LPO: LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Job Seekers

This ebook is for people who are looking for a job or a better job. Use this ebook to improve your presence in LinkedIn so when companies and recruiters are searching for staff, you show up.

You can also share this to help your friends and family who are looking for jobs.

Why Did I Write This?

I teach digital marketing at Omnes Education and CSTU. Many of my students are looking for jobs. Many friends of my friends are looking for better jobs. This ebook helps them to find good jobs or better jobs with more salary.

About Me

For more about me, see andreas.com

LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Job Seekers by Andreas Ramos. All rights reserved. � 2023 Andreas Ramos USA. Version 1.9d, March 2023. Get the latest version: andreas.com/book-linkedin-profile.html

Your Feedback

If you have questions, comments, or ideas, let me know. Andreas Ramos, andreas@andreas.com

Acknowledgments

This ebook came out my book Mastering LinkedIn which covers LinkedIn Sales Navigator (August 2019). Many ideas also came from Ron Morris, the director, and students at Omnes Education and CSTU. Donald Witttman�s Ignite Your LinkedIn Profile and Brenda Bernstein�s How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile were helpful resources. Many thanks to Joy Montgomery for extensive feedback and edits (linkedin.com/in/joymontgomery/) and suggestions by Martine Khan.

The eBook�s Cover

Spring by Pieter Breughel the Younger (1633). Just as farmers take care of their gardens and animals, you take care of your presence on LinkedIn.

< The LinkedIn Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Companies score resumes with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) software. When people apply for jobs, their resumes are put into computer systems, and when recruiters look for candidates, the ATS software searches and ranks resumes. Each resume gets a score. The best ones go to the top. A resume with a low score, will not be seen.

ATS + Artificial Intelligence

Most ATS now are based on artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. These look at hundreds of millions of resumes and billions of parameters (rules and filter) to sort resumes and find the best ones.

This book shows you how to optimize your LinkedIn profile for the LinkedIn ATS.

LinkedIn and ATS

LinkedIn has 850 million profiles (Dec. 2022).

LinkedIn is a resume database for recruiters (both internal recruiters at companies and external recruiters at agencies).

Recruiters use LinkedIn ATS which sorts and ranks user profiles (resumes).

LinkedIn looks at your connections within your industry, recommendations from experts within your industry, your education, skills, job history, interests, activity, and much more. LinkedIn uses this information to grade your profile and show your LinkedIn score to recruiters.

Who Uses ATS?

Applications to pretty much any job that matters are managed by ATS:

Jobscan reports that 98% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS.

Kelly OCG survey finds 66% of large companies use ATS.

35% of small organizations use ATS.

89% of hires are based on LinkedIn profiles.

There are more than 100 ATS. The LinkedIn ATS is the largest.

If you apply to a large organization, your application is sorted and scored by an ATS.

If you apply through any major online form, your application is sorted and scored by an ATS.

Managers and Recruiters

In general, when a manager needs to hire someone, he sends a request to a recruiter. These can be internal recruiters in HR (Human Resources) or external recruiters who work for staffing companies. The recruiters find several hundred potential candidates and present perhaps ten resumes to the manager.

94% of internal and external recruiters use LinkedIn.

They look at 3,000 profiles to find ten candidates (1 in 300).

89% of hires are based on LinkedIn.

You must stand out clearly from the pack. In general, managers look at only one profile out of 300 (0.3%).

LinkedIn Is More Important for You than Google

Google indexes everything: people, companies, products, planets, cities, cats, everything. Google had 130 trillion pages in 2022. You�re a drop in the Google ocean.

In contrast, LinkedIn only indexes profiles. There are 850 million members and growing at about six million per month. These include contractors, staffers, management, investors, analysts, and so on. Profiles include name, city, job titles, skills, education, activity, and connections to other members. If you want to be hired, use LinkedIn.

How You Can Use LinkedIn

There are several ways to use LinkedIn:

Use LinkedIn to find the best opportunities.

