How to get a top viewed IT pro profile on LinkedIn

IT professionals are in the top three categories of people using LinkedIn - so what can you do to ensure your profile stands out and captures the attention of your target audience? It doesn’t matter whether you are seeking new clients or a new employment opportunity, spending some time improving your profile can really pay off. The good news is that it only takes a mixture of technical expertise and some sexy front-end magic to make your profile really stand out.

Here are my top tips to get your profile in the top 1% of those viewed on LinkedIn:

1. Keyword optimise. LinkedIn is a search engine optimised site. Those profiles that have the most relevant keywords are the people who get found the easiest. For example, If am searching for someone who can assist with websites in Brisbane, I may type in the keywords “Web Designer Brisbane”. The person with the most keywords will turn up in that search result along with the person who is a first-, second- or third-level connection. If you would like to test if your profile has enough keywords to sit at the top of searches, I recommend identifying 5-7 keywords that your target audience may search for. Then place them throughout your profile in as many sections as possible.

Once your profile is keyword optimised, you can check and monitor your rankings for each keyword. LinkedIn ranks results according to relevance/relationship to you so it’s best to do a Google ‘X-ray’ search instead. To check your rankings within the LinkedIn Australia website, follow these steps:

• Log out of LinkedIn
• Enter the keyword into the Google browser eg, if you’re looking for the keywords ‘IT Manager’ and you’re based in Sydney, you would enter: site:au.linkedin.com “IT Manager Sydney’
• Review the Google results to assess your ranking.

2. Key skills. Another great tip is to check on the keywords that are being most sought after and ensure those words are in your profile. You can check this on the www.linkedin.com/skills page. For example “Enterprise Architecture” searches currently have increased by 1% in the last year. However, the skill “Enterprise Governance” is up 10%. It is important to cover all bases and the good news is that you can use up to 51 key skills.

3. Ask for recommendations. The best way to get a recommendation is to give one! For every 10 people you ask, you normally get five back so ask away. Also, if you can, ask them to add your keywords. What others say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

4. Ensure your title reflects the keywords that you want to be found for. If your title is “Director of Zenith Associates”, the likelihood of someone trying to find you is very low. Ensure your title reflects what you do, for example if you are the Director of Zenith Associates but you are actually an IT Director, ensure your title is “IT Director, Sydney”.

5. Write a BOOM summary. By this I mean it meets the blend of key words and of your brand. This section is limited to only 2500 characters so I recommend the following layout:

• 1st paragraph: This is your LinkedIn elevator speech and should cover your title, years of experience and what you want to be doing. For example. “Professional IT Director with over 25 years’ experience in Consulting, Business Analysis and Enterprise & Solutions Architecture within which Process Improvement, Performance Management, Business Process. Ability to liaise with internal and external stakeholders. Tertiary qualified with a wide variety of local and international experience.” These tasks also need to be the keywords you want to be found for.
• 2nd paragraph: “Some of the organisations I have worked for include ...” If these brands elevate your brand then list them here - even though they are already in your career history. Ensure you put the most important information to the top of the page.
• 3rd paragraph: “Career achievements include …” and list your top 3-5 achievements. How did you save time, money, increase turnover, increase efficiency? Make sure there are numbers here that quantify what you’re saying.
• 4th paragraph: “How I can help you ...” or “Key Specialities”. Again these should be based on the keywords someone would be searching for and it’s a great way to repackage your keywords and double your search engine optimisation.

6. Proactively connect with others. This might seem simple but I see a lot of profiles of clients who don’t connect with anybody. Research tells us that your search results will start to kick in at about 40 connections. Also, you will only turn up in search results where you are a first, second or third connection.

7. Use the media plug-ins. This is the biggest opportunity missed with many of my clients. The summary and experience areas have the option to add in videos, documents; graphics which can help showcase your talents.

Jane Anderson is a professional and experienced certified career and business coach. She also assists businesses and individuals to explore their personal brand and get the best out of their linked in profile. She is also the author of ‘How to use your linked in profile for career purposes’. Anderson is also a successful speaker and runs regular linked in workshops. More details can be found at insideoutcoach.com.au or jane-anderson.com.au.