LinkedIn Profile Strength
Creating an impactful LinkedIn profile might require a little effort and the right strategy. But, the more optimized your LinkedIn profile is, the better are the chances of visibility and success.
LinkedIn is a leading recruitment and networking platform for professionals and businesses. It allows anyone to create a compelling profile and connect with relevant people worldwide.
But, how do you know if your profile is good enough? Thankfully, the “LinkedIn Profile Strength” meter tells you exactly that.
It tells you how strong your profile is, allowing you to keep improving it until you hit the bull’s eye. I’ll be discussing virtually everything about LinkedIn profile strength in this article.
Let’s get started with a simple and important question.
What is Profile Strength in LinkedIn?
Same as your resume or any other social platform, the more relevant content you add to your LinkedIn profile, the stronger it gets.
But, you can’t measure how strong your CV is unless someone reviews it for you. And, there is probably no tool to measure your social profile’s robustness either.
But, on a platform like LinkedIn, where skill meets recruitment, there is a tool that measures your profile’s strength, called LinkedIn profile strength meter.
This lets you keep on adding relevant content until your profile gets a full score.
And, the full score, in LinkedIn’s terminology is “All-star”. Basically, you tell LinkedIn all the information about your profession and you get an All-star status.
Why is Achieving All-star Status Important?
According to LinkedIn, users that have an All-star status have a 40 times higher chances of getting new opportunities on the platform.
So, as a job hunter, if you keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-par, you almost double your chances of achieving success on the platform.
Where is Profile Strength on LinkedIn?
Locating profile strength on LinkedIn is pretty simple.
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- Go to “Me” at the top right corner of the LinkedIn dashboard and click on “View Profile”.
- Scroll below your top card information and you’ll see your current profile strength status.
Source: linkedin.com
Remember, “All-Star” is the maximum level you can get on a LinkedIn profile strength meter. You can get there easily by filling out all the relevant information.
How Does LinkedIn Rank Your Profile?
To be honest, achieving the “All-Star” status isn’t rocket science on LinkedIn. Why? Because it doesn’t take into consideration anything other than whether you filled the required sections of your profile or not.
It doesn’t compare your profile to your competition and tell you a score that can truly reflect your profile’s “Strength”.
But, the first of many steps in making your LinkedIn profile visible is filling all of its sections. Let’s see how LinkedIn ranks your profile.
Relevant Content
Keyword-rich Profile Content
LinkedIn is also a search engine that showcasesthe most relevant profiles to the searchers. So, for instance, if someone searched for “Digital marketing agency”, profiles with that phrase in their content have a better chance at getting a higher spot in the search results.
But, don’t go overboard with using the keywords. It’s never good to compromise on the quality of the content.
Relevant Posts and Articles
Creating posts and writing articles related to your industry can also help in establishing your authority. This will, in turn, help LinkedIn rank your profile higher.
Inspiring Engagement
Engagement is another factor that LinkedIn algorithm counts while ranking profiles. Your posts and articles have a better chance of getting visibility if users engage with them.
So, produce content that inspires likes, shares, and comments and talk to your connections/followers under your posts.
Aside from that, the number and quality of your connections, your experience, and your skills play a vital part as well.
What are the Levels of LinkedIn?
When you create your LinkedIn profile, you have a basic profile with the “beginner” tag on your LinkedIn profile strength score.
As you provide more information to LinkedIn about yourself or your business, your status improves.
The next levels of a LinkedIn profile are:
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- Intermediate
- Advanced
- Expert
- All-Star
While it might seem a little overwhelming to achieve the All-Star status, it’s easy. Achieving the All-Star status is important if you want to stand out in your industry.
Users who have this status are 40 times more likely to get opportunities on the platform.
How Do I Increase my LinkedIn Profile Strength?
Let’s now discuss how you can achieve the “All-Star” status on LinkedIn with ease.