Be found by managers, recruiters, or companies for a job.

Be found by others for connections, partnerships, projects, speaking opportunities, and more.

What about Facebook or Other Social Media Sites?

LinkedIn is often called social media, but it�s not the same as Facebook or Tiktok. Facebook and other social media sites can show what your friends have for lunch. Those sites show your network of friends.

LinkedIn profiles and pages for people, companies, universities, and so on. Organizations use LinkedIn to find people. People use LinkedIn to look for connections or jobs.

How Does LinkedIn Decide Which Profile Will Be at the Top?

Every LinkedIn profile has a score from 1 to 100.

The higher the score, the higher your profile will appear.

So� What�s Your LinkedIn Score?

Your score is called the LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) score.

Is there a Score for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, and so on?

Yes, all social media sites use scores to rank people. They all use AI to sort and rank accounts.

Are there Other Scores?

In the US and many countries, you have a credit score. Banks, credit card companies use this to decide how much financial credit to give you.

These scores work the same way: the higher your score, the more you get.

Before You Start, Find Your LinkedIn SSI Score

Before you start to improve your LinkedIn profile,

1. Go to https://linkedin.com/sales/ssi

2. You can see your SSI score.

3. Make a screenshot and save it.

4. Use this LPO ebook to improve your LinkedIn SSI score.

5. After every change, check again to see your new SSI score.

How to read those numbers:

Industry SSI Rank shows your rank in your industry. This fellow is in the top 41%. Ideally, he should be in the top 5%.

Network SSI Rank shows your rank in your network. This fellow is in the top 77%. Not very good. Ideally, in the top 5%

You Are Writing for the LinkedIn ATS Algorithm

The LinkedIn ATS SSI score decides if your profile shows up on the manager�s screen.

High SSI score, you show up.

Low SSI score, you don�t show up.

Your Profile

Your Background Image

The background is that large banner behind your photo.

The generic blue background shows Joanne did not improve her profile.

The image should show what you do.

The image is 1584 pixels wide by 396 pixels high (1584w x 396h) in PNG format.

For ideas, search at Google for LinkedIn background images.

Check your profile on both desktop and mobile to make sure it looks good.

Don�t waste this space with pretty sunsets or abstract patterns. Look at others in your industry and see what they use.

Your Name

Be findable. Use the name that people know for you. If your name is Robert Smith but people know you as Bob Smith, use Bob Smith.

If your name is difficult to spell, use several versions in the name field. For example, your first name can be in the first name box as Marianne Mariianne Marianna.

Edit Your Name in Your Public Profile URL

Along with your name in your profile, you can also change your URL.

If your LinkedIn URL is something like linkedin.com/in/527334563454, you can change it to linkedin.com/in/LauraJones/

To change your URL:

Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.

Click View profile.

On your profile page, click Edit public profile & URL on the right.

Under Edit URL in the right rail, click the Edit icon next to your public profile URL.

Change it from linkedin.com/in/ 527334563454 to linkedin.com/in/laurajones/

You can also add skills to your URL, such as LinkedIn.com/in/KarenDigitalMarketing

Your Profile Photo

People look carefully at your photo to see if you�ll fit into the team.

Get a professional portrait photograph (go to a photographer and get a photo).

Don�t use a blurry snapshot, a bottle of beer in your hands, and so on.

No sunglasses!

Don�t look like a driver�s license photo (facing straight at the camera). Turn your shoulders slightly.

Smile! Wear bright solid colors.

Use PNG image format for the best quality.

Make sure your profile photo can be seen by others. In your �Me� pulldown menu of the navigation bar, find �Settings and Privacy. On the �Account tab,� find �Site Preferences,� and scroll down to �Showing profile photos.� Make sure this is set to �Everyone.�

Here are several examples of profile photos:

Roger Kuo does biz dev for large companies, so his profile photo is corporate yet relaxed.

Hope Frank�s photo shows confidence and openness, which is what a top CMO should be.

The Caption Section

The caption is the summary that appears below your photo. It shows the reader why she should look at the rest of your profile.

