Like myself, we’re here on LinkedIn to connect with our professional network to bring value, share our voice, and our story. Whatever goals we each have for leveraging LinkedIn in our profession, we all contribute to make each other more productive and successful. And LinkedIn is holding its end of the bargain as it continuously rolls out new features and tools to help us achieve this. Over the coming month, LinkedIn is globally launching new features to make individual member profiles more expressive and inclusive.

Here’s a rundown of the new features:

1. Cover Story

LinkedIn Stories was introduced last year to allow members and organisations to share images and videos of their daily professional moments. In this rollout, they’ve added a new feature that will enable members to upload a short video to their profile to share their skills, career goals, aspirations, and bring to life their stories. 

For job seekers, it’s a great way to supplement their profile, introduce themselves, and reach recruiters. According to a recent survey by LinkedIn in the US, almost 80% of hiring managers believe that video has become important to interact with or vet candidates. Meanwhile, 60% of job seekers believe a recorded video could be the next cover letter.

If you’re a freelancer, this is another fantastic strategy to attract more clients by sharing your expertise and experience.

Once the cover story is added to your profile, an orange ring will appear around your profile photo. It will preview your video silently within your photo frame. How cool is that?!

2. Pronoun Fields

LinkedIn is also rolling out an optional feature where members can add their preferred gender pronouns and showcase their core identity at the top of their profile. 

3. Service Pages

For freelancers and small business owners, LinkedIn also added the Service Pages feature to help grow their business and reach nearly 740 million members. According to LinkedIn, these are dedicated landing pages to showcase services they offer for free. In addition, the services you list on your Service Page will display on your feed as well as your network. 

With the Service Pages, people who are connected to you or not will be able to contact you about your services.

By the way, if you don’t see the “Showcase services” enabled on your profile, you can request access here.

4. Creator Mode

LinkedIn also rolled out the all-new Creator Mode to highlight the work of content creators. With this mode, creators can add hashtags to indicate the topics they focus on. In addition, when this mode is enabled, the primary action on your profile will be updated to “Follow” from “Connect”, helping creators grow their audience. This mode would prominently display Featured content and Activity right below the profile section.

And for LinkedIn Live broadcasters, your Live broadcast will show on your profile background when you start streaming, increasing the visibility of your content.

To wrap up, I’m excited about these features as these would definitely present members in a more authentic and engaging way and help them achieve their professional goals. 

What’s the feature you’re most excited about? Let me know in the comments below. 👇

Here's a short video on LinkedIn profile optimization. 

Do it for value instead.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Like most writers on Medium, I, too, still have a 9–5 job. I currently oversee the marketing strategies and execution at a law firm based out of Hong Kong. Part of my responsibilities is to implement profile-raising activities for our partners and that meant I ensure their profiles are notable, authentic, and well-written.

Recently, I dipped my toes in side-hustling over at Fiverr to optimise LinkedIn profiles for purposes that serve my clients — whether they want to revamp their profiles to increase their visibility on the platform, to land a new job, or to become more prominent and build their credibility as an expert.

Whatever their objectives are, I am guided by the principles in the optimisation of profiles like adding relevant keywords, creating attention-grabbing headlines and summaries or articulating their achievements in their work history.

Earlier, I was communicating with a prospective client and his intent is to be more visible in particular keywords. I thought, “OK, that should be doable.” After a some back and forth Q&A, I decided to withdraw my offer. It wasn’t because it will be a hard task, in fact, he already has an amazing profile as a Co-Founder. All that needs to be done is to further edit and fine-tune, that’s it. But I withdrew my offer because he made a sensible ask and I was not entirely confident I’d deliver. To be specific, he had asked me what parameters should he measure my work against in the context of increased views and search appearances.

To be honest, I was offended at his question at first. 

The nerve of this person to demand results for a mere profile optimisation. But after some thought, I realised he raised a good argument and I saw it as a challenge. I took time before I replied to his message, even if it meant my response time on Fiverr may drop. I wanted to research first and find out for myself if there actually is such a thing for individual profiles. Ultimately, I contemplated that if I were to take on this gig, how would I ensure I meet the goals. Besides, his question made total sense since he will be paying for it and like the businessman that he is, he needs some sort of ROI.

First, I wanted to have a benchmark. Are there standards around individual LinkedIn profiles that would warrant improvement in statistics? Going back to my LinkedIn dashboard, there only are 3 analytics available for member profiles — profile views, post views, and search appearances.

Would I be able to find some sort of gauge to “prove” the effectiveness of an optimisation? This question led me to a few more:

• Is there really an uptick in these stats whenever you edit a section in your profile? If it does, what is the acceptable rate? There was an article from Moz in 2010 wherein a guy did an 8-week experiment and kept a log of sections he optimised along with variables like subscribing to premium account, adding skills, and recommendation and tracked movement in searches. He noted that while the numbers are non-conclusive, there was 5.5x increase in search impressions and increase by a factor of 1.8 in optimising the headline, summary, and work experience alone. However, it leads me to ask if after optimising his profile, did he leave it as it is or did he do some activities thereafter?

• Would you be able to distinguish what is organic and which one is from your proactive efforts like publishing an article, or commenting on a post, or connecting with somebody?

