How Do You Know What to Put on Your LinkedIn Profile?

By Wayne Breitbarth, Andersen Alumnus and CEO-Power Formula LLC (Author of “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success: Kick-Start Your Business, Brand and Job Search’)

Should I put [fill in the blank] on my LinkedIn profile?


I'm asked this question several times each week. I always answer I don't know, which usually comes as a surprise to them and probably to you as well. After all, I'm the expert!

What I really mean is I can't answer that confidently until I understand what someone plans to accomplish on LinkedIn.

If you're unsure about whether you should put something on your profile, I suggest you start by asking yourself three questions:



Would putting this on my profile:

  • help people find me?
  • improve their perception of me and my brand?
  • help them understand what I do and how I can help them?

If your answer to any of these questions is "Yes," then I suggest you put it on your profile.

Let's look at the three questions more closely.

Help people find me

Trust me on this one. Connections are the gas in the tank on LinkedIn, especially if the connections are strategic (for example, customers, potential customers, influencers of your customers, people at organizations where you want to work, etc.). You want people to find and connect with you.

For example, on my profile, I list my first job out of college, Arthur Andersen & Co. This entry helps people from the "good old days" find me—and they just might need some LinkedIn training or consulting at their company.

Improve their perception of me and my brand

People are using LinkedIn to size you up. Entries that display your expertise, emphasize your integrity, and show your creativity will cause people to like and trust you. Hopefully this leads to more connections and more business.

The Arthur Andersen entry also applies here, because most experienced business people around my part of the country recognize that if AA&Co. hired you right out of college, you are probably a really smart person.


So, even though I didn't have a 3.9+ GPA, like most students they hired, people assume I'm in that group, and it gives me positive branding kudos. (FYI, I had a 3.4, but I could interview with the best of them!).

Help them understand what I do and how I can help them

After all, if your profile doesn't get this done, why are you on LinkedIn anyway?

Professionally, I do speaking and consulting. Here's one of the ways I promote my speaking business:

I am consistently asked to speak at Executive Agenda (EA), YPO, Vistage and TEC meetings as well as CEO Roundtables and Renaissance Forums (REF), where my 35+ years of experience as a business owner and manager enables me to help my peers understand how social media can benefit their companies.

Personally, I am involved with some awesome nonprofit groups. Including them in my LinkedIn profile helps me spread the word about the great things they're doing. By including links to their websites, I am encouraging others to get involved, too.

You can look at my profile to see several examples of this, both in the Experience section and the Volunteer Experience section.

I hope you're now equipped and motivated to beef up your LinkedIn profile.

If you want me to perform a detailed critique of your profile and help you develop strategies to skyrocket your business and career, then take advantage of my special $175 LinkedIn consultation. This consultation will take place on the phone, and I'll share my desktop screen with you. I will email your marked-up profile to you prior to our session. Click here to book your time.




Here are a few comments from my recent clients:

"Great job offer received via LinkedIn only two days after consulting with Wayne!"

"I highly recommend Wayne's 1:1 Linked In coaching session. Per Wayne's guidance, I reached out to the SVP of Client Success for a company I saw a suitable role. I used language Wayne provided in our 1:1 session to initiate the contact...Since then I've had an initial interview and interacted with the SVP multiple times."

"He made the learning experience fun, interesting, and was a big help to me. It has increased my exposure almost two-fold in a couple weeks."

SPECIAL OFFER

For more simple strategies to improve your LinkedIn ROI, along with a detailed critique of your profile, take advantage of my limited time offer: a one-hour, one-on-one phone consultation for just $175 (50% off my regular fee).

I will share my computer screen with you during the call and send you a marked up copy of your profile prior to the call.