- Are you wondering how to get started on LinkedIn so that you can create a profile that stands out from your competition? Maybe you're wondering what information to include in your profile and what information just isn't relevant. If you're not confident when it comes to using LinkedIn, then tune in, because in this video you'll learn exactly what you need to do to get started on LinkedIn so that you can show your real potential and land higher-quality career opportunities. (upbeat music) And hey, if you want even more powerful LinkedIn profile tips, make sure you take a look at my free five-day LinkedIn minicourse where you will learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile. I'll link the course below. And if we've never met before, I'm Heather Austin from ProfessorAustin.com and The Career Club on Facebook, and on this channel, I teach working professionals just like you how to build their personal brand so that they can land their dream job and grow in a field they love, so if you're new here, make sure you hit the Subscribe button down below. Also, don't forget to hit the Bell notification, so you're notified when I publish a new video or when I go live every week. And hey, real quick. Tell me in the comments below this video what do you struggle with the most when it comes to using LinkedIn? Let's continue the conversation down there. Now, before we jump over to the computer for an easy, step-by-step tutorial, there's a few things to keep in mind when it comes to using LinkedIn. Think of LinkedIn as your personal sales page. It's one of the only professional social media platforms where you can sell yourself, look for new job opportunities and network with others in your industry. So if you're someone that's trying to get noticed by hiring officials, grow your personal brand or even grow your own business, you definitely need a strong LinkedIn profile. Not only that, LinkedIn now has 600 million users, with two new users joining the platform every second. LinkedIn is not slowing down anytime soon. Now, this tutorial that I'm gonna walk you through assumes that you already have a LinkedIn account created. If you don't already have an account created, you need to go to LinkedIn.com to set your account up, and then once you're done with that, come back to this video and I'll walk you step-by-step how to get started on the platform. So let's jump over to the computer. So here we are, looking at my LinkedIn profile. I'm gonna walk you through the steps to help you get started using LinkedIn. Now, step number one is to start with the basics. So what do I mean by starting with the basics? You always want to make sure that you start with your headshot and your LinkedIn headline, and when it comes to a really good headshot, you wanna make sure that the picture you use has you smiling, has you dressed appropriately for your industry. You also wanna make sure that you're looking directly at the camera and that we can see you really well, so you don't want to take a full body shot. My recommendation is to take a headshot that is from the waist or from the elbows up, and also make sure that you are not wearing hats and sunglasses and anything that might be a little bit distracting. Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to a good headshot is to make sure that you're not using selfies and here's the key: LinkedIn profiles with professional headshots actually get 14 times more views. So if you can, make sure you get a professional headshot in there. Now let's talk about the headline. So when it comes to a really good LinkedIn headline, you wanna make sure that it grabs the attention of anyone that might be viewing your profile. Now, think of your headline as your tagline. These are keywords and keyword phrases that others might be using on LinkedIn to find you. Now, by default LinkedIn actually uses the job title of your current or most recent position. So my recommendation is to change that. Now, you'll notice in my example here I actually am just using my title for my business. Now, I'm not a job seeker, so my headline might be written a little bit differently than yours. If you are a job seeker, you wanna make sure that the headline you use is tailored to the position or to the industry that you want to go in, and of course always making sure you use as many keywords and keyword phrases in there. Now, you do have up to 120 characters to use inside your headline. I'm not necessarily recommending that you use all 120. Just make your headline as long as it needs to be. Now, you also wanna make sure you incorporate your specialty. So your specialty will help you get found in searches if others are looking for individuals that might do what you do. So here's an example. Let's say that I was a senior project manager. So one way that I could spice up my headline is by saying senior project manager specializing in implementation and relationship management. Now, step two to getting started on LinkedIn is the About section. So I'm gonna scroll down on my profile to show you what my About section looks like. I'm gonna go ahead and click on the Edit icon to pull up the About section, and I can even click on this toggle to make the section a little bit larger, so that you can read it better. Now, when it comes to a really good summary, you wanna make sure that you have it organized. You want to intrigue your audience or intrigue your viewer to keep reading more. Now, the About section is such a great way to share your skills, your talents, and your expertise a little bit more in detail. It's also the perfect place to let your personality and character shine. Now, you'll notice inside the About section there's two main areas. You have your summary and then you have your media. Let's talk first about the summary. The summary section needs to address who you are, who you help, and how you help them. You