{"id":1035,"date":"2016-03-31T17:14:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.startupremarkable.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2016-03-31T17:14:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:14:02","slug":"linkedin-personal-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howardkingston.com\/linkedin-personal-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Optimise Your Linkedin Profile to Build Your Personal Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LinkedIn\u2019s big. It\u2019s the 3<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> biggest social media site and the no.1 business to business site in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the fact that there are now almost 500m people on Linkedin, it still surprises me how few actually\u00a0use it effectively for their Personal Brand &amp; never receive any real\u00a0benefits from their profiles (e.g. job offers, business opportunities etc.). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember a time when I had a Linkedin profile but never received any value from it. It was something\u00a0\u2018you had to have\u2019. So I decided to experiment with it, to see if it could help me build my Personal Brand and I found that by optimising my profile in four ways, things started happening:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More people viewed\u00a0my profile<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More people wanted\u00a0to connect with me<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started receiving inbound job offers (some six-figures)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lots of other business offers came my way\u00a0(admittedly of varying degrees of quality \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few years on, I have over 3,500 Linkedin connections\u00a0and continue to receive job offers &amp; opportunities. I&#8217;m truly reaping the benefits of a well optimised profile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1038 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Connections.jpeg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1\" alt=\"Connections\" width=\"841\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Connections.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 841w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Connections-300x63.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Connections-768x162.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Connections.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=384&amp;ssl=1 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 841px) 100vw, 841px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>In this post I&#8217;m sharing\u00a0a complete guide on how to optimise your profile to build your Personal Brand, and get noticed by the right people.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I estimate less than 1% of people on Linkedin have their profiles up to scratch. And it only takes approx. 1 hour a year to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to learn\u00a0more? OK, let\u2019s go:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><b>1) <\/b><b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><b>Look good<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1039 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/profile-pic-vs-tagged-pic.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1\" alt=\"profile-pic-vs-tagged-pic\" width=\"499\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/profile-pic-vs-tagged-pic.jpg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 499w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/profile-pic-vs-tagged-pic-300x155.jpg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/profile-pic-vs-tagged-pic.jpg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=384&amp;ssl=1 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">You know that age-old expression &#8216;you never get a second chance to make a first impression&#8217;. Well it&#8217;s a core essence of branding. It therefore\u00a0goes without saying that your profile picture needs to look great.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That means no strange photos where you\u2019re looking creepy or out on the town with your mates \ud83d\ude09 There are lots of places on the web where you can learn about how to make good social media profile photos \u2013<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/digital-photography-school.com\/how-to-take-a-great-social-media-profile-picture-in-4-easy-steps\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here\u2019s a good one<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Get the photo taken by a decent photographer, paid or otherwise, look professional and remember to smile.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><b>2) <\/b><b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><b>Get Found &#8211; Use keywords<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The is the most important of the 4 steps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Before I walk\u00a0you through how to get found on Linkedin, I&#8217;ll explain the basics basics of how Search Engine Optimisation works (stick with me here, I\u2019ll connect the dots as to why this is relevant for Linkedin later)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we tap something into a search engine, like Google, the words we typein are called <\/span><b>\u2018keywords<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019 (imagine you search for\u00a0the words \u2018red shoes\u2019 into Google, \u2018red shoes\u2019 would be your keyword)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google then takes those keywords and finds content on the web that it deems relevant and brings it back you instantly\u00a0If Google feels a page&#8217;s content is most applicable (to the keywords), it&#8217;s ranked higher on the returned list of results.The closer to the top it appears (say page 1), the more clicks that page will get.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Linkedin works in the same way<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The search bar on Linkedin is principally\u00a0the same as Google\u2019s. It\u2019s simply a search engine for Linkedin. Whatever &#8216;keywords&#8217; you type into it, LinkedIn returns the most relevant results (based on profiles containing those keywords).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So who might be searching for things on Linkedin? Commonly recruiters, CEOs, or employers\u00a0looking for people in certain roles to either offer them jobs, consulting or speaking gigs etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using\u00a0this knowledge, we can reverse engineer the way Linkedin works to\u00a0get found by people searching for things relevant to our personal brands.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>When people (e.g. potential employers, head-hunters) go looking for a suitable individual\u00a0on Linkedin, they type the name of the role into the search bar (name of role = a keyword). Linkedin will then show pages of profiles it deems relevant to that role. There are a number of factors, one of which is how often that keyword appears in someone\u2019s profile!<\/p>\n<p>Appearing\u00a0at the top of results will increase your likelihood of being viewed by the person 10x. This is where you want to be.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So now you know how it works, what do you want to be found for on Linkedin?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h2><b>Using Keywords to get found on Linkedin<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>So let\u2019s go ahead and put this into practice and begin reverse engineering your Linkedin profile. To do this, I&#8217;ll take you through the following steps:<\/p>\n<p><b>1) Decide what you want to be found for.