While at the Microsoft MVP Summit this year, I was able to attend some of the pre-sessions on Sunday. These sessions are not under NDA, so we are permitted to share the content with others.
One session that I really liked was the “Rock Your LinkedIn Profile” session by Doug Winnie and Walt Ritscher.
Here are some great takeaways from the session.
7 Steps To Rock Your LinkedIn Profile
- Add a professional photo
- You will get 14x more views with a profile photo than without
- Write an attention-grabbing headline
- Explain what it is you do
- Show your passion and value
- Draft a compelling summary
- Focus on career accomplishments and aspirations
- Recommended 40 words or more
- Include keywords – not buzzwords
- Detail your past work experience
- You will get 12x more profile views than those without
- Add examples of your work in photos, presentations, and videos
- Give a dynamic, visually appealing representation of your professional story
- Add skills and get endorsed for them
- Include a mix of high-level and niche skills
- Include volunteer experiences and causes
- You will get 6x more profile views than those without
The session also had other really good suggestions, including the following best practices.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Articles
- Would I click on that?
- Use a headline that will encourage clicking
- Write often
- Stay top of mind
- Share it
- Improve reach and distribution
- Use Posts
Best Practices for Videos
One of the easiest ways to capture attention is to pick up your phone and start filming
- Start with a bang
- You want to hook viewers quickly, either with a striking visual, or good opening line
- Show it
- Your followers want to see what you’re seeing. Show them!
- The right length
- Your followers are busy, keeping videos between 30 seconds and 5 minutes is a good guide. The “sweet spot” is around 3 and a half minutes.
- Be yourself
- Your followers will appreciate candid videos that are not overly produced or self-promoting