How to Write an Effective LinkedIn Profile - Career Center - Boston College

Source: http://www.bc.edu/offices/careers/jobs/resumes/linkedinprofiles.html

How to Write an Effective LinkedIn Profile

boston college career center

From the Career Center

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Using LinkedIn professionally will help you greatly in establishing
connections, developing relationships, and exploring companies and
industries.


Your LinkedIn profile is often thought of as an online version of your resume.
 The basic profile you create will likely closely resemble your resume.
 However, LinkedIn allows you to enhance the content of your resume and
use your profile as a dynamic networking tool.


Download our complete Guide to Using LinkedIn Professionally (pdf).

Students should use this guide to:

• Learn how to create a strong LinkedIn profile
  
  
• Understand how to join and contribute to groups such as the Boston College Career Community
  
  
• Find new ways to identify and interact with connections
  
  
• Become familiar with LinkedIn’s tools for exploring majors and careers
  
  
• Identify ways to use LinkedIn for a job or internship search
  
  
• Explore additional features of LinkedIn
  
  

Create a profile

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• Name:  Include both your first and last name.  Remember, your
  name is your brand and is the first piece of information people will
  see when they view your profile or your name appears in a search.  If
  you have a common name, it is recommended that you include your middle
  name or initial.

• Profile Picture:  Select a friendly, professional-looking
  picture.  LinkedIn differs from resumes in that it is important to
  include a profile picture, as employers gravitate towards profiles that
  show approachable potential hires.  The Career Center offers LinkedIn
  Photo Booths at each of the major Career Fairs where you can have a
  professional picture taken for free.

• Headline:  Your headline is your unique tagline to capture
  readers’ attention and entice them to read your full profile.  LinkedIn
  will automatically generate a headline for you based on your most recent
  position in your Experience section.  Strong profiles will have an
  updated headline to include area of study, career ambitions, or keywords
  related to a desired career field.  If you are searching for an
  opportunity, it can be helpful to incorporate this into your headline.
  
  
  
  Sample Headlines:
  
  
  • Aspiring Consumer Marketer with a Passion for Strategy, Promotions, and Campaign Management.
  • Boston College Junior Seeking Accounting Internship in New York City
  • Social Media Branding Specialist | Seeking Marketing Internship

• Location:  While at Boston College, you may choose to include
  your location as “Greater Boston Area.”  Once you begin searching, it
  is beneficial to update your location to your desired location for
  employment.  This will ensure that you appear in searches conducted by
  employers near that area.
  
  
  
  
• Industry:  Select the industry you intend to enter.
  
  
  
  
• Current & Previous Experience and Education:  LinkedIn
  will update these sections based on the information you provide in the
  Experience and Education sections of your profile.
  
  
  
  
• Contact Information:  Update the contact information you wish
  to provide to viewers of your profile.  You can include email
  addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, Twitter accounts, and
  personal websites.  When linking a Twitter account or personal website,
  ensure that the content is professional.  The details you include in the
  Contact Information section will only be shared with your direct
  connections.

• Public URL:  Customize your public URL to include your name. 
  Having a customized, professional URL will enable you to easily include
  your LinkedIn profile in an email signature or resume.  To update your
  URL, enter the Edit Profile mode.  Click “Edit” next to the URL in your
  heading box.  In the text box on the right hand side, click the pencil
  under “Your Public Profile URL.”  Enter your desired URL and save.

Additional Sections

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As with your resume, you are able to add various sections to your
LinkedIn profile.  LinkedIn has created sections for you to choose
from.  You do not need to include all of the sections the site offers,
rather add only those that are relevant to you and your career field.

Summary

The summary is your opportunity to expand further on your personal
brand.  Here you can describe your greatest accomplishments, ambitions,
and interests.  When writing your summary, it is important to remember
the audience.  You do not want to write large blocks of text; instead,
use shorter blocks and bulleted lists where appropriate.  As with all
professional documents, ensure that your summary is grammatically
correct and without typing errors.  Based on your industry of interest
and the experiences you’ve had, you may choose to include an image,
video, or other document in your summary section.



More Sample Summaries:

• A second year Marketing undergraduate student at Boston College with
  an interest in marketing, advertising, and social media. Seeking a
  summer internship to apply my experience assisting a company’s branding
  needs through social media outreach, developing marketing plans, digital
  marketing, and conducting customer research.
  
