internal guide on LinkedIn personal profile best practice

1. Optimising a LinkedIn Personal Profile
A personal profile on LinkedIn is important, it represents not only the personal brand of you as an
individual but collectively it amplifies and reinforces the brand reputation of an entire company.
By encouraging and optimising the personal LinkedIn profiles of all employees, it also contributes to
a better understanding across the company of how B2B social networks operate and provides a
platform for better collaboration, openness and ultimately competitive advantage.
As people start to use LinkedIn and feel more comfortable being open, joining groups, posting
interesting articles and contributing to conversations – a behavioral and organisational change can
begin to take place that can be developed into better collaboration, co-creation and innovation.
Optimising a personal profile starts with accessing the “settings” tab on the top right hand side of
your profile:

2. The “settings” tab is found by clicking on your name, in this example by clicking on the tab for “Andy
Black” – this then produces a drop down menu with “settings” and “sign out”, at this point click on
“settings”.
This then launches another logon screen; please add your normal LinkedIn user name and password.
Once you have logged on with your normal LinkedIn user name and password, the “settings” panel is
launched. Here you will notice 4 categories – 1 Profile 2 Email Preference 3
Groups/Companies/Applications and 4 Account - these will enable you to configure and optimise
your LinkedIn personal profile.

3. The first thing to do on the PRIVACY CONTROLS is click on “Turn on/off your activity broadcasts” and
UNTICK your activity broadcasts, otherwise all the changes you do will be broadcast to all your
connections as you do them – it’s much better to UNTICK and SAVE CHANGES in the activity
broadcasts before you do any profile editing but making sure you TICK ON and SAVE CHANGES after
you finish editing.
Once you have UNTICKED and SAVED CHANGES on the Activity Broadcasts menu, click on “Select
who can see your activity feed”

4. In the “Who can see your activity feed” click on the drop down menu and select YOUR NETWORK
and then click SAVE CHANGES
Then click on each of the other PROFILE configurations and select and save as follows:
“Select what others see when you view their profile” – click on YOU WILL BE TOTALLY ANONYMOUS
and then click SAVE CHANGES
“Who can see your connections” – click on YOUR CONNECTIONS and then click SAVE CHANGES
“Change your profile photo and visibility” - It is important to have a recent profile picture (a picture
taken within the last two years). The picture is the first impression that someone is going to have of
you and the only image that represents who you are. Having the same picture on multiple social
media channels like Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ will help build your personal brand and also
create brand consistency for your company - UPLOAD A PHOTO (File size limit is 4 MB) and then
click on MAKE VISIBLE TO EVERYONE and then click SAVE CHANGES
“Show/hide Viewers of this profile also viewed" – showing views of other peoples profiles could drive
traffic away from your profile, so UNTICK and SAVE CHANGES
Then click on “Manage your Twitter settings”
Add your own personal Twitter account, in this example “AndyBlacz”, your company Twitter
account, in this example “WhiteoaksPR” and click on EVERYONE
Go to “Which Twitter account would you like to share from” and select your company Twitter
account, in this example “WhiteoaksPR”
Go to “share only Tweets that contain #Li in your LinkedIn status” and TICK the box

5. Go to “Tweet Display” and TICK the box, this will allow rich links with pictures to be displayed where
possible
After this, SAVE CHANGES
Next we go to HELPFUL LINKS, where the first thing we CLICK on is “Edit your name, your location
and industry”
Once you CLICK on “Edit your name, location and industry” the following screen opens:

6. On your DISPLAY NAME, TICK on selecting your full name and not an abbreviation
For the PROFESSIONAL HEADLINE some people fill it with all the different titles that someone is
likely to use to search for someone on LinkedIn. For example, Social Media Marketing Consultant
| Social Media Trainer| SMO | Blog Marketing | Internet Marketing Specialist, as in the following
example.
In my opinion this is overkill as these descriptors can be included in your “SKILLS” section that
we will come to later, and the “SKILLS” section has a better search facility. Visually it is better to
have fewer words, give your specific job and also include a link to your company, as in the
following example:
The use of an ampersand (@) also gives the profile a modern look and feel.
In the Location and Industry sections make sure to add your Country, Postcode and Location
information some of this data appears in other parts of your profile, so it is important to make
sure it is correct.
A really important Data Field to complete is Industry – your industry sector can be selected from
a drop down menu and these industries are searchable by LinkedIn members.

