LinkedIn is highly regarded within the recruitment world with 49 million people using the platform to look for new jobs each week. Despite its dominance in this field, Linkedin is mostly used as a way to network with similar individuals. This platform can help influencers become more competitive within the creator economy and showcases all of their professional skills in one accessible place. Netinfluencer discusses how you can optimize your LinkedIn profile in order to secure more brand opportunities. 

What Does Optimize Mean?

Optimizing refers to making a process more efficient, simplified, and effective. With regard to LinkedIn, optimizing your profile means showing potential brand partners everything they would need to know about your work and industry. 

A fully optimized LinkedIn profile can help your account rank higher in specific searches. This means that brands are more likely to find you when searching for an influencer to use in their next campaign. 

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How can this help influencers on LinkedIn?

Like other social media platforms, LinkedIn is very competitive and can lead to smaller influencers getting lost in a saturated market. By using an effective and fully-functioning profile, marketers are better able to search through your previous content and decide whether you are suitable for collaboration. This also ensures that influencers are being contacted by leaders in their own niche, offering more suitable opportunities. 

LinkedIn also has its own messaging service that allows users to contact anyone, even if they are outside of their network. Therefore, an optimized profile can help simplify the outreach process as brands can contact influencers directly and immediately. Thus, an entire brand deal can be created and confirmed all within the confines of one platform.

For many influencers, Linkedin can help separate the personal and the professional. If you are known for creating obscure and entertaining content on other platforms, LinkedIn can help show the value of this content in a more mature way. Thus, this can highlight your devotion to your work to leading brands.

10 Ways You Can Better Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

1. Complete all of the required details

An incomplete profile is not useful to many brands as it does not express everything they need to know about an influencer. Although it can be time-consuming to build a new profile, these extra steps can really help you stand out to a potential brand partner. LinkedIn also offers a checklist to help users keep track of the information they have listed and the areas they have left to complete. 

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2. Use a professional headshot

LinkedIn values a formal tone, even in its profile pictures. Always use an appropriate picture when optimizing your LinkedIn as it can help brands see you in a more competent light. Try using a professional photo and avoid using profile pictures from other social media accounts. This picture should also be 400 x 400 pixels to ensure that the image is clear and easy to see. 

3. Select a relevant background image

LinkedIn also allows users to add a background image to their profile. Influencers are advised to use an image that is relevant to their niche and gives a snapshot of their respective industry. Royalty-free stock images are a great asset to use as they are often good quality and can be used without restrictions. This background image must be 1584 x 386 pixels to cover the entirety of the space. 

4. Implement keywords into your headline

Keywords can help your profile receive a higher search ranking but they can also help influencers better describe their roles. By adding a few keywords and phrases to your headline, you can effectively explain your niche as well as what you are looking for in future brand collaborations. The word limit for a headline is 220 characters, helping you to define yourself in a succinct and digestible way. 

5. Add a summary of your work and achievements

The summary section of your LinkedIn profile allows you to highlight your professional milestones and stand out from the crowd. You can use this section to detail how you achieved the relevant KPIs in previous campaigns or even discuss other accomplishments you gained during earlier job roles. It is important that you express this information in a readable way such as using bullet points or subheadings.

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6. List your key skills

Linkedin also presents a list of skills that influencers can add to their profile. Examples of these are Creativity, Digital Marketing, and UX Design. You can even add your proficiency in certain software such as Microsoft Office and Amazon Web Services. Users are allowed to add up to 50 skills, giving influencers the chance to present a highly diverse skill set to an eager brand partner.

7. Have recommendations from previous brands

If you have completed multiple brand deals during your time as an influencer, you can ask a previous point of contact to post a recommendation that commends your work. This can help add context to your listed achievements and offer real-world evidence of your successes. Marketers can then go on to contact these brands to discuss the benefits of working with you, further emphasizing your success. 

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8. Create content for LinkedIn

Written content is very popular on LinkedIn as it can be used to inspire others and add insight into a particular industry. If you are an avid writer, consider posting some of your work on LinkedIn. This can help boost engagement on your profile and also allow brands to see how you use your knowledge of your industry. LinkedIn also welcomes photo and video content, giving influencers more ways to present their work to other brands. 

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9. Link your portfolio/media kit

To better streamline your profile, you should include a link to your portfolio or media kit within your LinkedIn account. This can be shown as either a PDF or a direct link to your website. As a result, brands can learn more about your pay rate, demographics, and previous work without leaving your LinkedIn landing page. Having this link can also encourage other users to view your content, potentially leading to a stream of organic traffic.

10. Post regularly

By regularly posting on LinkedIn, influencers can update their network on their most recent achievements. Thus, potential brands can keep up to date with an influencer’s work and decide whether they will be available for a future campaign. Plus, a consistent content schedule can help influencers retain engagement on the platform. Experts suggest that influencers should post no more than 5x a day on LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn has managed to capture the versatility of the job market as well as the ever-changing nature of social media. As such, influencers are able to gain new brand opportunities just by optimizing their profile. To discover more about how influencers can use LinkedIn, visit our website.