Enhancing Your LinkedIn Profile and Page

LinkedIn Profiles showcase your work and educational experience, your skills and achievements, and all the details one might find in a professional resume or curriculum vitae or CV. While it may be easier to simply copy and paste the text out of your resume into your LinkedIn account, think about ways to convey your capabilities and personal brand more creatively.

Start with a clear, appealing photograph of yourself on your LinkedIn profile that properly conveys the professional image you want to project. Headshots are customary but you can get creative using a colored background or a different angle. Profile images appear as a circle at the top of your profile page.

Don’t stop at a profile image. LinkedIn lets you upload a background image that appears at the top of your profile and behind your profile image. The recommended dimensions for a LinkedIn background image are 1584 pixels wide by 396 pixels high.

The background image can be a photograph, a graphic, or a photo with words or illustrations on it. Remember that your profile image will cover part of the background. Check how the background appears on mobile devices to make sure nothing important is cut off.

Under the Featured section, you can add a post, article, link, newsletter, or other media. LinkedIn accepts a variety of file types so you can upload documents and presentations to your profile to enhance it further.

Approved file types that LinkedIn allows include word processing documents like those produced in Microsoft Word, PDFs, PPTs, RTFs, PNGs, JPGs, BMPs, TIFFs, and GIFs, but not animated GIFs. You can also link to specific files and pages on other websites, such as YouTube to add multimedia elements to your profile and better showcase your work.

Here’s a summary of some of the files you can upload to your LinkedIn Profile to enhance it:

Frame – You can opt to add a pre-designed frame to your LinkedIn Profile photo that appears around the bottom of the circle shape of the photo. The options provided by LinkedIn include #Hiring or #OpenToWork.

Graphics - Think logos, book covers, or other images pertaining to your business or what you do. If you’re a florist, upload images of floral arrangements and a link to your website. If you’re an artist, upload samples of your illustrations or an advertising campaign portfolio. Consider adding Infographics, a popular graphic style for visualizing data.

Photographs - Upload photographs that you’ve taken or carefully selected stock photography to represent a concept or theme.

Slides and Documents – Convert your presentation files to either Adobe PDF (.pdf), Open Office Presentation (.odp), or Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt and variations of their slide file format) to showcase your work.

Video – Link to a video on your YouTube account that pulls into your profile then add a description. Appropriate videos can include product demos, tours of your business location, or informational ones that showcase your expertise.

Enhance Your LinkedIn Company Page

The ways you can enhance your LinkedIn Company Page mirrors Profiles in some ways. Instead of a profile image, you have a logo that appears in a circle at the top of your Page. You can also include a background image which is a graphic file or photograph using the same dimensions as a profile background.

You can also upload the same multimedia files to your Page that you are able to upload to your Profile. Some features you can add to your Page that are not available on Profiles include:

Showcase Pages – These show up as additional tabs across the top portion of your Page where you can highlight a specific aspect of your business, such as a sub-brand.

Products – If you sell products and add them to your Page, a new Products tab appears at the top of your Page.

Jobs – Likewise, if you have open positions and are hiring, you can post them to your Page. The Jobs tab may appear by default on a Company Page, even without any listings.

Events – If you organize and host events, you can list them on your Page.

The content you post to your Company Page is a key feature. Use a variety of visuals, including videos, to attract attention and engage your Page followers. You can also add a poll feature to posts with LinkedIn’s built-in poll tool.

Use your LinkedIn Company Page to showcase who you are and what you do to establish and grow your online business presence. Treat your LinkedIn Company Page as a networking tool to help generate business leads.