As a Career Coach coach working with Financial Services professionals, I’ve heard some odd objections when I suggest improving a LinkedIn profile. "Won't it make me look too try-hard?" "Surely it will signal that I'm looking for a new job?" “Does it really make that much of a difference?”
These concerns are understandable. That said, they’re also, in my view, misconceptions that come at a cost.
In this short blog, I'll give six reasons to improve your LinkedIn profile and five things you can do now that will make a difference.
Control your professional narrative
The person who should be in charge of your professional brand is you. Leaving others to guess who you are and what you offer is no strategy at all. You’re simply hoping that people's impression of you is neutral at best and positive at most. It makes sense to take charge of this part of your professional marketing, and there’s no better place to do that than LinkedIn.
A reflection of your personal standards
Your profile is your professional shop front. You’re showing a very large audience how you’ve chosen to present yourself to the market. If it lacks the basics and looks thin, you’re not putting your best foot forward. Some readers may draw the unfair conclusion that you’re a little slapdash, which is precisely the opposite of the image you want to project. This, of course, becomes particulary important if you’re actively looking for a new role.
Evidence
One powerful difference between your CV and your LinkedIn profile is that other professionals can vouch for you. They can endorse your skills or write you a recommendation. That deepens your credibility and gives anyone considering engaging with you reassurance that you can deliver on the value you claim.
Optionality and career agility
You may be content in your current role and firm, but it’s no bad thing to know you have options, internally or externally. It’s reassuring to be approached by recruiters or hiring managers two or three times a year. If you’re not actively looking, the people who could significantly enhance your career still are. Make yourself findable.
Your Plan B
If you’re ever called into an office and told your job is at risk, you don’t want to be on the back foot. I know, because I’ve been there. Several things need to be in place, and your LinkedIn profile is one of them. It needs to be up to date, and optimised so that you can be found, with a very clear message about your value. You can read more about how to make yourself findable in an earlier blog I wrote here.
Your value proposition
Your profile should make clear, at a glance, what you offer and what makes your combination of skills and experience distinctive. The people looking for you are likely to be scanning quickly or using AI tools, so make it easy for them. Done well, it can be the start of a significant step forward in your career.
Five simple things you can do now
Photo. Use a professional photo in which your face takes up a healthy portion of the frame. No mountains, no wedding guests, no distractions. Unless you’re fresh out of university, retire the graduation picture. LinkedIn's own figures suggest that profiles with photos receive many times more views and connection requests.
Keywords. Populate your profile with words that reflect what you do. Test your best-guess keywords in the search bar to see who comes up, then use them across your headline, job titles, About section and experience entries. Don't overdo it at the expense of clear, crisp English.
Experience. Each role shows only a couple of lines before the reader has to click "see more". Make the visible lines count by leading with what you achieved, not what you were responsible for.
Headline. Unless you edit it, your headline defaults to your current job title. Change it to include keywords, avoid jargon that only your firm understands, and help the reader grasp what you actually do.
Recommendations and endorsements. As discussed under Evidence, start asking for them. Endorse other people's skills, and offer to write recommendations for colleagues and clients you know well. Many will return the favour.
Where to start
I hope this encourages you to act. It can make a real difference. We spend time on exactly this in my coaching programmes, because effectively marketing yourself, internally and externally, can change the trajectory of your career.
If you’d like to explore it further, I work with senior professionals in London and would be glad to talk it through. You can book a no-obligation conversation here.