7. Under the Location and Industry settings is a section called Badges
This section allows you to display Premium Account, OpenLink and Job Seeker logos on the front
page of your main profile. I recommend that you investigate becoming a paying Premium
Account user as it offers many business benefits.
Remember to Save Changes and then Go Back to Settings
The next section to complete is Edit Your Profile

8. When you click on Edit your Profile the following menu opens:
Click on each individual section that has an Edit function and Update and Save as required
The Current section is particularly important

9. In the Current settings make sure your Company name is correct – it is preferable to select a
short form name – ie Whiteoaks and NOT The Whiteoaks Consultancy Ltd as this looks more
modern and is visually more appealing - then select your full company profile from the drop
down menu in the Change Company link – this process also creates the hyperlink from your
profile to the company website, so is particularly important.
Add the Time Period data as this is shared across all your profile.
Add a Company Description – try and evolve a standardised company descriptor and involve
your marketing/PR team in this process or cut and paste your company descriptor from your
current marketing material.
Remember to click Update when you have finished
Then go back to Edit Your Profile and click on the Edit link by Recommendations

10. Then Click on the Ask to be Endorsed links, these allows you to request and manage
recommendations from former clients, partners and co-workers. It is considered best practice
to focus on recommendations from former and not current clients and partners. Many people
consider recommendations from former co-workers to have little value, so it might be best to
focus on clients and partners.
When requesting a recommendation, some people send a rough draft of a proposed
recommendation to speed things up and help the recommender edit the wording. Ideally and
depending on your experience, 3 to 8 recommendations are ideal and can help provide a fuller
picture of your expertise and experience. Without three recommendations you will not have a
100% complete profile according to LinkedIn. Having a 100% complete profile is important
because you will be more likely to show up in search if your profile is complete.
After you have requested your recommendations, go back to Edit your Profile and click on the
Edit link by the section called Websites.

11. When you click on the Edit link by the section called Websites, the following VERY IMPORTANT
menu is created.
Click on the drop down menu tabs on Websites and select Other, this opens up a new data tab
on the right where you can add specific descriptors for your company websites, blogs and
company Facebook and also add hyperlinks – this information goes on the front of your profile
and will drive traffic to these sites. It also looks very professional and polished to have
“Whiteoaks website” “Whiteoaks Blog” and “Whiteoaks Facebook” as descriptors.
Then add your interests, group memberships and associations – if you do fund raising for charity
or other good work please add details. Adding your interests is useful as they give a more
rounded picture of you and are often used as ice-breakers on first meetings.
When finished, remember to Save Changes
Then go back to Edit your Profile

12. If you have been following this guide step by step, the optimisation of your Twitter presence
was covered in a previous section – please look back and refer to that if you still need to do it.
Now click on the Edit link that appears at the end of line called Public Profile.
In your Public Profile click on Make my Public Profile Visible to Everyone

13. Scroll down to Your Public Profile URL and click on Customise Your Public Profile URL this will
allow you to enhance your personal brand by creating a custom URL for your LinkedIn public
profile – it also allows you to simply cut and paste your personal profile url to use in a variety of
ways.
Scroll down to Profile Badges and click on Create a Profile Button
This allows you to embed your LinkedIn profile in your blog, website, online proposal etc
When finished, click on Back to Edit My Public Profile on the top right of the screen and return
to Edit My Public Profile

14. The last link on your Profile section is Manage Your Recommendations – this has already been
covered in this guide.
So click now on the tab Email Preferences.
This section will allow you to set up all your LinkedIn email and turn on/off LinkedIn
Communications.
Firstly click on Select the Messages You’re Willing to Accept link, then select the messages you
are willing to accept and also add your preferred contact email and telephone number –

