65% of recruiters use LinkedIn for recruiting, and 53% said they get their highest quality of candidates from this social media platform, according to the 2021 Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report. This is why having a robust LinkedIn profile is so important. Part of your job search strategy should be setting up your LinkedIn profile to attract recruiters and hiring managers and show your value so that others want to connect with you.

But for many, LinkedIn is an afterthought.

So put some effort into your profile. Getting contacted for opportunities or being referred by someone in your network could pay off.

It is not hard. And the time you put into creating a compelling LinkedIn profile can pay off tremendously.

The 7 LinkedIn Profile Mistakes I Often See

#1 Poor Profile Picture

What is the first thing that people look at on your profile? Your profile picture. So why put a terrible one on your profile?

So what makes a lousy profile picture? You have seen these examples, I am sure.

• The photo is out of focus.

• The individual’s face is in shadow, so it’s hard to see them.

• It is taken far away, and the person’s face is very small in the photo.

• It is obvious the person has been cropped out of a group photo.

• The photo was taken at an event where formal attire is worn. The clothes choice is inconsistent with a business/professional social media platform.

• The photo is many years old, and it doesn’t represent what the person looks like now.

And while these are all bad, the worst one is…

• No photo at all.

An investment in a professional headshot is an investment in yourself. You will have photos that are well lighted and capture your personality. I know, though, that not everyone can afford professional headshots. If that is the case, get someone with good composition skills to take photos of you with a mobile phone or camera with a good lens. 

Make sure you are well lighted. Have a light source in front of you to illuminate your face (or go outside and use the sun as your natural light source). Smile and look at the camera. Your attire should be what others in the position you aspire to are wearing in their profile pictures (search LinkedIn to see).

You will have a great headshot.

If you want to learn more about headshots, check out The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly of LinkedIn Profile Photos.

#2 Using the LinkedIn Default Headline

LinkedIn will always default the verbiage on your headline to Your Present Job Title @ Company Name, taking this information from your experience section. While this helps LinkedIn by not showing a blank headline, it may not help you. 

You are more than a title and a company. Your title and company identify what you do and where you do it. But it doesn’t tell the reader who you are. LinkedIn gives you 220 characters to tell the world about your skills, how you help others, what motivates you, your values, etc. Don't be afraid to let others know more about you.

Also, your headline is a vital field used to determine how you rank in a search. Don’t you want people to find you easily? Then also, make sure your headline contains the key terms that someone would add to a search to find someone like you. Think about adding the following in your headline.

• What are your areas of expertise?

• What industries do you know?

• Would what you do be known by another title?

• What titles do you aspire to for your next role?

• What motivates you?

• What are you the go-to person for at work?

Check out my headline for an example of how you can use the 220 characters allotted to provide more information than the default headline.

#3 Nothing or Limited Information in Your About Section

I often see the person has written nothing in their About section or maybe a short sentence or two. The About section is often thought of as a nice-to-have, but really, it is a need-to-have. It is an area where you let the reader know more about you than your headline and experience. You have 2,000 characters to tell a story about yourself. After all, we are humans, and everyone has a unique story. 

If you are in a job search, telling your unique story can help attract recruiters and hiring managers looking for someone like you. And even if you are not currently looking for a new job, the reader of your profile may think to themselves after reading your About section that you are the type of person they would like to have as a connection.

So what should you have in your About section?  Here are some suggestions.

• An overview of your career or career highlights. This could include the type of industries you have been in, your profession, and the types of organizations where you have worked (public, private, not-for-profit, academic, military, etc.).

• You likely want to discuss what you do currently and provide specific achievements. If you are a career changer, you will want to talk about what you want to do and how it relates to what you have done in the past.

• You can also add some personality to this section by talking about something interesting about yourself. Perhaps you do volunteer work? Maybe you have an interesting hobby or sport you play? You might want to include a significant personal achievement. People love to learn more about you than just your business side.

• Remember also to add keywords to this section. How often keywords show up in a profile can help determine your rank in a search.

• Always have a call to action (CTA) in your About section. That can often be an invitation to connect.

• A best practice is to include a way for people to contact you outside of LinkedIn. That can be your email address or phone number.

