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Getting started on Linkedin can be challenging. But, that’s not you, because after reading this article you know exactly what to do.
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Getting Started on LinkedIn: First Steps on Building a Solid Foundation for Professional Growth
You’ve heard that Linkedin is the place to find opportunities as a job seeker, hire the right people if you’re a recruiter, or grow your personal brand as an entrepreneur or business owner.
But, coming to the platform might be daunting at first:
Suddenly, it seems like everyone who posts or engages with other content has it figured out.
Just don’t forget that everyone once started as a beginner as well.
In this article, you’ll learn the most important things to get started on LinkedIn.
First, you learn the basics of a LinkedIn profile.
Second, you get to know how to find and engage with the right people, and finally, you will understand how to create the right content to grow your brand.
In the process of creating your LinkedIn content, Taplio can prove to be an invaluable resource. Our LinkedIn Tool is designed to cater to various needs, from content creation to scheduling posts.
Experience the benefits of Taplio for free today!
Part 1: Set up your profile
You want to ensure that all the information on your personal information is correct.
After all, you never know who views your profile. When you go to your personal profile, you can adjust your details using the edit button on the right side.
By choosing the ‘Add profile section’ you can add more elements to your profile.
The following 5 elements are the most important to focus on at the start of your LinkedIn journey:
- Headline
- Profile picture
- Banner
- About section
- Creator mode
Let’s break them down one by one.
Headline
Your personal headline is your LinkedIn introduction.
It should grab people's attention and create clarity on what you do. When someone visits your profile, their subconscious goes: “Why should I care to follow this person?” or “How can this person help me solve a problem I have?”
A general rule of thumb: you want to make your headline more than just a job title.
Even though it’s your profile and headline, it should be about your potential audience.
You want to display how your brand can potentially serve them. Not how great you think you are. A quick checklist to craft a strong headline:
- Clearly communicates who you are
- Communicates who you help and how
- Easy to tell what problem you solve
- Is mobile-friendly
- Is short and catchy
Three great examples of strong headlines:
Profile picture
Your profile picture is the first thing your audience sees.
You don’t want to miss this opportunity to impress your audience and show them your best appearance.
We can’t tell you the rules for a perfect profile picture, but here’s a list of best practices:
- Use great lighting
- Use a recent picture
- Smile. It's your best asset
- Choose a background that's not crowded
- Use a high-quality camera (quality matters)
- If preferred, you can use your brand colors as a background
Banner
Your banner is your free billboard on your LinkedIn Profile.
As it takes up a lot of screen space, it’s a waste to not use this feature to display your brand image. Similar to your profile picture, there isn't one perfect answer on which image you should use for your header.
Here are 3 aspects you want to be aware of when picking a header image:
- Personality: Use your banner to showcase yourself or your brand aesthetically.
- Quality: Nobody wants to look at a pixelated image.
- Creative: Use this opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
If you’d ask us, LinkedIn Creator Jasmin Alić has one of the strongest and most creative banners on LinkedIn.
About section
Something referred to as your summary.
Here’s where you want to highlight anything you want about yourself, your career, your journey, and what your superpower is.
Your summary is your chance to tell your own story – so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had. It’s also important to address your ideal client or audience. Show them you understand their problem or challenge, and don’t only talk about yourself.
Don’t sleep on the About section, as it can become the most effective element of your Linkedin Profile.
Creator Mode
This is one of the latest additions to the LinkedIn Profile:
And it can literally transform your LinkedIn Profile into a launchpad.
You can choose to showcase your course, your newsletter or your website.
Just don't use this section to cover your "best-performing" posts. (no one really cares about that)
Here’s how you can enable Creator Mode on your LinkedIn Profile:
- Go to your LinkedIn Profile.
- In the middle, you should see a tab called "Resources".
- Click on Creator Mode.
- Add up to 5 topics to show potential followers what you post about most.
- Once done, you'll see a new element is added to your Profile.
- Add items by clicking + in the top-right corner.
Part 2: Find and connect with the right people
With 875 million users, LinkedIn is a big city.
So, if you don’t know who you’re looking for, it’s nearly impossible to find them. In this section, we break down the process of strategically finding and connecting with the right people on LinkedIn.
First and foremost, LinkedIn is a search engine. A powerful one as it not only allows you to search for people’s names, but it also allows you to search for job titles, companies, and “headlines.” This is not a difficult thing to do, you just have to see it one time to understand.
Type in what you’re looking for and click on “all filters” to see all the options to narrow down your search.
Once you understand how to find interesting people to connect with, you can be even more strategic about it.
If you’re serious about growing on LinkedIn you don’t want to add just about everyone to your network. To build up a relevant and diverse network, you want to look at adding the following 5 types of accounts:
- Top Creators
- Same industry/size
- Ideal clients
- Promising creators
- Friends/content you like
Finally, once you’ve had an interaction with another creator in the comment section of a post, it’s always a great idea to take the connection to the next level:
Send that person a personalized connection request and open the conversation.
This way, you build engaged and real relationships, one step at a time.
Part 3: Create the right content
Content is the magnet you can use to attract like-minded people.
So, similar to the connecting part, you want to be strategic about this element.
In general, great content can do two things:
- It helps your audience to solve a problem they face.
- It positions you as the expert to help them solve the problem they face.
First, content that solves the problem for your audience can be
- "Behind-The-Scenes"
- "Here's how I did X"
- "How-to do X" (make sure you have the expertise to talk about it)
Secondly, content to position you as the expert can look like:
- "Here's a result I booked for XX"
- "Here's how we solved problem XX"
- A case study.
Don’t forget to properly format the content of every post you publish. Try our LinkedIn Post Formatter tool for free and save time!
Conclusion
Getting started on Linkedin can be challenging if you don’t know what to do. But, that’s not you, after reading this article you know exactly what to do next.
It’s time to optimize your LinkedIn Profile, be strategic about growing your audience, and create the right content that grows your brand.
The best part here is that you don’t have to do it all by yourself.
For every step of the way, from generating content to engaging with your favorite creators, Taplio is there to help you out.
👉 Get started with Taplio for free
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