Unlocking Opportunities: The Power of Optimising Your LinkedIn Profile

At a recent meet-up, someone asked me if it's worth optimising your LinkedIn profile.

My response was a 1000% yes!

There's little value in being on such a platform and not being made aware of exciting, career-changing and often confidential positions.

Yes, the recruitment space is enormous, and many have sent poorly worded, spammy messages, sometimes often to irrelevant candidates that give the platform and recruiters a bad name.

But for those who are niche specialists, who have been working in their said field for many years, this won't happen.

Those recruiters often have great opportunities due to the relationships developed and their reputation in their market.

So, how do you best optimise your LinkedIn profile to ensure the right recruiters find you first? 

Here are my top tips:

1, Your profile picture

Firstly make sure you have one. For me, those without it indicate spam accounts. Once you get one uploaded, ensure it looks professional. LinkedIn is a professional networking site; your picture is often the first thing anyone on LinkedIn will see and form an opinion on.

2, Keep your headline and work history up to date.

If you were a manager three years ago but are now in a Head or Director position, don't be surprised if the jobs you're contacted about don't align with where you are now and what you want to do next.

3, Provide key detail about what areas of specialisation you have.

Recruiters will often use complex search functions available through a recruiter licence, and if clients want those who have worked explicitly for DTC e-commerce or subscription company, make it easy for them to find you first. Other searches that spring to mind have been those with experience with tools such as Braze or Adjust. If you're an expert user of tools like this but don't share it, it'll be hard to establish if you're suitable for the position.

4, Try to get some recommendations from current and ex-colleagues and managers.

Recommendations are a form of social sponsorship I've valued for many years. Ask some of your present and ex-colleagues/managers to share a few sentences about you as a person and your achievements made in that position, as it will build credibility. Hiring managers will also look into your profile once the interview process begins, so it could give you an edge over the competition.

5, Create content about your expertise and share value on others' posts to get noticed.

It doesn't take too long, and you can even use AI tools to give you topic ideas if you come across 'writer's block'. Creating articles of your area of expertise (performance marketing or growth marketing, as example) and replying to posts from others in this field will demonstrate you are an expert and top of your game. These are the people any hiring manager will want on their teams. Show them that's you!

6, Ensure your location is correct.

Recruiters can search a mile radiance from their client's offices, and with hybrid work commonplace in today's world, making sure your home location (by inputting your postcode) will help you be part of the correct search results.

7, Be bold and connect with suitable recruiters.

Of course, please do your due diligence on them first and only accept the most relevant recruiters. For example, I now have a rule that someone needs to know at least 25 mutual connections, and given the fact I have over 25k first-line connections, I don't feel this is much to ask. I might still accept connection requests with less, but I will look further to ensure it's someone I can help/support in some way. My message here is, take your time to decline. You might not be looking this week or month, but with changes happening inside companies so frequently, that could change very soon.

Be confident of your skills and experience, and ensure you optimise your profile so that you are found ahead of the competition for those career-changing positions.

Have I missed any tips you would include? Feel free to comment below.