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> What is the ideal role you want? This question goes a bit deeper than the intention of this blog post, but I\u2019d recommend answering these questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the name of the role you <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">want to b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e hired for?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there anything else you <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">want<\/span> to be found for? (e.g. speaker, marketing consultant)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What will recruiters\/CEOs etc type in to the Linkedin search bar when they are looking for that person?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What variations are there of this same word: e.g. head of marketing, could also be VP marketing, head of growth etc<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2) Name your ideal role <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">based on the answers above. We\u2019re now going to call this your <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">primary keyword <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for your profile<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>3) Now consider 5 \u2013 10 skills associated with this role,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> these will be our <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">secondary keywords<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Take a moment to write these keywords down.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;&#8230;..<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you\u2019ve got your keywords, you want to input them into your profile, so when people search for these words, you come up high in the search results.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><b>Where to Place Your Keywords in Your Linkedin Profile<\/b><\/p>\n<p>So as we learnt in the opening section of the post, the more times keywords feature in your profile the more relevant Linkedin will think you are &amp; will show you higher on the results page. Higher on Linkedin results = more clicks on your profile.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Note: If your dream role\/title is something that you don\u2019t have a huge amount of experience in right now, that\u2019s fine, you should still aim to use the keyword multiple times, you just need to get a little \u2018creative\u2019 how you put it in your profile. We\u2019ll discuss how to do this below.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>In the Headline section<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The headline is possibly the single most important part of your Linkedin profile (along with your photo). Linkedin gives you 120 characters to hook people who are searching on Linkedin.<\/p>\n<p>Individuals with\u00a0dull, one-word descriptions in their Linkedin profiles \u00a0(e.g. \u2018Accountant\u2019) are missing a huge trick.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not going to make the same mistake and instead we\u2019re going to use those 120 characters as an opportunity to use our keywords to help our Linkedin profile get found and POP.<\/p>\n<p>What to put in: Write a description that sounds intriguing (the POP) but also uses your primary keyword (this will help you get found). Here\u2019s mine:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1041 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Photo.jpeg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1\" alt=\"Linkedin personal Brand\" width=\"683\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Photo.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Photo-300x165.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Photo.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=384&amp;ssl=1 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you see in my profile, \u2018Marketing\u2019 and \u2018Growth\u2019 are some of my keywords.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>In the summary section<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This section allows us to put in quite a bit of info, so use it wisely. Make sure you use your primary keywords at least twice here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1040 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary-1024x568.jpeg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1\" alt=\"Linkedin personal brand\" width=\"750\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary-1024x568.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary-300x166.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary-768x426.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 1440w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=384&amp;ssl=1 384w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Summary.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=1152&amp;ssl=1 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The summary section has a limit of 2,000 characters &#8211; so there\u2019s lots of opportunity for selling yourself here. Use it &amp; write an interesting history about yourself. If you\u2019re stuck, open up a few Linkedin profiles of people you admire and get some inspiration from them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the bottom of your summary section, you can insert your <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondary Keywords. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Again these secondary keywords will help you get found by people searching for\u00a0someone with these specific skills. You can simply list them, see below:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>In your experience section (work history)<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go back over all the roles you\u2019ve worked in. Do you have opportunity to put in keywords here? This is where you should try and get a little creative with work experience if you can, e<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ven if the name of the role wasn\u2019t exactly the same. E.g. if your primary keyword is \u2018marketing\u2019 you could say you worked on \u2018marketing projects\u2019 during your time serving burgers in McDonalds etc \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your experience influences relevance on Linkedin, so take the time to do this thoroughly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Education section<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very similar to your work history, this is a section that you should be aiming to use as many of your keywords as possible, even if your area of study isn\u2019t directly in line withwhat you believe to be your current personal brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E.g. you want your keyword to be marketing but you studied law at university? Maybe you helped your university society with the <\/span><b>marketing <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of its annual ball etc? Get creative to explain your experience history, and remember to use keywords as much as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Here\u2019s a summary of those keyword placements again:<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Title (primary keywords)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Description (primary keywords)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Summary \u00a0(primary &amp; secondary keywords)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Past work titles \u00a0(primary keywords)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Skills \u00a0(primary &amp; secondary keywords)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Qualifications (primary keywords)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><b>3) Get Connected <\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I admit, this is a complete vanity metric, but let\u2019s be honest, saying you\u2019re an \u2018influencer\u2019 yet having only 46 Linkedin connections doesn\u2019t sit quite right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linkedin is always prompting you to add more connections (by connecting your email addresses, facebook profile etc, so yes do that (you\u2019ll get approx. 