4 simple LinkedIn tips to polish your profile

 Last month, during an editorial offsite on the Atlantic shores of Cape Cod, the CIO team shared some tips and advice with each other on how to be more productive and improve our online personas. At CIO, we know the knowledge and insights we gain from our peers can be invaluable, and that’s one reason we’re all active LinkedIn users. 

[Related Slideshow: 8 LinkedIn users we love to hate]

In the spirit of sharing, here are the four LinkedIn tips and tricks meant to elevate your profile and your presence on LinkedIn that we found to be most valuable during our Cape Cod rendezvous.

Use LinkedIn to proudly promote your work

LinkedIn members can easily spotlight their bodies of work and notable achievements by adding to the Publications and Projects sections of their profiles. After you log in to LinkedIn, go to Profile > Edit Profile and click “view more” below “add a section to your profile.” Then scroll down, pick the most appropriate container to promote your work and fill in all the pertinent information, being as specific and descriptive as possible.

Make sure it’s clear who you are, and what you do, on LinkedIn

Don’t be stingy with the details on LinkedIn. You can make it easier for other LinkedIn members to find you and understand your skills, background and areas of expertise by providing specifics in your headline and summary. You don’t have to stick to your job title; you should be creative when describing yourself and the work you do. And please, please, only write about yourself in first person — any other way is unprofessional and awkward.

Customize your LinkedIn profile URL

A custom LinkedIn profile URL can increase your SEO sway, it looks cleaner and makes it easier for others to find you. Your current LinkedIn profile URL appears below your photo and basic information. If you haven’t already customized it, or would like to change it, go to Profile > Edit Profile and click on the tiny gear logo that appears when you hover over your profile’s current URL. From there, you can edit or create a custom URL by clicking on the pencil logo beneath the “Your public profile URL” heading in the top-right corner of the page.

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It’s best to use your name exactly as it appears on LinkedIn in your custom profile URL, but if it’s already taken, try to use something that’s as close to it as possible or considering adding a middle initial to differentiate yourself.

Keep your LinkedIn profile fresh with regular updates

With more than 364 million users on LinkedIn today, there’s no shortage of top-notch profiles, and you can get ideas to improve and enhance yours by perusing them. Take note of stellar profiles, and tweak your own based on the things you like about them. It’s also a good idea to update your profile regularly, so it’s clear to other users that you take LinkedIn, and your career, seriously.