The caption is a summary (two to three lines in 120 characters) of what you offer to others.

A good caption quickly tells people what you can do for them. The caption should focus on your customer�s needs.

Position you within your job area and, at the same time, clearly distinguish you from others in your job area.

Start with your desired job title and top 3 skills. For example: Seeking Position as Director of Sales in an IoT, Cloud, Blockchain Startup.

On mobile devices, she will see only the first 50 characters, so the most important go at the front.

Example: I will help you build a business, get a job, keep a job, get a raise, get leads, influence your niche market. Fast.

Example: I help you to feature your brand in Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, and others to build credibility and trust.

The About Section

The About summary is the block of text under your short headline.

When someone comes to your profile page, they see two lines about you which end with �Show More�� They click that to see your full summary.

A good method is to state a question or bold statement and follow it with your solution. The best About Us sections tell your story and give someone something to relate to. You need to quickly give someone a reason to reach out to you and get on their calendar. End it with a call to action. �Call me now� or �Email me.�

Show �Why should I hire you?� Show who you are. Show why you�re successful. What do you say when people ask you, �So what do you do?� at a party.

Show that you love what you do. You�re happy at, growing at, working in a great team at�

List three successes and three accomplishments.

Describe your titles, core competency, location (region), technical skills, soft skills, languages.

Add 20 keyword phrases (see the section on Top Skills at the end).

You can use up to 2,000 characters, including spaces. Be concise! Use short declarative sentences. If you use a list, don�t use bullets (which are hard to see). Use (copy and paste). Use bullet points to highlight skills, use short sentences, and put space between your paragraphs, so it�s easy to scan.

Close with a call-to-action (CTA) and your contact information. You must add your contact information because 70% of recruiters don�t pay for Premium and can�t see your contact information.

For example: Call me Jennifer Williams email jennifer@gmail.com jenniferwilliams.com Tel. +1.650.123.4567 San Francisco, California

Add �Open To� to Your Profile

Use AI tools (such as ChatGPT) to rewrite your headline, about, experience, requests for connections, and other items.

The prompt to rewrite your About section: rewrite in concise professional style to my [ideal customer persona] with a relatable and authentic message that highlights my abilities and persuades them to [desired action]: [insert your summary]

Example: rewrite in concise professional style to bank presidents with a relatable and authentic message, that highlights my abilities and persuades them to contact me: [insert your summary]

Always review carefully! The AI often writes wrong text, which can wreck your results.

Here is an example of rewriting with ChatGPT:

The Original Version

Experienced Program and Project Manager comfortable with growth and change. Enjoy improving processes, providing meaningful metrics and eliminating frustration. Specialties: Building organizations, methodologies and processes. Broad knowledge of application areas including Finance, Budgeting, Forecasting, Contract Management, Royalty Management

The New Version Edited by ChatGPT

As an experienced Program and Project Manager, I have a proven track record in driving growth and managing change effectively.

My expertise in building organizations, developing methodologies, and streamlining processes allows me to improve efficiency and deliver meaningful metrics. My broad knowledge of various application areas, including finance, budgeting, forecasting, contract management, and royalty management, makes me an ideal candidate to help your bank navigate the ever-changing landscape.

yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>I am confident in my ability to eliminate frustration and bring positive results.

yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my skills and experience can benefit your bank. Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Your Profile in Other Languages

You can post your profile in other languages, including French, Spanish, German, Chinese, and so on. You can have up to three languages.

Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.

Click View profile.

Click Add profile in another language at the right.

Choose a language in the dropdown list.

Update your name if it�s different in another language (for example, Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic)

Fill out the Caption and About section in that language.

Be sure it uses correct words and good grammar. If possible, have someone review your profile.

Tip: Use ChatGPT or Google Translate to translate your caption and summary to another language.

Add �Open To� to Your Profile

Add an �Open to� to show you want to be contacted.

