What Are LinkedIn Profiles Used For?
User profiles are a big component of many social networks, including LinkedIn. But what makes LinkedIn profiles any different? LinkedIn profiles are used to showcase your professional experience, achievements, praise and more. Depending on users’ privacy settings, their profile information may be viewable only to people they’ve connected with or it may be viewable to anyone. Although it shares many similarities with other social networking profiles—such as Facebook profiles—its layout and content sections are optimized for featuring content related to a user’s professional career and interests. LinkedIn profiles are like virtual resumes. People look at them to find out where you currently work, where you’ve worked in the past, where you went to school, what your skills are and other facts about your professional career. And just as you might expect, LinkedIn profiles can even be used to apply for jobs.
How to Add Content to Your LinkedIn Profile
Once you’ve signed up for a Basic (free) or Premium LinkedIn account, you can begin building your profile. If you’re new to the platform, LinkedIn might take you through a walkthrough of getting the main parts of your profile set up. You can access your profile any time to view or edit it by selecting Me at the top of LinkedIn.com followed by selecting View profile. On the LinkedIn mobile app, tap your profile photo icon in the top left followed by View Profile. Your profile will be displayed in a layout similar to how it’s displayed when published on the web, however, you’ll see several edit options across your profile. Pay attention to: The pencil icon: Selecting this allows you to edit the section by changing, deleting or adding content. The list icon: This appears when you hover your cursor over a content section (on LinkedIn.com only) and allows you to drag and drop them to reorder them. The plus sign icon: This allows you to add new blocks of content to your profile.
LinkedIn Profile Sections
You can share as much or as little information about your professional life on your LinkedIn profile as you want. Some people keep their profiles simple while others take full advantage of all the sections and fill out everything they can. The sections you can put on your LinkedIn profile include:
Intro
Profile photoHeader photoFirst nameLast nameHeadlineCurrent positionEducationCountry/RegionZIP codeLocations within this areaIndustryContact info (Profile URL, Email, WeChat ID)Summary
Background
Work experienceEducationVolunteer experience
Skills
Add up to 50 individual skills: (Examples include Social Media Marketing, Research, Public Relations, Writing, etc.)
Accomplishments
PublicationsCertificationsPatentsCoursesProjectsHonors & AwardsTest ScoresLanguagesOrganizations
Additional Information
Recommendations
Supported Languages
Profiles in other languages
The Benefits of Having a LinkedIn Profile
Even if you don’t plan on spending lots of time on LinkedIn, setting up a profile and leaving it there is often better than not having one at all. Here are just a few great benefits you can expect from having a LinkedIn profile:
An Instant Resume for Applying to Jobs
In addition to being able to use your profile to apply to job ads listed on LinkedIn, you can also generate a PDF file from it so you never have to create or update a separate one for non-LinkedIn job ads. Just select More… > Save to PDF to create a professional-looking resume straight from your LinkedIn profile that you can use to apply to jobs practically anywhere.
Passive Exposure to Other Professionals
Other professionals (including employers looking to hire) might find your profile through searches or through their connections. If they like what they see on your profile, they might reach out to you with a good opportunity.
A Tool for Networking
Having a LinkedIn profile can help you network with the right types of professionals. Viewers can skim your profile and decide within as little as a few seconds whether you’re a good match to network with.
A Place to Feature Media, Links and Recommendations
Standard resumes typically don’t go beyond written words, but with a LinkedIn profile, you can upload relevant media files (such as images, videos or documents) and link to URLs on the web for each position listing you put under your Experience section. You can also supercharge your credibility by requesting recommendations from colleagues you’ve worked with and are connected to on LinkedIn. These will appear as written statements of endorsements along with the name, profile photo and profile link of the person who gave it.
