I'm going to walk you through five steps for what you can do today for a more complete and compelling personal brand on LinkedIn. What you put in your profile can profoundly affect how others react to you on LinkedIn. If you only do these five things to create the most well-written, detailed, and informative profile, then you will attract fellow LinkedIn members. This can result in increased connection requests and even job opportunities. Isn’t that worth your time?

Get a Better Profile Picture

I recently did a people search on LinkedIn with all my connections with the first name “Michael”, a common first name. I then went and looked at the profile picture. Here is what I saw:

• Pictures where the face of the individual was challenging to see. If you have a full torso and arms in the shot, then yes, your face will appear tiny. Remember that the viewer only wants to see your face; we don’t care about anything below your neck.

• Busy backgrounds. 

  • One where the person appeared to be in the lobby of a hotel or office building, with plants, windows, and people in the background.

  • One where the person had two houses in the background (and they were not in construction).

  • One where the person had a background of boats docked behind him (and his occupation had nothing to do with boats).

Your profile photo should be all about you. The viewer shouldn’t be looking at what is behind you.

• Poor lighting. In many of these photos, the individual’s face was in full or partial shade. Because of this, sometimes I could not even make out the eyes of the individual. In one, I saw the opposite issue. The light was too harsh, and the person had a bleached-out face.

Now take a look at your profile photo. Are you guilty of any of these mistakes? If so, then update your image. If you have a better one, switch it out. If not, take a new one. This does not mean that you have to get a professional headshot. You can if you want, and professional photographers do a fantastic job of capturing the real you. But if time and money make this not feasible, find someone with a good phone camera, and take an up-close one before a neutral background and well-lit with light sources in front of you.

And please smile. It will make you more relatable if you do.

Your Banner Is a Great Branding Opportunity. Use It.

LinkedIn gives you a default banner to start.