100 \u2013 200 connections that way).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However once you have this initial base, you need a more repeatable and scalable way to increase connections easily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Enter Rapportive<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Install<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/rapportive.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rapportive<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; an email add-on. It shows the profile of the people you&#8217;re emailing on the right hand side of your inbox, which is rather handy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However the real value of Rapportive is that you can add people to Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook etc <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with just 1 click, directly from your email.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This allows you to quickly connect with people you\u2019ve just met, or had a call with, etc.<\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1042 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rapportive-1024x515.jpeg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1\" alt=\"Rapportive Personal Brand\" width=\"750\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rapportive-1024x515.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rapportive-300x151.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rapportive-768x387.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rapportive.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 1196w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rapportive.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=384&amp;ssl=1 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now simply get into the habit of using Rapportive to connect with everyone you\u2019re emailing that you have met \/ spoken to. If you create this habit, you\u2019ll find your Linkedin connections will grow at a very consistent level every week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go install Rapportive right now, it will take you 3 minutes and is <\/span><b>completely free.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><b>4) Look Trustworthy<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similar to connections, recommendations is a bit of a vanity metric, however it makes sense that if people see you have lots of recommendations they\u2019re likely to believe you\u2019re both good at what you do and trustworthy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And remember, people do business with people they know, like and <\/span><\/i><b><i>trust.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal here is to get double figures of recommendations, 10+, that\u2019s more than enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But how do you get recommendations easily? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If asking for lots of recommendations doesn\u2019t fill you with excitement, don\u2019t worry &#8211; that\u2019s completely natural. I\u2019d hate to do that too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below I\u2019ll show you how to get lots of recommendations for your Linkedin profile, <\/span><b><i>without ever asking for any.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>How to get lots of recommendations for your Linkedin profile without asking anyone for any<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s actually quite simple.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The easiest way to get recommendations on Linkedin is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for you to recommend someone first.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you Recommend someone, the following happens:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They&#8217;ll be grateful that you recommended them without their asking.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As they accept the Recommendation, they will naturally think about returning the gesture (reciprocation is a well-recognised human response in instances like this). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thankfully Linkedin knows this. As soon as the recipient of your glowing review accepts it, Linkedin will ask if they&#8217;d like to write one for you in return.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1043 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Recco.jpeg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1\" alt=\"Recommend personal brand\" width=\"681\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Recco.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 681w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Recco-300x156.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/ej6wemg7wiw.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Recco.jpeg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;w=384&amp;ssl=1 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>I find that over 50% of all recommendations I send out, result in a recommendation back to me &#8211; so to get 10 recommendations, you&#8217;ll need to write about 20.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some people think this is inauthentic. I disagree. <\/span><b>I only recommend people that I genuinely think are very very good.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> That way each recommendation is 100% authentic, I let human inclination to reciprocate take care of things after that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><b>Now Take Action<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow these four simple steps for optimising your Linkedin profile in line with your personal brand and you\u2019ll be in the top 1% of people who are strategic about their Linkedin presence. With these optimisations you should quickly see an increase in visitors to your profile, people asking to connect, even job offers appearing in your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should take no longer than 1 hour, time well spent.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Your Turn<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you know any smart ways to optimise your Linkedin profile? Please share them in the comments below.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LinkedIn\u2019s big. It\u2019s the 3rd biggest social media site and the no.1 business to business site in the world. Despite the fact that there are now almost 500m people on Linkedin, it still surprises me how few actually\u00a0use it effectively for their Personal Brand &amp; never receive any real\u00a0benefits from their profiles (e.g. job offers, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 Ways to Optimise Your Linkedin Profile to Build Your Personal Brand - Howard Kingston<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/howardkingston.com\/linkedin-personal-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Ways to Optimise Your Linkedin Profile to Build Your Personal Brand - Howard Kingston\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LinkedIn\u2019s big. It\u2019s the 3rd biggest social media site and the no.1 business to business site in the world. 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