product, but of course, when I've been talking to Amy and Pat, they have done nothing but be happy and praise him and be positive for the work he's doing, whereas sometimes, perhaps in the UK, people wouldn't necessarily be as positive, or they would feel really threatened by the fact that a person in your industry has come out with a new product or done a new thing.Like I said, over here, that is just not the case. In today's episode, I want to teach you to celebrate yourself, and I am going to use a very practical way in which you can do this and link this to LinkedIn. Great segway, Teresa, that was smooth ass. Today we're going to be talking about LinkedIn and how good it is for shouting about how brilliant you are and promoting how brilliant you are without feeling like you are there going, "Yay, high five myself, I am awesome."Today, I'm going to talk you through the five things that you should make sure you do in order to have a killer profile on LinkedIn so that you can promote yourself to the world without feeling like some sleazy salesman. Tip #1: Make sure you have a really great profile picture The first thing is very simple, but oh, so very important. Make sure that you have a really good profile picture. Now, I have seen some really funny ones on LinkedIn, I have to say. I once had someone try to connect with me who had a picture with them with their top off. I could understand if that was part of their business, if they were a model, then maybe I could make an excuse for it. However, absolutely not, that is not the kind of thing you want to be doing on LinkedIn.Then I have pictures of selfies or people on nights out, and one thing that you have to know about LinkedIn straight away is that it's professional. That's the whole point of the platform, so by all means, go and put those kind of pictures on Twitter or Instagram or anywhere else that you'd like to, however, on LinkedIn, I would err on the side of caution, and I would possibly look at putting a photo up that was much more professional.Now, ideally you would get a professional photo taken, especially if you are your business or if you are a personal brand. If you're a personal brand then it's seriously more important. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to have a professional photo taken, and you're going to make sure it's of your head and shoulders. No more, no less. You want the entire space to be filled with your face so that people can see and recognise you.Obviously, it needs to be fairly recent. I know that we all prefer our photos when we were maybe younger or thinner or whatever it might be, but people need to recognise you. People need to see your LinkedIn, and then possibly be at an event and think, "Oh, that's that person I'm LinkedIn with." Make sure it's a really good likeness, great professional photo, and ideally, nothing behind you if possible. Only because sometimes backgrounds can be really distracting, and you don't want someone focusing on where you had the photo taken rather than the person in the photo.The other thing within this tip that I'm going to give is the cover photo, which is the photo above your profile picture. That is also a great opportunity to put some kind of image with some text on it. On my LinkedIn profile there is a picture of me within that as well, so try and make the most of these, but like I said, good, clear, professional images so that I can see who you are straight away.Tip #2: Use your headline to sell yourself and what you do On to tip number two. There is something on LinkedIn called a headline. When you are looking at who to be LinkedIn with, you will often see their name, their picture, and their headline. Most often this defaults to who you work for and your job title. Let's say for instance I was head of marketing for ABC agency. Then, it might say Head of Marketing for ABC agency,...