If you’ve had a profile on LinkedIn for more than a few months or you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you should check out all the new options you have to enhance your profile.
To make these changes, you just need to be logged in and go to edit profile. You may get prompts to ask you what changes or additions you would like to make. If not, under the introductory box at the top and before your summary, there is a shaded area with a “NEW” and “Add sections to reflect achievements and experiences on your profile” with a link to the right to do so.
Volunteer Experiences & Causes
At one time for example, people wanting to show their volunteer work often put it in as a position just as they would for a job. If they weren’t careful, it then looked like their volunteer position was their current job.
Early this fall, LinkedIn introduced a new profile section that treats volunteer positions more like work positions with a similar level of detail but in its own section. That alone was a great improvement to individual profiles and reflected how people wanted to use them. If you haven’t done so, I recommend adding this section and including your efforts to build community or change the world. This might include taking them out of your “Experience” section.
Skills
Another key section is “Skills” and one you’ll likely be prompted to do. This is different than the Specialties section of your profile.
Entering your skills helps people who are looking for a certain skill to find you. You can also use it when you are looking for a someone with a specific skill. The results put an emphasis on your connections. They also show relevant groups, companies, locations and jobs. You can access the search feature from the drop down menu under “More.”
Other Sections to Add
I thought that the volunteer experience section was a stand alone change and so when I found the time to use it on my profile I was surprised to see that there were many other sections that you could now add. You will not find all of them are relevant or have enough value for you to use. As with volunteering though, they seem to be responding to differences in what careers and professions value in a resume or curriculum vitae (CV).
I was pleased to be able to add or plan to add are:
- Publications - Your work that has been published in a real world or online publication.
- Organizations - Groups that you belong to with room for your role and a description of the organization.
- Awards and Honours - An improved version of what was hidden at the bottom of the “Additional Information” section.
Other new sections you might want to use are:
- Certifications
- Courses
- Languages
- Projects
- Patents
- Test Scores
Applications
LinkedIn offers applications to be used on your profile to help you share information about yourself, your work and interests. Some examples are WordPress blogs, tweets, Slideshare presentation and files on Box.net. These all give you more flexibility to creatively share who you are, what you know and what you can do. I recommend that you use one or more of them. If you’re going to use one though, it helps if its something that gets updated regularly so that it doesn’t go stale.
There are also a number of applications that you can use to enhance your “Home” on LinkedIn (i.e. where you view the feed from your contacts, etc).
Arrange sections as desired
You can set up your profile as you wish the information to be presented. You can easily drag and drop the sections to appear in your preferred order.
What do you think?
What do you think of the new LinkedIn profiles? Do they help you to present yourself better or learn about others better? Or are they making LinkedIn more work or confusing?
