Jared J. Wiese brought a ton of energy and enthusiasm to another international crowd at AMA Madison’s October virtual Craft Marketing event. His presentation on “How to Build a LinkedIn Profile that Attracts Jobs, Leads & Joy” offered strategies to get you seen, searched & selected on LinkedIn, whether you’re looking for a new job, business leads, or more visibility with your target audience.
As the founder of ProfilesThatPOP.com!™, Jared has amassed 122,000+ followers on LinkedIn with his frequent tips and Win-Win style. Just search #ProfilesThatPOP on LinkedIn & Google and check out Jared’s LinkedIn profile to see!
ProfilesThatPOP.com!™ provides LinkedIn profile writing, lead generation, and training for businesses, résumé writing, scanning and coaching for job seekers, and hourly coaching for both audiences.
Jared shared his tips on how to get found on LinkedIn, offered personal profile assessments for some lucky Craft Marketing attendees, and answered lots of questions in a marathon, info-packed Craft Marketing session.
LinkedIn – Much More than a Résumé Database
Jared’s background as an IT professional who was always asking “Why?” helped fuel his love for LinkedIn and all its algorithms and stats. He’s spent years using it as a “sandbox” to learn about the best ways to engage for JOBS and LEADS, but emphasized that you can have JOY on LinkedIn – and you should – because it helps people to get to know, like and trust you.
“You’ve got SECONDS for first impressions”
Research has shown that you have 6-7 seconds to attract someone’s interest. Out of a long list of LinkedIn search results, would someone pick you? There are three important aspects in your LinkedIn profile that will help to move you to the top of the list and stand out as the best choice: Settings, Content, and POP.
- Settings – to be seen. Google your name in incognito mode – do you show up at or near the top of the search results? Because LinkedIn has a very high domain authority, you should! Having an All-Star profile is the minimum, and can increase your searches x27! Make sure to check your LinkedIn settings any time you edit your profile; settings change often so you need to make sure you haven’t corrupted them and impacted getting searched or viewed.
- Content – to be searched. Keywords are key! The content of your profile will get you found in searches, so keep refining and tweaking your keywords to improve your search relevance. Jared made a one-word change to his profile that got him seen the next day by a recruiter, and a job offer!
- POP – to get selected. Whatever your goal is – Jobs, Leads or Joy – it should POP within your profile. Jared defines POP as Your Performance + His Optimization = Your P POP is what makes you stand out from your competition, gets you selected and viewed and leads to valuable engagements with your audience.
Getting Found on LinkedIn
Expanding on those 3 key components, Jared offered numerous tactical tips that you can use right away to optimize your LinkedIn profile. By providing live Profile Pop-Up reviews for a few Craft Marketing attendees, Jared showed some great examples of how to refine a LinkedIn profile for maximum impact. (To see more, search LinkedIn for #ProfilePopUp)
Here are some of those tips.
1) Headline Characters and Results
The first 3-5 words of your headline are key! When Jared was adjusting his own profile, he kept reducing the number of characters in his headline. When he cut it down to 29 characters, he went from page 3 to #3 in a search for “Résumé Writing” on LinkedIn.
2) Profile Photos – Focus on You
A profile photo needs to be easily seen both on a desktop and a phone, so Jared recommends zooming in to shoulders on up. You also can look more professional by removing the photo background with a tool like remove.bg.
3) Effective Banner Photos
Banner images offer a great opportunity to place your contact info and a few keywords front and center. By using Canva or a similar tool, you can combine multiple images relevant to your career and overlay them with text, so anyone viewing your profile sees key information without scrolling down. But again, you need to get them there first!
4)Turn Off the Competition
There is a default setting that shows the “People Also Viewed” section when someone views your profile. Turn it off! You don’t want to send viewers directly to your competitors.
5) Engagement = More Views
An easy way to increase profile views and probably many other aspects of the algorithm is to increase your own engagement on LinkedIn. Start by posting three good comments a day on other people’s posts. When you engage with people, you make connections, grow your network, and get found more often. Just look at the Profile Views page for what LinkedIn has said for years about the benefits!
6) Adjust Your Approach Based on Your Goal
Gear your profile toward what you want to achieve. If you’re job hunting, don’t just show your specific current city, include multiple cities or the whole state if you’re willing to relocate or commute. When you’re looking for leads, research your search appearances on LinkedIn and see if your headline keywords match up with the search terms people are using to find you.
7) #OpenToWork
Jared ended the debate over the use of #OpenToWork. COVID-19 has changed the game, and recruiters are no longer biased against people actively seeking work. Do not use #OpenToWork if you’re job hunting discreetly while still employed, however – that hasn’t changed.
Revising and refining your LinkedIn profile is an ongoing and potentially never-ending process, but it’s one that can reap great rewards. Jared got us all started on the right path with an insightful discussion about creating Profiles That POP!
See You Online for November’s Craft Marketing
Thanks to Jared J. Wiese of ProfilesThatPOP.com!™, attendees and volunteers. Craft Marketing also appreciates Winbound and SeQuel, our October sponsors.
Craft Marketing invites you to its next virtual event at 4 p.m. on November 17, 2020. We’ll interview Chris Luecke, host of the podcast and video series Manufacturing Happy Hour, during a live podcasting session about “How One Savvy Sales Dude is Leveraging Podcasting and Digital Marketing”.
Register here for the online event.