wanna start with a sentence that mentions what you are most passionate about and what drives you most about your career. So if you look at my example, notice I say career in business strategy is my passion, and then I go on to say I am a driven business owner dedicated to teaching and then I mention a little bit more in there. After you've mentioned what you are most passionate about and what drives you, you want to then include a paragraph that mentions your greatest accomplishments or even some of your greatest strengths. So you'll notice that I go on to say my greatest strength is in helping others find solutions and strategies to launch their perfect career. So you can use this exact same format when you write your own summary. Now, to make your summary section easier to read, you wanna make sure you are using paragraphs that are no longer than two to three sentences, and you can use bullet points to break up the content and make it so that the viewer can easily read your information. So you'll notice in this example I just have an arrow bullet point that I am using to break up the content. Now, if you want to learn other symbols that you might be able to use inside of LinkedIn, just go to Google and type in symbols for LinkedIn profile and you'll come up with quite a few options. My recommendation is not to go overboard with the symbols. I've seen a lot of people that try and stuff their headlines and their summary to get attention using symbols and bullet points and I don't recommend doing that. I like using them but not in an extreme way, just use them enough up so that it breaks up the content and it keeps your reader easily viewing your profile. After your bullet point section you can then go ahead and include an expertise section. Now, my summary section is written as a business owner. Yours will be very similar, but at the very end you always wanna make sure you have some sort of specialty or expertise section. Now, this section is keywords and keyword phrases that will show up in a job posting that you can put into your profile, so that, again, you can be found in search results. Now, after the summary section you also have the option to add media. So you can add a link to external documents, photos, sites, videos, and even presentations. Now, inside of my media section, I've just uploaded a handful of videos from my YouTube channel. These are videos that are viewed most often. So I've popped them here into my LinkedIn profile. So you can consider what type of media options do you want to add to your LinkedIn profile. Okay, moving on to the third step to get started on LinkedIn, and that is going to be your experience section. So I'm gonna scroll down to the experience section, and you'll notice as I'm scrolling down I have my dashboard. Now, my dashboard is unique to me, just as your dashboard will be unique to you, and then I also have my activity. So this is going to be, again, unique to you. But I'm gonna scroll down to the experience section and this is where I would start adding all of my experience. So think of your experience section as a better way to tell your career story. The point to the experience section is to really show your audience who you are and how you got to where you are. Remember that LinkedIn is a little bit more informal than your resume, so this is the perfect opportunity to let your personality and your character shine. In fact, inside your LinkedIn profile you actually can write in first person which I always recommend you do. However, you don't want to write in first person on your resume. When it comes to the work experience section, I like to use two to three sentences in a couple paragraphs that explain some of the greatest accomplishments or some of the things that you are most proud of while you were in that position, and a bonus tip here is to include at least one quantifiable accomplishment. So these are things that you can measure based on a number, a data point, a percentage, maybe a dollar amount or maybe even time. And to break up the content, you can add bullet points to your work experience section. Just make sure that you're not copying and pasting directly from your resume. And remember, you don't want include too much information here. We just want to give the audience a teaser into some of the greatest things that you've done, so that they will reach out to you to learn more about you. And another point when it comes to your experience section is to place keywords and keyword phrases that are showing up in the job posting inside that work experience section. The fourth step to help you get started on LinkedIn is your education section. So I'm gonna scroll down past my work experience section all the way to my education section. Now, here's a great thing about your education section is this actually helps you build your career story. If you have been out of high school for more than five years and you have an associate's degree or maybe even a bachelor's degree, you don't need to list your high school education on there. Your education section allows you to list the type of degree that you received, the name of the institution that you received your degree from, and it even allows you to list any awards and honors that you received while you were at that institution. Now, this is a great place to add any special training or certifications that you've received that directly relate to your industry. Now, an an example of this would be if I went to a trade school or some type of short-term training program. This could be something like a certified nursing assistant. This could even be a commercial driver or a massage therapist. If you really want your education section to shine, you want to add things like your clubs or organizations that you participated in and any relevant coursework that might apply to the position or the industry that you are