#4 Your Experience Section Is Only A Company and Title

You are in a hurry to set up your LinkedIn profile. So you put in your company and title, but you are not sure what else to add. You think you will come back to it later, but you never do. 

Don't make this mistake because your work experience is more than a company and title. Your reader wants to know more. So give it to them.

Did you know that you have 2,000 characters to talk about each job? LinkedIn gives you that much because they think you should have something substantial to say. 

Also, we have been talking about keywords. The Experience section is another place where you can add keywords, but not if you don’t take advantage of LinkedIn's opportunity to talk more about what you did in each role.

#5 But Don’t Make Your Experience Section a Cut and Paste of Your Resume

While having something in your Experience section is better than nothing (see #4), you shouldn’t take your resume and cut and paste it into your LinkedIn Experience section. Why? Because your resume should be targeted for a specific job. The LinkedIn Experience section should be broader to attract interest from many different people and employers.

Because this is social media, we want to hear your story in your voice. Take the opportunity to tell the reader what you were supposed to be doing (your job duties) and your challenges and accomplishments. As an example, you can address the situation when you started and how through your efforts, the organization improved. If you have metrics about how you made an impact, highlight them here.

While resumes strip pronouns out of it for brevity, feel free to use “I” or “we” as part of your story. And don't forget that you can add media to this section. You can upload documents, videos, or links to external sources that can tell your story.

Here is more about writing a solid headline, About and Experience sections.

#6 No recommendations

When you go on Amazon or other online retailers, do you look at the product or service ratings? You likely do it to get a sense of others’ experience with the product or service. The recommendations section on LinkedIn serves the same purpose. While there is no star rating, people can read more about who you are, what you do, and how you impact others. It provides social proof that what you say about yourself is consistent with how others see you. And if you are not comfortable “tooting your own horn,” the recommendation section can be an area where others can do it for you.

So if you do not have any recommendations (or they are very old), ask your old bosses, colleagues, clients, vendors, and direct reports to write one for you. Remember, though, on LinkedIn, recommendations can only come from first-degree connections. So if you are not already connected, this is another reason to do so. 

Don’t forget that recommendations should be a two-way street. Write them for others. It helps out your connections, and especially if you are telling the world you are good at building relationships, the presence of thoughtful recommendations given are proof that you value your relationships.

#7 No Skills

The Skills section is at the bottom of your profile, and while it may appear less important than other sections, don't overlook it. The Skills section helps your reader to understand the skills you possess. But even more importantly, it is used by LinkedIn for its search algorithm. The algorithm looks at the skills and the accompanying endorsements to decide how high you should show up in a search where that skill is included in the search criteria. When you show up higher, that can lead to more interest in your profile from recruiters, hiring managers, or others wanting to connect.

So, what skills should you include in this list? Skills you possess and are essential for the role you want. You can use LinkedIn Career Explorer to help you understand critical skills. Add them to the Skills section, putting the most important ones you possess in the top three that are visible on your profile without going to the “Show All” link.

Then make sure you ask your 1st-degree connections to endorse you for the skill. They can go to your profile, and in the Skills section, they will see an endorse button. It is beneficial to have people considered highly skilled in the same skill endorse you. Highly skilled is anyone that has 99+ endorsements for a skill.

And I have one bonus mistake.

Bonus: #8 Not Making Connections

LinkedIn’s real power is in the connections you can make on this platform. Connecting with others on LinkedIn can help raise your visibility. That can help you uncover opportunities that you would not discover any other way. Make sure, at a minimum, you are connecting to people you both know well and are acquainted with in your professional life. Once you have started here, move on to people in targeted industries, companies, or roles. Are you looking to relocate potentially? Find people of interest in that city. With over 800 million members, they are plenty of people with whom to connect. Building a solid network will pay off in so many ways.

Conclusion

Two essential tools in your job search strategy should be a robust resume and a complete LinkedIn profile. Many job seekers do not take the time to make a powerful LinkedIn profile. A well-written and exciting LinkedIn profile may result in getting contacted for roles of interest by a recruiter, a hiring manager wanting to bring you in for an interview, or a connection letting you know about an opportunity that is right for you. Wouldn’t you like that?

Shelley Piedmont is a Career Coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. I help job seekers prepare for interviews. You can engage me to help you prep for any type of interview. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.