Now that we have thought about your LinkedIn purpose in the previous article, it is time to build your network. We can divide LinkedIn users into 2 main categories. Either you want to expand your professional network for your job or company (sales and promotion), or you are looking for a job.
Sales and promotion networking strategy:
- Companies: Follow companies you are interested in connecting with
- People: Add people in those companies to your network (connect or follow). If it is a high ranking official like a CEO, just follow. Engage and comment on their posts.
- Endorsements: Be open to endorsements (of your skills) – endorse others and if they know you, they will do the same.
- Skills: Make sure your skills in the “skills section” are of value to your target audience, especially the top 3 skills.
Job seeking networking strategy:
- Companies: Follow companies you are interested in working at
- People: Add people in those companies to your network (connect or follow). If it is a high ranking official like a CEO, just follow. Engage and comment on their posts.
- Recruiters: Add recruiters to your network (connect or follow)
- Skills: Make sure your “skills” section has at least 5 skills related to the position you want. You are allowed to rank your 3 skills, so choose these ones carefully.
- Endorsements: Be open to endorsements (of your skills) – endorse others and if they know you, they will probably do the same.
- Profile check: Use www.jobscan.co to compare your profile info to the jobs you are applying for. The website will give you a score and suggestions to improve your profile.
Writing good content for your profile is your key to networking. But “a picture is worth a 1000 words”, so don’t ignore your profile photo. Your profile photo is very important because it helps people visualize who you are, and profiles with a photo receive 21 times more views than profiles without. Your photo should look professional and friendly – the kind of person your target audience would like to work with. For more details about how to take a good linkedin selfie, here is a good reference: https://www.slideshare.net/linkedin/guide-to-workselfie.
Profile sections and considerations
The Profile has three parts that are most visible to viewers: your photo, name and “Headline”, and “About” section. If these look good, then recruiters will scroll further down to look at your “Experience” section, which is like your resume. The “Featured” and “Activity” are extra sections that can show your professionalism: the “Featured” section lets you present works that you have done, like your own website and articles, and “Activity” shows how active you are on LinkedIn. We will talk more about these sections in future articles.
The Profile page of the LinkedIn user–whether native English speaker or non-native speaker–is like a Resume, and mistakes there suggest a careless and unprofessional character. Therefore, It is important to make the Profile as correct and accurate as possible. But it is also important to make it as relevant and as engaging as possible to make it stand out. After all, about 95% of recruiters in the US, for example, use LinkedIn to find top talent for their companies [1].
So, let’s get into some tips to help you–especially if you are a non-native speaker–to write an attention-grabbing Profile … for the right reasons, of course. As a general content strategy, you should:
- Write with your personal professional voice (imagine you are talking to the reader at the office)
- Make sure you are using appropriate key words to make you searchable to the LI algorithm (for job seekers, networkers and personal brand developers)
- Highlight achievements with numbers and specific details if possible
- State why you love or are passionate about your work.
Language tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile
To minimize the time it takes for others to read your profile … and to minimize the number of language mistakes that you might make when using a second language … here are some general guidelines to follow:
- Keep the paragraphs short, like newspaper paragraphs
- Keep the sentences short and avoid complicated grammar
- Keep the tone more conversational (which uses simpler vocabulary and sentence structure)
- Keep the vocabulary simple and common, but use specific vocabulary to describe your experiences and skills, such as “keywords” from relevant job descriptions on LinkedIn and also “action words” for experiences (see Phrase bank below)
- Use bullets and perhaps some symbols/emojis to make important information stand out
- Get a good English language user to review your writing.
Prewriting skills: keep sentences short with simple grammar – like a conversation
A short, simple sentence can be a great way to make a point. It catches your attention. (That was a simple sentence.) But if you have many simple sentences in a row – especially short ones – the message will not read smoothly. You will make the reader do more work to understand your message.
When the reader reads a series of simple sentences, he starts, stops, starts, stops, etc. This actually slows the reader down and is difficult to read. This is why we use words like and, but, and so to connect ideas to make it easier for the reader to understand our message.
Revision example 1. Before → After. Too many simple sentences!
| Original | Revised |
[1] Many talent agencies do many surveys about recruiting. [2] They publish many reports. They know that many companies need good sales reps. [3] Many companies have difficulty finding them. [4] There is a continuous talent shortage of sales reps. | Many talent agencies do many surveys about recruiting, AND they publish many reports. They know that companies need good sales reps, BUT many companies have difficulty finding them. There is a continuous talent shortage of sales reps. |
The four sentences in the original were combined into two sentences. These 2-part sentences are called compound sentences.
There are 7 types of compound sentences, and they spell FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), but we will focus only the most common: “and”, “but”, and “so” because these are the basic logical operators to connect ideas:
- And: add an idea
- But: show a contrast between ideas
- So: cause-effect, introduce an effect.
A Compound Sentence joins 2 simple sentences (or ideas), giving both equal weight (SV + SV → SV, CW SV). That means that 1 clause or idea is not more important than the other.
- They know that companies need good sales reps, BUT many companies have difficulty finding them.
In this sentence, “They know that companies need good sales reps” is just as important as “many companies have difficulty finding them”. Also, note the comma placed before the connecting word.
Grammar Box: Compound sentences for conversational tone
Practice: Combine to make compound sentences. Use and, but, or so (CW).
| 1. We did an SEO for our website. The traffic did not improve. | ________________________________________. |
| 2. Mei tied the teacher to a tree. She threw little stones at him. | ________________________________________. |
| 3. I turned on the coffee maker. Only warm coffee came out. | ________________________________________. |
| 4. I need to buy some new tires for my car. I will go online to learn about tire brands. | ________________________________________. |
| 5. I asked Tariq to help me with my report. He looked at me and laughed. | ________________________________________. |
There are several features on a LinkedIn account, but there are 3 main areas on your profile that require content and language attention:
- “Headline” phrase under your name
- “About” Section which is a short summary of you as a professional
- “Experience” section, which is like your Resume.
In the next few articles, we will go through each section and look at some samples and their revisions to help you get started.
