21TO ADVANCE YOUR

CONTENT MARKETINGCAREER

Profile Tips

Content marketing careers are constantly evolving, but one thing is certain: The power of LinkedIn for personal branding and career advancement is here to stay.

Of course, because so many people rely on LinkedIn for professional networking these days, it’s essential to create a profile that will help you stand out and get noticed by the people who make hiring decisions in your industry. It’s not an easy task, but it can be done – with the help of some pro-level tips for strengthening your LinkedIn presence and gaining an edge over the competition.

If your “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” chart is flatlining week after week, the advice below will help breathe new life into your profile, improve your visibility in search results, generate more views, and impress your audience.

Complete your profile

According to LinkedIn, users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities, such as job offers, mentors, or new business. Your LinkedIn profile is your de facto digital resume; it also allows you to provide added detail on your professional experience and examples of your best work – which can help set you apart from your competition.

To achieve unofficial “all-star” status, be sure to include:■ Your industry and location■ Current position, including description■ Two prior positions■ Education■ A minimum of three skills■ At least 50 connections

BONUS TIP: Don’t use symbols, numbers, special characters, email addresses, or phone numbers in the name field because that could prompt LinkedIn to restrict your account.

Add a professional headshot thatreflects your industryA photo puts a face to a name, so you’re not just another silhouette. It helps establish trust and make you more memorable. Furthermore, including a headshot photo makes your profile seven times more likely* to be found in a LinkedIn search.

What kind of photo should you use? It depends on the connections you are looking to attract. For example, if you are a creative director, you might want to use an edgier photo, while a CMO would likely use a more traditional pose.

CMI’s Community Manager Monina Wagner’s photo radiates her personality, making her likability factor skyrocket.

BONUS TIP: Whatever you do, don’t use a selfie, company logo, you with your furry friend (unless you are a veterinarian), or your #TBT college photo. These types of images could damage your personal brand. If someone wouldn’t recognize you at a professional event based on your profile image, change it.

Use relevant keywords in your headlineYour headline – the text below your name – is prime real estate. The LinkedIn algorithm seems to consider it one of the few heavily weighted areas in search, and it is one of the first things your audience sees.

Your headline defaults to your current or last position. Customize it. Tell the world (and, specifically, your target audience) who you are and what you do: ■ Be descriptive and use keywords that uniquely define you.■ Include your city to help your profile stand out 23 times more.■ Support what your headline says throughout your profile.■ Use searched-for words like content strategist, B2B blogger, author, content creator, social media community manager, or content marketer.

Amy Horgan leverages her headline real estate to promote her value proposition.

BONUS TIP: Use keywords that your target audience would use to find someone like you. Incorporate them in your headline and summary description. If you need help finding relevant keywords, try using the free Google AdWords tool.

Tell your work story in your summaryThink of your summary as your elevator pitch: Brag about yourself, but keep it real and back up your claims throughout your profile. You will want to craft your summary (and headline) as you want others to see you. And if you get stuck, ask a friend or colleague to share how they would describe you.

While not talking specifically about LinkedIn profiles, Jonathan Kranz’s advice would certainly apply here: “Facts, figures, concrete examples – these are fundamental pillars for good content.”

Follow this approach to a well-crafted summary:

■ Say things like “award-winning” if you have won awards.■ Cite publications to which you’ve contributed articles.■ List the industries in which you have expertise.■ Add an “areas of expertise” section to incorporate

relevant keywords that describe your skill set.Dianna Huff, president of Huff Industrial Marketing, makes effective use of her summary section, highlighting her strengths and specialized areas of expertise.

Personalize your profile URLThe default URL LinkedIn provides for your profile doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Create an easy-to-remember URL to help integrate and promote your personal brand across all your online channels, so connections can find you more easily. Customizing your profile page in this way is also far more SEO friendly.

BONUS TIP: Include your custom URL in your email signature, resume, blog, etc., to present a united brand presence across all your communication platforms.

CMI’s Lisa Dougherty customizes her profile URL, helping to build her personal brand.

Include work samples from your portfolioImages, media, and documents make your profile stand out and support the claims you’ve made in your summary. For example, if your summary or headline says you are a sought-after speaker, author, or consultant, upload assets that demonstrate your experience in those areas – something Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, does well:

BONUS TIP: Try representing some of your summary statements visually. Have you contributed to an industry blog or written a post for your company? Have you given a talk or presentation? If so, illustrate that experience by sharing a thumbnail, posting a badge from the site, uploading your slide deck, or embedding a video.

Publish content directly from your profileWriting long-form posts on LinkedIn can entice viewers to stick around to read what you have to say. It also helps you be seen as an influencer to a targeted audience – your connections.

You also expand your reach to the first-degree connections of anyone who engages with your post – a previously unreachable audience. Plus, LinkedIn automatically sends a push notification to all your connections, notifying them of your post, reducing your content distribution burden.

