Is your LinkedIn profile any good?
/LinkedIn – it’s the professional network and you’re a professional so you’re on it. Maybe you’re just barely there, with scant details and you log in once a quarter. Or maybe you’re in there like a dirty shirt, commenting, sharing and connecting. If so, good for you!
Either way, if you’re the curious type, you’ve probably wondered, ‘Is my LinkedIn profile any good?’ I hate to break it to you but chances are, it’s not that good. That’s my experience anyway: most of the profiles I read don’t dazzle me. A lot of them don’t inspire me to read the whole thing. Many of them cause me to shake my head with disappointment: what a waste of an opportunity. But on the bright side, some of them are super-duper. Writers tend to have excellent profiles because they use their way with words to create something you’d actually want to read. Though even good writers can have lacklustre profiles if they don’t understand the purpose of LinkedIn.
So, is your profile any good?
I hope this is not a metaphor for your situation.
You’re brave to keep exploring this question, even though the answer is probably bad news. The good news is it will take less than 5 minutes to figure out the answer to this question. Okay, you’ll probably know in less than 5 seconds. You probably already know but you’ll keep reading…just in case you’re wrong…and I applaud your optimism.
Clues that your LinkedIn profile is a-okay
You thought about what you want to achieve with your profile.
You read a couple of LinkedIn ‘how to’ articles and applied some of those tips.
Someone - anyone! - has actually complimented you on your profile.
You enjoy reading your own profile.
You talk about yourself in the context of how you help your clients achieve their goals.
Clues that your LinkedIn profile…shall we say…needs improvement
You copy and pasted your resume into LinkedIn.
You remember doing the bare minimum and getting the hell out of there as fast as possible. (I’m not judging, that was my first 5 years on LinkedIn).
It’s on the empty side.
After reading it, your audience has no idea who you are as a person.
You’re using business jargon to the point of meaninglessness. No use saying your team’s paradigm shift is mission critical.
It’s boring and unremarkable and will never set you apart from the millions of other professionals on LinkedIn.
The verdict
Okay so now you know…it’s good or it’s bad. Awareness is the first step. If your profile is good and doing what you need it to do, then carry on and have a great day.
If your profile isn’t setting you up for success, have a great day anyway, but also make a plan to improve your profile. You can write it yourself or hire a ghostwriter to write it for you.
But before you do anything, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about what you want to achieve with your profile. Once you know that, it’s a lot easier to create a great profile. Check out my article on LinkedIn and thinking when you’re ready to start asking yourself these questions.
I'm Andrea Bassett, an executive ghostwriter and content marketing writer in Toronto and I’ve spent the last decade serving executives.
I write thought leadership content marketing for executives and/or their content marketing teams. My specializations are corporate wellness, benefits, employee assistance programs, leadership & coaching, encryption & cybersecurity and strength training for seniors.
To talk about a content marketing project, call me at 647-502-3187 or send a note to andrea@redsailwriters.com.
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