6 LinkedIn tips!
Category: Tips and Advice
Publish date: 30/09/2019
Personal branding often raises a quizzical look when we introduce this topic during the Service Leavers’ Career Transition Workshop (CTW). The thought of having to think about what you represent as an individual can be difficult after so many years of selfless commitment to the British Armed Forces. Your LinkedIn profile is a great place to start marketing your personal brand. Over the last 15 years, LinkedIn has been steadily growing and now has over 24 million UK members so why not get your personal brand out there, starting with our 6 suggestions?
- Professional photo. Your profile picture is really important as it’s the first thing that people look at on your profile. This should be a recent head shot (not a selfie) and your clothing should reflect the job that you want to do, not what you do now (avoid military uniforms). Tips for a great profile picture.
- Update your background photo to something which reflects you. Search for ‘LinkedIn background photo’ in Google and click on ‘images’ for some inspiration in the correct file size.
- Make your headline/tagline more than just your job title. This is your opportunity to tell everyone about your role and unique selling points. Consider what recruiters on LinkedIn are searching for and look at the headlines of people who do a job you’d like. If your job is called something different in Civvy Street then use that title in your headline.
- Location, Location, Location. Recruiters will often start their searches with a location. Make sure your profile location is set to where you want to be. Click on the pencil under your background photo, type in the first part of the postcode in ‘Zip code’ and select from the list.
- Follow companies. As well as a way of gaining the most up to date information about a company, a potential employer may look at your LinkedIn activity to gain a full picture of your interests. Employers are looking for your potential FIT in to the culture of the organisation. Why not follow the Career Transition Partnership to receive our useful updates?
- Add a note when requesting to connect with people. When you click ‘connect’ for a person, LinkedIn gives you the option to add a note. Tell them why you’re connecting. Is it because you’ve both served in the military or you have similar interests? It’s important to do this as your request is much more likely to be successful.