Of ~875 million profiles, only ~20 million (2.3%) are actively looking. LinkedIn uses �Open to� to know who is likely to respond.

1. Click the pencil.

2. Click Add Services.

3. Use the search box to find what you offer (hiring, jobs, speaking, finance, IT, law, business, operations, business, and more). Add up to nine items.

4. Add details (such as articles, reviews, and so on).

5. An #OpenToWork (or similar) badge is added to your photo.

Let�s See How this Works

LinkedIn added a purple #Hiring badge to my profile photo.

LinkedIn added a hiring box in my profile.

Here�s what the manager (in this case, me) sees:

LinkedIn lets the manager filter candidates by relevance, rating, location, and experience.

Under Ratings, the manager can select Unrated, Good Fit, Maybe, Not a Fit.

For this search:

27 candidates applied.

9 candidates are shown.

18 candidates are filtered out.

The LinkedIn ATS blocked 18 applications (66%).

LinkedIn writes, �By default, we filter out applicants who are �Not a Fit.�

Many people say to me, �LinkedIn doesn�t work! Nobody ever offers me a job!� I tell them to find their SSI score. They have low SSI scores.

The Experience Section

The experience section is what you put in a resume. Add your positions, job titles, organizations, dates (start and end), and a summary of each position.

Assure the reader that you�re interested and dedicated in your work. Show you have the necessary skills and competence. Show a series of steps of increasing advancement in your career.

Don�t assume skills. List everything you used. If Microsoft Excel appears five times in your Experience section, you�ll score higher than someone who only lists it once.

List three recent relevant positions.

Don�t list irrelevant jobs or experience.

The Education Section

List all relevant certificates, licenses, and education.

Volunteer Experience Section

List your volunteer activity here.

It looks good to show that you�re active in your community, such as the Red Cross, church, scouting, city activities, and so on.

The Skills and Endorsements Section

People vote on your skills to endorse you.

The list should show your top three skills.

Get at least 25 endorsements for each of your top three skills.

If there are skills at the top of your list, but these are not relevant, click the pushpin icon to remove it from the top three so you can add a new item to the top three.

If another skill should be in the top three, click the pushpin icon at the left to move it to the top.

If skills overlap (such as �web analytics� and �analytics�), delete the one with fewer votes.

You can also grab the four bars at the right and drag the skills to reorder by priority.

To add more skills, click on �Industry Knowledge: List of additional skills.�

LinkedIn looks at your profile, notes the tools that frequently appear in your jobs, and may add some of them to this list. But don�t rely on LinkedIn. Add all skills that you know.

It�s not good to have (for example) sixty skills. That diffuses the votes for you. You should show a few skills to get people to vote on those.

The Recommendations Section

People read the recommendations to get a sense of who you are.

Get 5-10 recommendations.

Ask your managers, college instructors, staffers, clients, and others to write recommendations for you.

LinkedIn gives more weight to recommendations from people who are skilled in relevant fields.

The Accomplishments Section

Show what you�ve done. List your significant accomplishments, such as books or articles that you�ve published, awards, recognitions, mountains you�ve climbed, marathons, and so on.

The Interests Section

Add your interests in people, activities, and things. LinkedIn uses this to select postings for your News Feed. LinkedIn also uses this information to match you to others and suggest you to them.

Influencers: These are leaders in your field or industry whom you follow. By listing these, others can see that you know who is important in your field.

Companies: These are relevant companies and organizations that you follow. This can include clients, companies where you�ve worked, and companies where you would like to work.

Groups: These are associations, clubs, and memberships. You should list all professional societies and groups for your career.

Schools: Universities and colleges. If you�re interested in MIT, you can enter it here, and LinkedIn will show postings and articles from them.

Additional Sections

Courses, publications (add your blog�s URL), honors, awards, projects, organizations, test scores, certifications, patents.

Click the �Add Profile Section�

Be Active on LinkedIn

You can�t just edit your profile and then wait under the bed for the phone to ring.

You must be active on LinkedIn.

