LinkedIn Profiles are your resume to the world and your credibility & authority to your potential clients, peers and vendors.

An optimized (read well put together) profile enhances visitors view of you, let’s your friends know about your successes you may have never brought up and much more.  For the little effort it takes to get your profile “looking good” the upside opportunity is truly limitless!

Here are some of the ways you can optimize your LinkedIn profile.

1.)    Complete Your LinkedIn Profile – aim for getting your profile 100% complete (or less if by choice). Make sure to complete your Professional Headline (the description next to your name) first as it is attached to you everywhere you go, show up, comment, email, etc.

2.)    Change profile URL into your name – LinkedIn allows you to edit your profile URL, for example: www.linkedin.com/in/nathankievman – this will help you rank better in the search engines and be found easier on LinkedIn. For those of you with common names, add an initial, state, company, abbreviation, etc, but use your full name.

3.)    Make connections and join LinkedIn groups – Import your current connections to your LinkedIn profile, add people you know and have worked with who are already on LinkedIn. Join relevant LinkedIn groups and engage in conversations with its members. By doing these things, you can increase the reach and visibility of your profile among the LinkedIn members; it also gives more exposure to your profile in the LinkedIn community.

4.)    Add Recommendations – Recommendations help a lot in making a profile stand out and this will help improve the visibility of your own profile within LinkedIn searches as they enhance your “findability”. Remember to only ask recommendations from people you have actually worked with or you have done business with, asking from a stranger is inappropriate and rarely works. You are looking for recommendations that enhance your “Trustworthiness” and “Credibility”.

5.)    Create a Compelling Profile Summary– Profile Summary’s are often a block of words thrown up on the page or copied from an “About Us” page somewhere. Both are ok, but you do want to make sure you structure your profile summary so it’s easy to read, draw’s the eye to something specific that enhances “Trust” and “Credibility”again.  Doing this appropriately will lead to new business, speaking opportunities, profitable partnerships, new jobs and much more.

These are only some of the ways you can optimize and improve your LinkedIn Profile Summary, feel free to comment and let us know your favorite ways to optimize a LinkedIn Profile.