• What actually are the trending keywords and their volume? Will I be able to research what is ranking and the most searched on LinkedIn.

• In LinkedIn’s algorithm, which gains more weight — your headline, summary, skills, or hashtags?

In my quest for answers, I came upon this post from ValueExchange, a UK LinkedIn consulting company, discussing on the importance and somewhat inaccuracy of searches on the platform. He noted that some members have been searched for keywords that are way irrelevant to what they do. 

For example, someone was searched for a “doctor” when he is clearly not. I then checked my search appearance stats and saw that I was searched for “company secretary” instead of marketing or BD keywords. To my surprise, the word “secretary” is in the Organization section where I listed the position I held at that association.

So, I can’t help but infer that with all the advantages of leveraging LinkedIn for professional gains, as in individual profiles, we wouldn’t be able to predict or estimate how much likes or profile views or searches you will receive by optimising your profile until we have deep understanding of LinkedIn’s algorithm, unlike Google or other SERPs. As far I know, there is not much available data around this.

At this point then, I got back to him and explained the reason why I would have to withdraw my offer. I respectfully advised him that in the absence of benchmarks or standards, I wouldn’t be able to give him an accurate estimate of the improvement of his stats after I’ve completed my work. Additionally, I told that I’d rather not provide unfounded numbers that I wouldn’t be able to meet and eventually result to his dissatisfaction. 

In my experience, it is your proactive activities that directly translate to increases in views or search rankings. 

If you want to keep your momentum on LinkedIn, you have to invest time socialising, networking, and sharing insights that give value to others. By maintaining your information up-to-date, being active, relevant, and social, your chances of increasing your online presence will become higher.

And though the 2010 article I’ve stumbled upon seems irrelevant after years of changes that LinkedIn took, what he closed with still resonate today and I firmly agree. As it is relevant to content strategies, it is to not optimise your content for search engine. Rather, do it for user experience and bring value. 

I've been using Ubersuggest for a while to help me with my work especially in improving our rankings in SERPs. But recently, Neil Patel has added a new feature to this already-awesome tool -- the rollout of Ubersuggest Google Chrome Extension. 

4. When you check the searches related to the keyword at the bottom, it will also display monthly search volume and CPC rates. 

4. And when you go to a specific website and click the Ubersuggest icon, it will display more data. This is really amazing as when I'm checking out competitor's websites, I can easily view the data without having to switch between Ubersuggest and the particular website. 

Install and try this extension to get ahead of your competition to ultimately achieve your KPIs. 

Why you should optimize your LinkedIn profile 

When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it aimed to connect people to become more productive and successful. LinkedIn was more of a recruitment platform back then connecting job seekers and employers. And that's exactly what I did back in 2014. I created a profile to increase my visibility to recruiters and showcase my work history for work opportunities. 

Back then, it was as simple as creating your profile and listing your work history. Connect with your immediate colleagues, submit your resume, and you're done. 

But as LinkedIn grew and diversified its business, more and more professionals and companies from every industry, small or large, are joining the community. LinkedIn reports it has 660 million users. Hence, all the more that we need to stand out from the crowd by building up a compelling profile. 

When I transitioned to B2B selling in 2016, I realised the power of a great profile and presence on LinkedIn. I transformed my profile from an online resume to one that delivers value to my potential clients. As time went on, I’ve networked and connected with other professionals. 

And in my job, it is important to build trust. It was crucial that I was deemed an expert and a resource in my field. I started sharing relevant information about our domain on LinkedIn, made valuable connections, and consulted with my audience with best practices. Eventually, I was able to convert individual leads into clients forming long-standing business partnerships from LinkedIn. 

To those who are just getting started on LinkedIn, it’s not too late for you to build your presence and network with peers. 

Here are some actionable items to help you set up and optimize your Linkedin Profile.

1. Use an appropriate profile picture.

The first element that prospects and recruiters alike look at is your profile picture. Make a first great impression through your profile picture as statistics prove that users with profile photos garner far higher engagement than those without. 

Use an appropriate photo as your profile picture that presents you as a professional. Avoid using photos that are too casual or alluring. We've all seen those profiles who have posed their pets, used a selfie, and even struck a duck face.

2. Write a catchy headline that aptly describes and captures who you are and what you do. 

The headline sits right below your profile photo and so it is the first element that visitors see on your profile. That said, it is imperative that you communicate what you do strikingly. You have the option to use your current title as your headline or customize it to highlight your value. 

Recruiters use specific keywords when they search for candidates, so you ensure you use keywords in your headline. 

For example, business developers write how their product or service helps their customers and include relevant keywords. 

Here are some great headlines:

3. Create a compelling and authentic summary. 

Everybody has a story about their career, values, and experiences so you can maximize this section to tell your story authentically. You can use this section to further attract attention to your profile, especially if you are looking to move from your current role. 

For sales people, your prospects look at your profile and decide from there to connect with you or not. Hence, it is important to showcase in your summary the benefits of connecting with you or even engaging with you. As a tip, you can check your company's unique selling proposition or value prop and tweak it to fit your summary. 

