LinkedIn is the best place to establish your professional profile and network to build a career and find new opportunities. The site allows you to present all of the same information that personal websites have been used for and had many more benefits. LinkedIn profiles connect you to related professionals and employers, allow you to communicate even without an email address, and provide a forum for participating in relevant groups and discussions. It is so well indexed by Google, that it will likely be the first organic search listing to appear for any name search.
Building a complete profile is free from the technical know-how needed to build a personal website, allowing you to concentrate on the content. You’ll want to pay particular attention to some aspects of the profile:
- Headline. Your profile’s headline will show along with your name in some areas of LinkedIn, including when you start a discussion, so you want to be sure it says something meaningful about you.
- Summary. You can say whatever you want in this open text section. Make sure you use this opportunity to highlight your unique skills and abilities. You can add links and files to this section.
- Experience. Enter all of your jobs and make the information as complete as possible. This is a common way that professional contacts from the past will find you. For each job you list you are able to get recommendations from bosses, coworkers, clients, and others.
- Skills. You can list up to 50 skills, essentially adding 50 keywords to your profile. People who are connected to you can endorse one or more of your skills with a click, validating your profile beyond what you say about yourself.
- Projects. You can list key projects that you have completed during your career and upload relevant files. This gives you a free online professional filing cabinet to hold those documents and presentations that may be needed for your next job interview or performance review.
Once you have a profile, you have much more than a website–you are part of a huge professional network. You will want to connect with people you have worked with and be ready to accept connection requests. Every connection expands your network and the visibility of your profile. Your connections become a pool of people who can support you in every aspect of your professional life.