applying in. The fourth step to help you get started on LinkedIn is your skills and endorsements. So I'm gonna scroll down to the skills and endorsements section here on my profile, so you can see what I'm talking about. Now, this is a great way also to help you show what your expertise are. Now, LinkedIn will display the top three skills on your homepage, so make sure you get those listed first, and then add additional skills from there. LinkedIn does allow you to add up to 50 skills, but I don't recommend adding all 50 skills, because I feel like that waters down your profile. I would start with the top three things that you want to be known for or that you are an expert in or that you specialize in, and then build on from that. Hiring officials use the skills section as a way to find talent, so if there is a specific skill set that you want to be recognized for, you need to make sure you add it to your profile. And keep in mind if you add a new skill, it will take some time to accumulate endorsements for that skill. You only wanna focus on the skills that you want to be known for. You want to get as specific as you can when it comes to your skills. So rather than adding the term training which doesn't really tell me a lot, you could add something like corporate training. Now, these skills are what hiring officials, recruiters, and hiring managers are looking at when they view your profile. And over time, you may need to rearrange the top three skills based on what you want to promote about yourself and what you want to receive endorsements for. Now, the fifth step to getting started on LinkedIn is recommendations. So I'm gonna scroll down to my recommendations section here and I'll show you a little bit about that. Recommendations are the perfect way to get recognized for what you do. A recommendation is a statement written by another LinkedIn member to recognize or commend you for things that you've done on the job. So people who view your profile will often read the recommendations that you've received from your connections, and they'll see what others have to say about your work. One thing you can do is to ask for recommendations. So if I click on the Ask for recommendations icon, it actually walks me through how to ask for a recommendation. Now, I recommend that you get as many recommendations as you can from individuals that are in leadership positions, so maybe previous supervisors or previous managers. You might even have a colleague that you worked with that thought really highly of you. I would highly recommend getting a recommendation from those types of individuals as well. And don't be shy about asking for recommendations. A lot of people will freely give you one if you just ask for it. And then I have a bonus tip for you to getting started on LinkedIn and that is to check your security settings. So let's go ahead and review the security settings. You're going to click on the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn page, and then you're going to click on Settings and Privacy. Now, there's a lot we could dive into inside this section, but I'm only going to cover a few key areas. The first one is the Privacy tab. So the Privacy tab covers all privacy and security settings related to what others can see about you and how your information can be used. So let's go ahead and check out the Edit your public profile. So I'm gonna go ahead and click on that and one thing I want you to be aware of on this page is how to edit your custom URL. So you'll notice at the top of the page it says Edit your custom URL. You can go ahead and click on that pencil icon and if LinkedIn has not yet given you a custom LinkedIn URL or if you have not yet created your custom LinkedIn URL, this is where you can do it right here. I always recommend using your name, some variation of your name if it's already taken. You could even add a middle initial if you need to. Anything that shows who you are so that your LinkedIn profile isn't a string of letters and numbers. So I'm gonna go ahead and cancel out of this, and the other area that I want you to be aware of on this page is the Edit Visibility. So this allows you to control your profile's appearance for people who are not signed in to LinkedIn. It also goes on to say the limits you set here affect how your profile appears on search engines, profile badges and permitted services like Outlook. So this is a fantastic way to make sure you are showing certain sections that you wanna show and maybe not showing other sections that you don't want to show. So again, go through that and make sure that you have your settings exactly how you would want them. Now, I'm gonna go ahead and click on the Back button because I want to jump back to another section inside of our privacy, and that is your Job seeking preferences. So I'm gonna click on Job seeking preferences and that takes me to a number of options inside of the LinkedIn page. Now, one of my favorite areas inside this section is the job application setting. So this allows you to choose what information LinkedIn saves when you submit a job application. So you can go in there and make sure that your settings are exactly how you want them to be. Another area in here that I really like is the Let recruiters know you are open to opportunities. This allows you to share that you're open and appear in recruiters' searches when they enter a keyword or a keyword phrase to find a specific individual in your area or with your expertise. Now that you know how to get started using LinkedIn, make sure you take a look at the video I made right here where you will learn how to find a new job using LinkedIn. I'll also place a link below this video, and if you like this video, make sure you hit the thumbs up button down below. Make sure you subscribe to this channel for more videos just like this and I will see you in the next video.