BONUS TIP: Include a clear call to action at the end of your post. Ask your readers a question to encourage them to comment. If your post earns comments, “likes,” and shares, it has a better chance to be featured on LinkedIn Pulse, expanding the reach of your content to the potential of millions of views.

CMI’s Cathy McPhillips provides high-quality, relevant content that helps her audience solve problems, or inspires an “aha!” moment.

Get written recommendationsWhile LinkedIn no longer requires three recommendations to have a complete status, it still is important to include testimonials from your colleagues, management, people you manage, vendors, or customers. Recommendations show up underneath each position for which they are written, along with a thumbnail profile photo of the person who wrote it.

BONUS TIP: Be specific when requesting a recommendation. Suggest points that:

■ Qualify your relationship by including how long you have known each other and describing your relationship.■ Describe a project that you worked on together.■ Note if they would work with you again or to provide their contact information for more information.

Showcase your unique personality and experienceIncluding personal details, like your volunteer experience, organization memberships, and professional certifications illustrate that you are a well-rounded person, which can help you emphasize the value you offer – above and beyond the work-related skill sets you bring to the table. For example:

■ Volunteer experience and personal causes: What you do outside the office says a lot about you and contributes to a higher search ranking. In fact, 42% of hiring managers said they view volunteer experience as equal to formal work experience.

■ Organization affiliations: Adding organizations and professional memberships are another way to incorporate keywords into your profile and show viewers your commitment to your craft.

■ Publications: This is the perfect place to link to your contributed blog articles, e-books, and other cited work.

■ Courses: If you have taken professionally related classes or received on-the-job training, showcase these experiences to supplement your education history.

■ Professional certifications: Add any industry-specific training you have completed, along with a link that allows viewers to learn more.

■ Special projects: This allows you to illustrate your work, your personal accomplishments, and any side projects you’ve contributed to. It also enables you to incorporate a URL that will give the originating site an inbound link.

Join groupsFind LinkedIn Groups related to your industry or niche and become an active participant in two or three. Only 16% of LinkedIn members are in the maximum number of groups (50). According to LinkedIn, your profile is five times more likely to be viewed if you join and are active in groups.

BONUS TIP: When participating in Group discussions, remember that groups are about being part of a like-minded community – not about pushing yourself or your services on your fellow members. Andrew Davis generally suggests sharing four relevant pieces of content from influencer targets and one original educational piece of content for every sales-related piece of content.

Rearrange your profileLinkedIn enables you to reorder the sections of its profile template, to highlight the work, skills, and experiences that are most relevant to you and your career goals. What are you most proud of? Awards? Skills? A SlideShare presentation? Rearrange your profile so your most important work is at the top.

Vishal Khanna moved up his Honors and Awards section to directly below his Summary section.

Build your networkOnce your profile is in good shape, work on building your network: Not only does this help you grow your connections, it also helps you get found more through search. Start building up your network with vendors, industry influencers, friends, coworkers, and former coworkers to build up your personal brand.

BONUS TIP: LinkedIn has a feature that allows you to segment your connections, which turns the platform into a powerful CRM tool that allows you to target messages to individuals or groups of people. Once you’ve made a new connection, make sure you “tag” that person into a relevant folder. Because there isn’t an easy way to categorize contacts in bulk, we highly recommend tagging each person into a relevant folder as soon as you make a connection.

Build your networkHere are some additional things to keep in mind:

■ When inviting a personal contact to connect on LinkedIn, select “we’ve done business together” from the drop-down menu, rather than “friend.”

■ Do some quick research before reaching out to a new contact, and include a personal note that explains how you know the person, or where you met, or who you have in common. For example, let them know you just purchased their book, are in the same group, or saw them speak at a conference.

■ If you invite too many people to your network and they mark your invitation as someone they do not know, you will be banned from inviting new people to your network unless you know their email address.

■ You are allotted 3,000 invites, and will be required to enter a Captcha (verifying you’re human) for each invite over 100 sent in 24 hours.

If you’re ready to take your personal brand to the next level, check out our full discussion, 60+ LinkedIn Profile Tips for Marketers, for even more ways to increase your visibility, attract the right business opportunities, and increase your industry influence.

About the AuthorLisa Dougherty is director, blog community and operations at the Content Marketing Institute. She will trade social media and blogging tips for warm pecan bread pudding. Her motto: “Life changes the minute you start doing what you love. And, guess what, it’s never too late to get started.” Lisa’s active on Twitter @BrandLoveLLC and on LinkedIn.

About Content Marketing InstituteContent Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. CMI’s Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and the Intelligent Content Conference event is held every spring. CMI publishes the bimonthly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. CMI, a UBM company, has made the Inc. 500/5000 list from 2012-2015. Watch this video to learn more about CMI.