Postings to the News Feed

The News feed is a stream of postings by people or topics that you follow or postings that LinkedIn thinks may be interesting to you.

Before June 2023, LinkedIn encouraged postings that got lots of attention. However, this led to spammy or trivial postings, which resulted in less attention.

In June 2023, LinkedIn changed the emphasis of postings.

Less emphasis: Selfies, posts to get high views, methods to game the system to get likes. These postings show up less and get low scores.

More emphasis: Posts with information that are useful and relevant to others in your area of expertise. These posts get higher scores.

LinkedIn uses its AI and 5,000 reviewers to analyze, classify, and score the postings. A posting does better when:

� The post is relevant to a particular audience. A post about industrial electrical systems is relevant to people who work with industrial electrical systems.

� The author is writing about his/her area of expertise. A expert in installation and maintenance of industrial electrical systems writes about such things.

� The post gets "meaningful comments" (good comments from other relevant experts). Other industrial electrical systems experts comments on the posting.

� The post shows the person's perspective or insights. The posting isn�t just facts: it offers the person�s experience or expert opinions.

LinkedIn gives you points for activity.

You should post once a week.

You should also write useful, relevant comments to relevant postings by others.

How to Get Ideas for Postings

Subscribe to 3-5 email newsletter for your industry. When you see an interesting item, write a summary of two or three lines.

Add your experience or expertise to the posting, such as �Why I think this is good/bad,� �This works/doesn�t work because�,�and so on.

Add relevant photos and video. Use your phone�s video camera for short fifteen or thirty second interview.

Use the @mention in your post. As you write your post, type the �@� symbol and then a person�s name. A list will appear, and you can select her from the list. When you finish, her name will appear in bold. Her name will be clickable. She will also get a notice that she has been mentioned.

Articles

If you have enough LinkedIn points, you get access to articles. This is LinkedIn�s blogging section. It allows long postings.

Write articles to show your knowledge and skills.

Google indexes articles, so whatever you write will be picked up by Google.

However, you don�t get points for LinkedIn postings.

Posting Are also Scored

You get a higher SSI score when you post relevant expert postings to the LinkedIn News and other relevant experts comment on your postings.

� yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>You write a post that�s relevant to your area of expertise in LinkedIn.

� The Universal Filter identifies the topic of your posting.

� The Universal Filter also looks for spam keywords.

� Relevant experts engage with your posting (views, likes, forwards, comments, etc.). They write useful comments. They may also flag postings as spam.

� yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>LinkedIn gives your posting a score.

� If you get a good score, your posting will be shown to your followers who are in your field. � If a posting is spammy, it�s reviewed by filters or LinkedIn�s 5,000 reviewers. The positing may be blocked. The user may be blocked.

Insight: Informative, expert on-topic postings are promoted. Other postings are dropped.

The SSI Score also Includes Activity

The LinkedIn score also includes your activity.

Chart, line chart

Description automatically generated

The illustration shows the views of Robert�s profile. Before he read this ebook, his profile had few views from April to May. He read this ebook and became active on LinkedIn from May to July. His profile views went up. He went on vacation in early August, and profile views dropped.

Search to Find Jobs

It is much better for you to contact companies on LinkedIn instead posting your resume on job sites.

Look at company pages.

Follow your target companies.

Apply to directly companies within LinkedIn. They will look at your profile.

Prepare for Interviews

A manager with ten years of experience has interviewed hundreds of people. He knows within seconds if someone will be a good fit or not.

Dress to match the company style. Suit and tie for banks, T-shirt and sandals for a surfboard company.

Behave to match the company style. Professional or casual.

Be confident, look the manager in the eyes, shake hands.

Study your target company before the interview. Learn about the company, its history, market, products, five competitors, and the industry business trends, etc. Study the last five years of trends and data. Find the manager�s name (or the hiring team), study each of them carefully. Where they�ve worked, their education, their interests, and so on. Look for mutual interests.

Make a list of 20 questions. It looks good if you ask questions. It looks bad if you don�t ask questions, which shows a lack of preparation and lack of interest.

