LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site with close to 500 million members, over 6 million of them in Australia.

Linkedin is a very powerful business-oriented search engine and can certainly help generate more leads.  But before you spend too much time trying to source more leads, you need to ensure you will be creating a good first impression by ensuring your personal profile and company page (if you have one) are in tip-top shape.

Here are some quick tips on sprucing up your profile:

Ensure it’s complete.

Have a professional photo – Profiles with a photo are much more likely to be viewed.

Have a compelling headline – Rather than just your “title” tell people how you can help them.  You have 120 characters to use here.

Ensure you have completed your Contact details.

Instead of just listing your website, if you edit the link and choose Other instead of Company website, you could add a link to anything you like.  It might be an e-book on your site, for example.

Add a summary – this sits right at the top under your photo and contact details. You have up to 2000 characters so make the most of it, use them to add value to your ideal prospect.  Don’t just write all about you, but rather how you can help.  Have a call to action.  What’s the next step?  Tell them how they do business with you.

Have detailed Experience – Not just the title, but a description in there.  What did you achieve in that role?  What skills did you learn that help you today? What was your greatest achievement?

Have Recommendations & Endorsements – Recommendations are more important.  They are written individually and take more time to be written.  Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations.  You can edit & remove endorsements if they aren’t relevant to you.

Hopefully these are a few helpful tips to start you fine-tuning your profile