Change Your LinkedIn Profile From A Resume To A Reputation Destination

What does a good craft beer bar have in common with a great LinkedIn profile?

Well, if you’ve ever walked into a great craft beer bar, the bartender, or cicerone, can provide you an excellent customer experience by asking you a set of questions to lead you to what you should be drinking based on what you like. There is not a best craft beer for everyone, just like there is no one LinkedIn profile format or formula every should use.

The LinkedIn reputation lesson is that as a good craft beer stands out based on what one is looking for, then your reputation needs to describe yourself accurately so you stand out with the correct crowd. And you can get to the realization that you need to change your LinkedIn profile by asking yourself some very pointed questions.

I shared this question-approach with a fellow craft beer lover at one of my favorite watering holes. Acting as a reputation ‘cicerone’ I asked my new friend the following questions that ended up causing a paradigm shift in the way he looked at his LinkedIn profile.

10 Questions To Do Your Own Linked Profile Audit

Key questions to ask your sales teams, your leadership, your marketers or yourself about your LinkedIn profile

• Does your profile pic look like it belongs on the Wall of Shame? Take a professional-like photo, so you stop the social smirking about your silly looking image.

• Does your LinkedIn headline look like a job title that nobody really understands anyway? Why would you use this 120-character space for anything other than an elevator pitch to explain your value to separate you from the crowd?

• Does your LinkedIn summary tell your customer how they are going to help you make it to Presidents Club, 21 Club, or Winners Circle? Make your summary about the customer and network and how you can help them.

• Are you ‘Googleable’; including keywords throughout your LinkedIn profile that sum up your value that people are literally searching for on Google? If not, then include these ‘Googleable’ terms to your LinkedIn Endorsements section, Summary, Headline, Job Experience, Anchored Text to get found by those who are looking.

• Are you using your formal, baptismal, confirmation or any other name that would only be familiar to your mother? Your mother may be in your network, however, you need to include the name which you go by in the work place so others can find you.

• Are you employable? If you don’t have at least three current and past positions that include keywords and accomplishments to explain the value you added then add them immediately. The way in which you describe your job experience can add to the way that your network

• Does your LinkedIn profile show that you play well with others? If not, then get some Recommendations, Endorsements and Awards listed to show others what your first-grade teacher knows!

• Does your LinkedIn profile pass the reading, writing and arithmetic exam? If you are not writing in first person, have typos throughout your LinkedIn profile, use poor grammar and do not include any publications, videos or SlideShares that you’ve created then you fail this test. And, you let your competition go to the head of the class.

• Are you all dressed up (i.e., a polished profile at the LinkedIn dance, but acting as a wallflower would by not participating in the conversation? It’s one thing to get dressed up for a ‘dance’ with a great looking profile, but if you hang on the sidelines, then you are not helping your reputation – telling your story, your brand’s story or just being a part of the process. Get moving with LInkedIn group updates, daily status updates and asking people to connect with you.

• Are you driving your LinkedIn profile like there is no reputation speedometer? If you are fine-tuning your reputation’s engine then pay attention to the speedometer – how many people are viewing your profile, does your network view and share your updates, are people asking to network with you and accepting your invites? Paying attention to your reputation dashboard will help you reach your destination.

Do you have another self-assessment question to help turn a LinkedIn profile from a resume to a reputation builder? If so, please share below.

Did you notice I did not mention the term ‘social media’ once? Working on your reputation is not based on your social media expertise. Your reputation is about fishing where the fish are and having the right bait to be noticed and caught. LinkedIn is today’s reputation hub and you better be fishing there with the right bait. And we all know what goes best with fishing. A nice IPA craft-beer.