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How to Make A Good LinkedIn Profile 2019: Tips & Best Practices

Ilya Azovtsev

Ilya AzovtsevHead of Growth at DocsifyMy LinkedIn

BONUS: Get the list of LinkedIn Growth Hacks to boost your LinkedIn Views and reach 100k+ of people, once it's ready

Everyone is on LinkedIn. 
Every single person who is somehow related to business has a LinkedIn Profile.All your business life is here on LinkedIn.
Here you may find co-founders and build a business with them. Here you may hire or be hired, find your next VC investor, or find a startup to invest…
So it's super important to have a good (even really good) LinkedIn Profile to stand out of crowd and be noticed by your potential clients, partners and investors. 
To understand what is that magical “killer LinkedIn profile” I analyzed 100+ 😱 different profiles of Founders, Marketers, and Salespeople and here is what I’ve discovered.

- Swipe right - Good LinkedIn Profiles - - Swipe left - Bad LinkedIn Profiles -

Bad LinkedIn Profile
Best LinkedIn Profiles



Tool for LinkedIn Profile Optimization


Yeah, before making your profile better, you need to analyze the current situation and what’s exactly wrong with your ‘face on the online business world”. Here is a quick video on how to analyze your LinkedIn profile in just 2 mins and know what to improve:

Video: "How to analyze LinkedIn profile in just 2 mins for FREE"Want to get more similar videos - subscribe to my Youtube channel

But you’re not from those people who watch videos (event short videos 🙄), I gonna share the step-by-step guide here (it works only if your LinkedIn profile is in English): 

a) Open Resume Worded and sign up here (no worries, it’s free)

b) Choose LinkedIn Profile Review

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c) Go to your LinkedIn Profile, click “More” and “Save to PDF”

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d) Save it and upload to Resume Worded

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e) Check your Score and if somewhere it’s not 10/10 click on that block to find out what exactly should you improve

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Ok, once we understand what should be improved, we need to go deeper to improve our LinkedIn profile and here, will be obvious (for someone) but super important points.


"Do you like my article? 😍 Just share it!"

1. Have a LinkedIn profile picture

Your photo should look professional, and here are a few examples of good LinkedIn Profile Pictures:

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This example I took from Míchaela Alexís, cause it looks professional and I like this design.

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Or this one from Neil Patel. 
I noticed that it’s a great idea to remove the background from the photo and leave a photo with just your face. To do it really fast and with no pain in the ass, I use Free tool called Remove.bg, which delete the background from my photos in just a few seconds. 

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PS: LinkedIn Profile Photo size in 2019 - 300x300
 

- I’m preparing the list of tool LinkedIn tools that will help you automate this process. Be the first who gonna receive this👇-

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2. Great LinkedIn Cover Photo

If you visit each friend’s LinkedIn profile you will find that around 40-50% of them don’t have a cover photo. And it’s terrible. That’s one of the key things that people pay attention to when they visit your profile and when they decide “should I talk to this person?”

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I analyzed a lot of different LinkedIn profiles I’ve pointed 3 main types of a cover photo: Your company’s style + your positioning (took from Ricardo):

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Your photo + Influencer (took from my LinkedIn Profile, here is Josh Fechter on photo):

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A photo that shows what you do + “Your clients/ honors/ publications” to build trust (took from Vaibhav)

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PS: LinkedIn cover photo size in 2019 is 1536 x 768

3. Customize your LinkedIn URL

Quick question - What looks better?First:

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Second:

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The second one looks unprofessional, doesn't it?
And a lot of people (even A LOT) has this long weird URL. If you’re among those people, stop reading this article and go to your LinkedIn and:
1. Go to your Profile and click on edit public profile & URL (on the right side)

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2. And click on “Personalize your URL” and change it to “your first name + your last name”

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🖐Hey friend! Please help me with your opinion

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4. Have everything to your LinkedIn profile

Recommendations.
A Recommendation is almost Everything in business. You can decide to work or don't work with the person just looking at his recommendation. If you’re able to get recommendations from the top of people in your industry it’ll be the best thing you can get on LinkedIn.
Interests
You're not just business-robot, You're a human after all. Show your hobbies and so on.
Featured Skills & Endorsements
While you're communicating with people in business life, they can highlight your skills, and it'll be really good your good LinkedIn profile if your business contacts endorse your skills.
Experience
Here you can show what you did. What results did you get? And How did you grow through your business life?It's like a CV but a social page.Make it clear, understandable. Highlight results.


5. Have a memorable LinkedIn profile headline

DON'T be just average "Sales Rep”or "Marketing & PR”or "CEO of X company”
BE Unique!
I love Josh Fechter 's headline (he doesn’t have a LinkedIn profile anymore, but I’m so happy that I made a screenshot):

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I met lots of Mikes who are just “Sales Rep”
But I met only 1 Josh Fechter who is “Forbes top 12 innovative founders to watch”. 
Of course, not everyone has a Oscar nomination or Nobel honor, but still, we can show why we’re the difference with our results, for example:
You’re a founder of the agency who help startups with SEO - say about your results: “ We helped 55+ startups grow to 100k+ unique visitors with SEO”
Or if you’re just starting, tell everyone about your positioning and what you do.Stapho’s example: “I turn Founders & CXOs into LinkedIn Thought Leaders” shows what he does.

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6. We are what we write in the LinkedIn profile summary

Tell about yourself.
Tell about your fails and wins, tell about what are you looking for and how can you help, tell about your mission, tell about yourself.
Add photos, video, add your digital wins there.
I personally love Dave’s summary and how he’s describing his life and experience: 

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7. SEO optimize to improve LinkedIn profile search


"Do you like my article? 😍 Just share it!"

To help people find your profile with the relevant request, optimize your LinkedIn with relevant keywords. 
a) Define your top 3 keywords you want to be found b) Add them to your headline c) Add them to your summary d) Add them to your working experience
For example, when I’m looking for Growth Hackers in the United States, the top results all have “Growth Hacker” in headline and current job position.

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8. Connect life and LinkedIn or how to increase LinkedIn connections

a) Start with cleaning up your connections. If you have 15%+ of connections who are not relevant and are not in your Target Audience, it will have huge damage on your LinkedIn views. 
Since these people won’t engage with the content you gonna post (not because you’ll post bullshit, but just because it’ll be irrelevant for them). So if your ICP (ideal customer profile) is CTO, remove marketers from your connections. 
b) Make LinkedIn the base of your business contacts and friends. DON'T use it as Untargeted Cold Outreach Machine:
- Meet people at conferences - Add them on LinkedIn- Have lunch with someone - Add them on LinkedIn- Have a new contact in life - Add on LinkedIn- Choose the right segment of people and start the connection with them on a daily basis.
For example, your potential clients are Marketers in the United States from small companies (up to 50 people) - just add them on LinkedIn.

- I’m preparing the list of tool LinkedIn tools that will help you automate this process. Be the first who gonna receive this -

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9. LinkedIn Content

Tell the world about your experience, your fails and wins (not only in summary 🙂 )
Write posts and share the storying from your life with your target audience. Share what you did. Share where you are successful. Share Value.
As Gary Vaynerchuk has said:
"Give value,Give value,Give value,And only then ask for business"
And here are a few important things you should follow: 
1- You should post 2-3 times per week
2- Don’t pitch. Tell stories, so people will get the value from reading it
3- Write to your Target Audience.

- Get the list of LinkedIn Growth Hacks to boost your LinkedIn Views and reach 100k+ of people, once it's ready -

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