LinkedIn Profile Picture
Source: crello.com
Your LinkedIn profile picture is a vital part of getting the “All-Star” status on the platform. It’s not only important for improving your profile’s status, but it also gets more clicks from potential clients.
Your profile picture is your first impression, and you don’t want to compromise on it. Not only does a decent profile photo of yourself makes you credible, but it also improves your chances of success on LinkedIn.
Your profile photo should be well-lit and high-quality. And, a smiling face does better than a grumpy face, anytime and anywhere.
Headline
Source: linkedin.com
Your headline should be compelling, concise, and clearly show what you are offering. In addition to containing the right keywords, it should also grab readers’ attention.
Try to include your experience, skill level, and how you’ll help others as concisely as possible in your LinkedIn profile headline.
Industry and Location
Source: linkedin.com
This might be the simplest way to get you in front of relevant people on LinkedIn. Just type in your industry, country, and zip code while creating your profile.
This will not only help you get the All-Star status but will also make you more visible to people that are looking for profiles like yours.
Experience
Source: linkedin.com
Your experience matters a lot on LinkedIn. But, don’t worry if you haven’t spent much time in your industry.
Anything from an internship or a contractual project will do. Just showcase relevant experience and you’ll make your profile much stronger.
Don’t forget your current position. Users that have a current position on LinkedIn tend to get discovered 16 times more by the recruiters.
Plus, the profiles with a current position get 29 times more views.
Education
Source: linkedin.com
The education section of your LinkedIn profile helps you regain old connections in a professional setting. Your college or university fellows will most likely be on LinkedIn; you can connect with them to strengthen your network and profile.
Skills
Source: linkedin.com
Your skills section needs to be generous as well. LinkedIn demands at least 5 skills for an “All-Star” status. These could be any micro-skill that you got during your experience or your studies.
According to LinkedIn, users with more than 5 skills have 33 times more chance of getting contacted by a recruiter.
You can add any skill relevant to your portfolio and industry. However, it’s important to mention that you’ll increase your chances of discovery if you include skills with the keywords that recruiters are searching for.
An effective way to find out relevant keywords to use in your skills section is going through the job listings on Instagram.
Find out the most repeated and important skills that recruiters are looking for and include them in your skills section.
LinkedIn Profile Summary
Your LinkedIn profile summary is probably the most important section of your profile. Having a well-optimized summary will help you get the All-Star status on LinkedIn.
Your LinkedIn summary should contain everything you want your prospects to know about you.
You can use the summary section to showcase your skills, vision, industry experience, and more. LinkedIn allows a 2000-characters summary, so you have ample space to showcase your expertise here.
Make Connections
LinkedIn is a social networking site, so naturally, making connections helps you in strengthening your profile.
For the “All-Star” status, you’d have to make at least 50 connections on the platform. It isn’t a big deal though.
When you use your email address to sign up for LinkedIn, you’d see your contacts on LinkedIn suggestions.
You can connect with your existing friends and family to get to the threshold of 50 in no time. Moreover, you can find colleagues, professors, past employers, and more people using search.
Keep Improving and Updating
The “All-Star” status shouldn’t be your only goal. Once you achieve it, keep adding relevant content to your profile and connect with like-minded people.
Your goal should be to get seen by the relevant people, and that’s much more than getting the “All-Star” status. You can only achieve that when you optimize your profile for LinkedIn’s search engine.
I realize all that work can be a little overwhelming, especially if you are new at this. But, the fact that only 51% of the LinkedIn users complete their profiles on the platform should be reason enough to act.
So, you’d have a good chance at standing out from the crowd.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is a leading professional social media platform that helps people from different industries work together.
While it’s fairly simple to set up your LinkedIn profile, getting the “All-Star” status requires you to complete every section of it.
And, although it improves your chances of visibility, the “All-Star” rating shouldn’t be the end goal.
Optimizing your profile for target clients is much more than that. So, keep optimizing your content and interact with relevant people on the platform to get more traction.