  
  
  Specialties:
  
  
  • Event planning
    
    
  • Social networking and marketing
    
    
  • Account management
    
    
  • Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
    
    
  • Adobe CS5.5 Suite (Photoshop, Flash)


• Enthusiastic and focused student graduating in May with in-depth
  agency and industry experience and a focus in advertising and the arts,
  specifically dance and theatre. Served in college on the Executive
  Committee for a yearly student-run dance extravaganza and each year
  moved up in leadership roles to finance manager, choreographer,
  marketing coordinator and president of the organization.
  
  
  
  Interested in an entry-level position with an advertising agency in
  account management or media planning in New York City; currently
  preparing to move to the city post-graduation. Also qualified and
  experienced with arts administration and arts and theater education with
  elementary school children; extensive volunteer service in classrooms
  and after-school programs.
  
  

• An Introduction
  
  Officially, I am a senior in Boston College's Carroll School of
  Management studying marketing and information systems. But more
  importantly, I am a creative thinker who produces, values, and supports
  ideas that push boundaries. Marketing is my passion, and my specific
  interests lie in brand management, digital marketing, social media
  marketing, and product marketing.
  
  
  
  Why Marketing?
  
  The concept of branding has interested me from a young age. Though I may
  not remember which cartoons I watched on Saturday mornings as a child, I
  can still recall numerous commercials for various everyday products.
  Despite the fact that these products were seemingly ordinary, compelling
  brand stories expressed through unique advertising made them
  extraordinary. The lasting impact a brand can leave on a consumer and
  the loyalty that results from this impact fascinates me. Successful
  brands connect with their consumers, I believe that marketing is the key
  to a positive relationship between a brand and its audience.
  
  
  
  A Forward Thinker
  
  Norman Mailer once said, "One must grow or else pay more for remaining
  the same." This idea not only applies to individuals but also to brands.
  Today's consumer responds to innovation and creativity, and I hope to
  build a career around devising and implementing avant-garde marketing
  campaigns.
  
  

Experience, Volunteer Experience & Causes, and Organizations

These sections resemble the similarly-titled sections on your resume.
They will likely contain the majority of the information you share on
your profile informing others of what you have done in the past. When
updating these sections, include internships, work experience,
extracurricular activities, and volunteer experiences. Describe each
experience in enough detail to inform the reader about your
responsibilities and accomplishments in each position. Be sure to
include action verbs, industry-specific keywords, actions taken, and
results achieved.

Education

Include your Boston College education and any other higher
education experiences you may have.  This could include study abroad
experiences, previous degrees, exchange programs, or time spent at
another institution.  Here you can also include Activities and Societies
you participate in.  In the description section, include any relevant
information not stated elsewhere, such as thesis titles, minors, or
scholarships.  LinkedIn has a special section for listing courses, so
you do not need to write related coursework in the description.



Courses

Include any relevant courses you have taken and associate them with the proper Education entry utilizing the drop-down menu.



Skills

List your skills or areas of expertise.  Include keywords and phrases
from your industry.  While you can add up to 50 skills to your profile,
initially, try to add at least 10 skills.  Unlike on your resume, it is
acceptable to list interpersonal skills in addition to technical or
industry-specific skills.

Your direct connections on LinkedIn are able to endorse you for
skills on your profile.  Skills that receive more endorsements will
automatically be listed first in your skills list.  However, if you
would like to highlight certain skills, you can change the order by
clicking “edit” in this section.  In order to obtain endorsements,
consider endorsing your connections’ skills, as they may choose to
return the favor.


Projects

Include any projects you would like to highlight from your
educational experience, work experience, internship, or elsewhere. 
Describe your responsibilities and accomplishments.  You can also add
the team members you worked with for each particular project.


Additional Optional Sections

• Honors & Awards
  
  
• Languages
  
  
• Interests
  
  
• Personal Details
  
  
• Publications
  
  
• Test Scores
  
  
• Patents
  
  
• Certifications
  
  

Questions?

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For more information about LinkedIn or to have your profile critiqued after incorporating the suggestions in this guide, please contact the Career Center.


Please note: LinkedIn is constantly updating their site and adding
new features.  This guide will be updated on a quarterly basis to
reflect those changes.

How to Write an Effective LinkedIn Profile - Career Center - Boston College