15. remember to Save Changes when it is completed.
This information appears on the front page of your profile so is important to include
Then click on the links Set the frequency of emails and Select who can send you invitations and
select your preferred options – remember to Save Changes
The most important link in this group is Set the frequency of group digest emails – if you are an
active member of a number of LinkedIn groups you may want to monitor and engage with
different groups with varying degrees of interaction – if you click on Set the frequency of group
digest emails you can configure these settings.
Remember to Save Changes

16. Then go back to Edit My Personal Settings and click on the tab Groups, Companies and
Associations
When you click on the tab Groups, Companies and Applications, the following page is launched
In the section Groups click on each of the links like Select your group display order and View
your groups and configure them as you like – it’s good to include them on your profile and

17. perhaps move the most important ones to the top of the listing so they show on your personal
profile – logos are good visuals and can also enhance the look and thought-leadership elements
of your profile.
Remember to Save Changes
Then return to your Edit your Profile page, click on Group, Companies and Applications and
now go to the Privacy section and click yes on Turn on data sharing with 3rd party applications
and remember to Save Changes
Then return to your Edit your Profile page, click on Group, Companies and Applications and
now go to the Applications section

18. This is a VERY IMPORTANT part of your profile, click on Slideshare and add it as an application
Install the Slideshare application and remember to TICK YES on the Display on my Profile and
Display on LinkedIn Homepage.
SlideShare enables you to share presentations and documents with your LinkedIn network, post
thought-leading presentations into the stream of your connections, upload portfolios, resume,
conference talks, PDFs, marketing/sales presentations etc and display them on your LinkedIn
profile - all formats supported: ppt, pps, pptx, odp, pdf, doc, docx, odt, Keynote, iWork pages

19. You can also embed YouTube videos in presentations; add audio to make a webinar
If you have a SlideShare account, you can import your existing presentations into LinkedIn. If you
don’t have one, sign up from LinkedIn to share your presentations worldwide and get more
views/traffic. SlideShare is present on both Linkedin and Facebook. Sync both these accounts
with SlideShare and you have a holy triad. Upload to any one — SlideShare, Facebook or
LinkedIn and it will show up instantly on all three.
Don’t add any other apps apart from Slideshare – the reason for this is that in Profile Edit mode
you can drag and drop apps into any position on your profile – a good company presentation like
a Powerpoint, video or pdf can therefore be positioned at the top part of your profile.
Remember to Save Settings
Then go back to Edit Your Profile and click on the tab Account
The only two areas here we are interested in are: Customise the updates you see on your home
page and Manage security settings
Click on the link Customise the updates you see on your home page

20. Click on each box to receive all the updates on your homepage, and use the drop down menu to
set them at 25.
Remember to Save changes
Then go back to Edit your Profile, click on the Account tab and click on the link Manage security
Settings

21. Do NOT click on using https to browse LinkedIn, https prevents applications like Slideshare
working on LinkedIn.
Remember to Save Settings
Your profile is nearly complete and now we can add some visual enhancements to make your
personal profile stand out

22. Recent eye tracking studies conducted by independent researchers indicate that the LinkedIn
personal profiles that get the best engagement feature a good personal photograph and additional
image based content – the example above shows a normal type profile – the eye tracking study
showed readers move from personal photo, the image on a news link that has been posted, current
job and then recommendations.
To make your personal profile stand out, add the following touches
Go to Edit Profile and click on Edit your profile
In edit mode and by putting your mouse cursor on the title bar for Skills and Expertise and also
Applications you can drag and drop them towards the top of your profile – this makes a visually rich

23. profile that will hold attention – if you then regularly add interesting presentations in your
Slideshare, post interesting articles (that also appear in the newsfeeds of your connections) and add
your skills as a tag cloud – this will imply thought leadership and engagement – if your whole
company adopts this approach with their personal profiles, your company brand will be amplified
across the industry.