It’s 2020… if your LinkedIn is not up to par you’ve got a big problem
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By: Marisol Rocha
There comes a point in your life when it’s time to open up a LinkedIn account, and the reality is, you cannot get away without having one this day and age. Think about it as Instagram for the professional world, you want people to be impressed when they come across your profile. The same way we customize our personal social media channels to fit our personality, LinkedIn gives us the opportunity to highlight certain qualities about ourselves to impress our connections.
“It’s easy to fall back on well-used terms like ‘experienced,’ ‘strategic’ and ‘excellent.’ However, these words will make buyers’ eyes glaze over. They’re so worn out they’re essentially meaningless.” – Want Your LinkedIn Profile to Stand Out in 2020? Don’t Include These 10 Overused Words
But let’s face it, it can be hard to stand out on LinkedIn. After all, it’s a professional networking platform and sometimes every page you come across will look the same. A strong LinkedIn profile can lead to that perfect opportunity or that one connection, or even that dream job that changes everything for you. Here are some tips and tricks to stay relevant and fresh on LinkedIn and to help keep your audience engaged on your page.
How to describe yourself
If you want to stand out on LinkedIn, you should steer away from words that make you sound like everyone else. A good rule of thumb would be to follow up on your claims with an example. If you claim to have great communication skills list a time when you handled a tough situation through verbal communication. Likewise, if you list you are highly motivated, give an example of a time when you pushed yourself to try harder despite obstacles. Words alone with no context mean nothing if your employer can’t visualize the type of candidate you are.
Specific words to avoid
1. Specialize
Writing out that you specialize in something doesn’t make you more qualified. Instead, give a direct example that describes how you can use your strengths.
2. Experienced
Being experienced in one particular area means that you are competent and well-rounded about a topic. Lead with a description of what those experiences are and make yourself appear credible with facts that make you qualified in that area.
3. Skilled
List not only what you’re skilled in but how you can apply those skills. You do want to expose your skills, however, as you’ve probably caught on by now, your message will be 10 times more authentic if you can provide examples that show how you have obtained that skill.
4. Leadership
You don’t always need to use the word leadership in order to express your roles as a leader. This is a skill that is great to place emphasis on and you should be proud to share how you have been able to guide a group of people. So do just that. Tell us how you did it.
5. Passionate
Being passionate is fantastic, but the word itself is so 2012. Talk about what makes you feel empowered. Give an example of what you get out of doing X Y and Z. Express personal or home-life examples that will back you up.
A strong LinkedIn profile can go a long way when you take the time to formulate it properly. Companies look to see who stands out and if you can accomplish to catch their eye then you know that you’ve taken the right steps to create a LinkedIn profile. My best advice is to be genuine and truly describe the things that make you qualified as opposed to listing them. This will make you a better candidate and dives deep into who you really are and what you can offer to a company.