Don't forget to include keywords that are relevant to your expertise and your role. 

4. Establish yourself as a though-leader and build up your authority. 

What better way to use LinkedIn to build your authority and validate your credentials is to share, create, and curate content that will resonate to your target audience. 

When I was doing B2B, one way I did it is by leveraging the content that our company was creating and distributing. I frequently shared relevant topics on my feed, including my own perspective. Another tip for salespeople is to compose and publish your own original content that is tied to the industry you are focusing on. 

If you are a leader in your company or a specialist in a vertical, you can offer to write your insights to your marketing department, which they can publish on your company's website and social media channels. 

5. Request for Recommendations kindly. 

Although you have to request Recommendations proactive, this is a powerful section to affirm your experience and skills. It is like a testimonial that your co-worker, boss, teammate, or peer can positively write about you. 

A good strategy to do this is by writing a recommendation for that connection you are requesting it from. I am sure it won't hurt if you would genuinely compose a testimonial that uplifts that person, too. In that way, it would be a bit embarrassing for that person not to return the favour. 

6. Don't just list out the job description of every position you've held. 

If you would detail your work history, avoid copy/pasting every job description of the positions you've held. Strategically articulate your achievements and skill set in each role instead. The goal here is to showcase your value in your experience. 

If your goal is to land a new job, the recruiter will be vetting whether you are a good fit to the role. That said, it is paramount to align your values and experience with your target position. 

Here are some examples of how you can write it: 

Increased my book of business by XX% YOY through cold calling and email, and LinkedIn prospecting

Launched XX project in XX weeks/months and achieved [value]

Oversaw a team of X in the [vertical] and managed to exceed quota

Leveraged LinkedIn Sales Navigator to convert XX leads to clients 

Let's say you're a digital marketing manager. A paragraph form of your experience section can be like this: 

(A) Led a team of two digital marketing executives to increase conversion and revenue of our e-commerce business. In X [timeline], we achieved [amount] revenue by implementing digital marketing strategies that attracted more potential buyers to our website. In [year], our contribution to the total business grew from X% to X%.

(B) Oversee and manage all aspects of digital marketing, including SEO & SEM and social media channels. In [year], we have improved our rankings in the SERPs by X%. This resulted to increased inbound leads generated for our inside sales, which is equivalent to X [amount] in new business.

7. Maximize the Featured section. 

Early this year, LinkedIn has launched the new "Featured" section to highlight achievements and links. This is a great element to showcase and demonstrate examples of your work, achievements, or projects prominently.  

With the recent release of iOS 14 update, everyone went gaga over the personalisation of their widgets. I, too, took some time to customize my widgets by using third-party apps. If you want to achieve a certain aesthetic or theme, it'll take you an amount of time to download and go back and forth apps to do it. 

As for me, I wanted to achieve a beige minimalist feel on my home screen. I actually put down on paper the layout that I prefer. After a few searches on which apps are the best to use and doing it, I want to put it out here to help you figure out how to customize your home screen and widgets.

Here are some tips: 

1. Decide on the color palette or theme you want. You could do a dark theme, a minimalist one, branded one, or anything that suits your liking. 

2. You will have to download the Widgetsmith and the Shortcuts app to create your own. 

3. In the Widgetsmith, you will have the option to create small, medium, or large widgets. You can choose which tools you want to add like your calendar, reminders, photos, weather, etc. 

4. You can also customize the color, background, and font of the widgets. 

5. For the shortcuts, get into the app and create every shortcut you wish as your options are endless as to which icons, color, or theme you want to use. 

6. I've used Canva to create a thematic icons for my shortcuts. 

Here's a step-by-step video I created to help you customize your home screen.

When I decided to restart blogging this time around, I was faced with the dilemma of choosing from a whole lot of great platforms. There's WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Blogger, and the list goes one. They all come with their unique FABs, but it the end, it all came down to what my specific needs and expectations are. 

So what did I end up using? 

4. What am I willing to invest? 

Apart from the time that I will put into this, there are definitely other things I need to invest, like money and resources. To make this work, I decided up to how much I am actually willing to spend. Do I spend it on the platform, or do I allocate it to other tools that would make my content more compelling and appealing to audience?

Here's a table I created that helped me decide which platform I would go for. If I would go for a plan that would allow me to use SEO tools, I need to invest in WordPress' Business Plan. And if I want to have Google Analytics integration, I'd have to choose the Premium plan. 

Since my blog is personal and casual, I don't really need to subscribe to a Premium or a Business plan. It would be entirely useless to pay for an amount which would likely not give me any returns. 

Hence, it was between the WordPress' Personal plan and Blogger. At this moment, it was no brainer for me to just go for Blogger because even if I were to subscribe to the Personal plan, it still wouldn't allow me to use SEO tools and GA integration. 

Then, I finally decided on the domain name and registered on GoDaddy for as low as USD5 annually compared to WordPress Personal Plan at USD46 annually (for hosting and domain name registration). 

There are many things that both WordPress or even Blogger has to offer. Choosing the right platform has to mean aligning it with your goals and expectations. The one you would go for should meet your goals, whether you just want to share your experiences, insights or want to jumpstart your business.