How to Get More Views on LinkedIn 2024
The idea of social media has pervaded the online world; a contemporary concept that is no longer new. Since the propagation of the internet into the world, orchards of social media sites have sprung up.
While the point of social media is to be relaxing and informal, there exists a few Professional Social media networking platforms, an oxymoron that functions surprisingly well. These sites feature professional networking & learning and gaining opportunities and resources for businesses along with serving as a form of personal branding for professionals. Striding far above these platforms like a titan strolling through a pack of puppies is LinkedIn. Therefore having an effective LinkedIn Profile is imperative.
Why LinkedIn
LinkedIn has a critical mass of more than 722 million members. And size matters in the business of social media. The more people you have using your network, the more awareness and incentive for people to use it, and the more it grows. Increasingly, recruitment and talent acquisition by companies across various sectors are being done through LinkedIn.
On the side of individuals, apart from active and passive job searches, LinkedIn is also a powerful tool to gain updates on your industry, develop insights and follow thought leadership, or for Customer Relationship Management and lead generation. Hence, it is crucial for you to build an online reputation and increase your LinkedIn profile visibility whether you are a Company or an individual.
Let us understand how to get more views on LinkedIn as an individual. This involves optimising your professional profile to increase profile visibility. Personal branding for professionals plays a crucial role here. Growing your professional network and engaging with industry leaders can significantly enhance your presence on the platform. Building an online reputation is another critical aspect.
As a leading executive search firm, our consultants here at Citadel Search also have seen many profiles of candidates. We would say that we have seen our fair share of lackluster and also stellar profiles.
So, how do you advertise yourself on LinkedIn?
Here are some of our advice on how to optimise your LinkedIn profile from the perspective of a recruiter.
How to Optimise your LinkedIn Profile
Tip 1: Have Profiles/Backgrounds which Complements your Personal Brand
Your display picture is the professional face of your profile and the first thing that people see when they do visit your page. Since LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented social media, it is best to have a profile picture that reflects what you do professionally. As research has shown, just simply having a profile picture increases the chances your profile is viewed by 14 times.
Our advice:
Ensure your face makes up about 70% of your picture.
Wear attire suitable for work or the job you want.
Solid-coloured shirts work best; avoid stripes and patterns.
Avoid digital accessories like filters, sunglasses, and emoticons.
Optimising your LinkedIn profile involves updating your profile picture regularly is a good idea. This will better represent how you look like in person currently. Also, be mindful of the background of your profile picture. Try to have a simple background that does not take the focus away from you. Preferably, your shirt should contrast with the background colour in order to differ in quality. Avoid using digital accessories like filters, e.g. sunglasses, emoticons, etc. This in our opinion is best used for more informal social media platforms like Instagram, etc.
How to optimise your LinkedIn profile and Linkedin views includes paying attention to these details.
And the same would apply for your cover photo. Since your profile picture in the foreground should be the focal point, avoid overly funky colours and designs that may distract visitors. A colour palette that fades seamlessly into the background of your profile picture would be an interesting touch. You could consider other creative approaches to that. These steps are crucial for building an online reputation, increasing profile visibility. Ultimately, helping you grow your professional network and engage with industry leaders.
Tip 2: Complete and Add Features to your profile
One of the best practices for sprucing up your LinkedIn profile is to try your best to complete your profile. Currently there are a few key factors that would add to that completion status:
- Adding a Profile photo
- Inclusion of 2 or more professional functions and titles you have held before
- A brief summary of yourself
- Your current industry and where you are located
- At least 50 LinkedIn connection
- A minimum of 3 skills added
- Academic background and achievements
- A minimum of 3 endorsement
- A minimum of 2 recommendations
Each completed item off this checklist adds to your completeness ranking, and there are a few benefits to that.
For one, the more complete your profile is, the more likely it is to turn up in search results from LinkedIn. This works well, especially if you’re trying to push your visibility out to potential headhunters and people within your industry passively. To increase LinkedIn views and understand how to get more views on LinkedIn, having a complete profile is crucial.
This optimisation for search engines works not only internally with LinkedIn. Major search engines enjoy displaying LinkedIn that are highly relevant to your search and solid in its content and completion. Ensuring your profile is comprehensive and keyword-rich is the way to go when it comes to increasing LinkedIn views.
Use of SEO to advertise yourself on LinkedIn.
On the topic of a LinkedIn summary, many professionals advise the use of keywords to boost visibility, especially in relevant industries. As executive recruiters who utilise LinkedIn on a daily basis, here at Citadel Search we can attest to that. Our candidate search begins with searching for specific keywords and many of the profiles we do view happen to contain a good amount of such words in their summary. How to optimise your LinkedIn profile involves using the right keywords to increase profile visibility and attract attention from recruiters and industry leaders.
However, we also happen to see many summaries which contain an abnormally large amount of buzzwords that are irrelevant, excessively generic or overly used. While we do agree with the use of keywords for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), our advice is to use these words appropriately and avoid placing them too often within a certain sentence or paragraph.
Another two features to consider using are the endorsement and recommendations. Endorsements of skills that you boast on the site reflect greatly on your experience and skills, and the more endorsements you have for a particular skill we are seeking, the more thrilled we are to profile you to our clients. Recommendations work as reference checks as well, and we may contact the people, with your permission, who gave you these recommendations for actual references for certain roles.
Personal branding for professionals and building an online reputation are significantly enhanced by these features, helping you grow your professional network and engage with industry leaders.
Tip 3: Constantly Updates and Be Active
As its main function is still a social media in itself, your activity and updates on LinkedIn matters just as much as your profile. It is seen as a way for you to advertise yourself on LinkedIn.
Seek to join interest groups, or follow thought leaders and influencers in places you wish to develop your career into. Industry news, political insights, and opinion pieces are all content that you can get from these places on LinkedIn. It really is not too difficult to share or like a piece you think is brilliant or simply agree with. Engaging with industry leaders and growing your professional network through these actions are key strategies.
While everyone can like or share an article they enjoyed, what can truly make you shine is writing and publishing your own articles on LinkedIn itself. Have a burning opinion, unique expertise or deep insight that you think is novel and wish to share? Creating content not only boosts your profile, it also raises the opinions and improves the understanding that others will have of you. Such proactive steps to build an online reputation is crucial when it comes to personal branding.
Tip 4: Engage with Others’ Posts
Spread your positive vibes by engaging with other’s posts. Endorse others and make recommendations as a leader or as a peer or even as a subordinate. Do it meaningfully and spread your positivity too so that you are serving others too not just yourself.
With more than a decade worth of experience in Executive Search, Citadel Search has tapped on many avenues for recruitment, but we continue to marvel at the efficiency and effectiveness that online platforms such as LinkedIn. In the years to come, we predict LinkedIn will remain one of the most relevant professional social media sites you would continue to leverage on as they have constantly used the latest technologies to enhance their site.
If you have not done anything on your LinkedIn profile, it would definitely be a good idea to consider investing time into optimising it.
Check out Citadel Search’s Resume Writing Services to see how we can help you optimise your LinkedIn profile.
If you are interested please leave us a message to learn more about how to advertise your LinkedIn profile and increase profile visibility today.