You can find industry analyst reports for nearly all companies and markets. Go to your university business school library or the central library in your city. Ask the research librarian to help you.

Tip: Spend at least two weeks on research.

Find the trends:

If the trends for companies and markets are growing, there will be more income and career advancement.

If the trends are flat, that means no increase in income or career.

If the trends are downwards, that means layoffs.

Look for managers who are moving up. If he�s been in the same position for ten years, it won�t be good for you. You won�t get raise, better position, more responsibility.

Find What the Salary Should Be

Most people are underpaid because they don�t know what others earn, so they don�t ask for more. They don�t negotiate their salaries. Learn what others are earning and you will get more money.

Use LinkedIn Salary information. Find salaries for a job title, skills, and location at LinkedIn.com/salary/

Learn how to negotiate. It looks good if you negotiate. You get more money. If you apply for a manager or director position, but you don�t negotiate, that looks bad.

Hire a professional salary negotiator for a few days. The small fee will bring you much more in your career lifetime.

This section is too short. I could write a book about this. For ten years, I was the head of a nationwide trade organization. I discovered many of our members were underpaid compared to others with the same job title and skillset, so I set up a project to help them interview and negotiate salaries. We helped dozens and dozens of people to get 20-30% more income.

Another salary resource is Glassdoor.com and PayScale.com

LinkedIn Contractors

Many don�t realize that LinkedIn has a section where companies can hire you as a freelance contractor.

There are hundreds of categories in LinkedIn Profinder, such as Business consulting: advertising consulting; brand consulting; business consulting; educational consulting; email marketing; environmental consulting; finance consulting; healthcare consulting; human resources consulting; legal consulting; political consulting; pr consulting; pricing consulting; strategy consulting; marketing consulting; nonprofit consulting; project management;

List your skills so companies can hire you.

Go to linkedin.com/profinder/

Add Connections

Connections

Your connections� SSI score also affects your score.

� yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>Connections with high SSI scores will increase your SSI score.

� yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>Connections with low SSI will not help your score .

You should have at least 1,000 connections. 5,000 is better. If you have fewer than 900, LinkedIn may not recommend you to others.

Build your connections in your industry.

� Use Advanced Search to find people.

� yellow;layout-grid-mode:line'>Look for people five to ten years ahead of you in your career path � Look for contacts from college or previous companies.

� Look for shared interests (hiking, chess, tennis, etc.).

Find recruiters in your market. They always accept your request. For example, to find recruiters for project managers in San Francisco, use Google: site:LinkedIn.com (inurl:pub) "project managers" "recruiter� "san francisco" -jobs

Connect to your address book.

You can narrow your search by combining queries, such as:

Connections of an existing connection

Countries, states, provinces, cities

Industries

Languages

Schools

Interests and keywords

Name of a person including their title, company, and school

Tip: You can also use buy connections with LinkedIn Follower Ads. You pay if someone follows you.

Write an Introduction Message

When you ask someone to connect to you, write a personal message. It works much better.

Show common interests (We both work in aeronautic engineering).

Show common job history (We both worked at IBM).

Show common education (We both went to the University of Chicago).

Show common location (We both live in California).

Read the person�s profile and write a short meaningful introduction to improve your connection rate. Start by showing interest in talking with them.

Here are a few examples:

Hello, John, I see you�re from Houston. We often travel to Houston and love the city!

Hello, Laura; I looked at your profile and saw you completed the LinkedIn Marketing Technology course. I was considering that course. Did you think it�s worthwhile?

The second step is to give a reason for the connection. Write a short sentence to say why you would like to connect.

I�m interested in connecting because we both work in blockchain banking.

I see that your specialty is in search engine optimization. I�d like to hear your thoughts.

Show the person that you�ve read her posts, articles, or books.

I saw your post about blockchain economics and wrote a comment

Re-share a post and use the �@mention� so they know you have shared their content

When you use an @mention, the person is notified

When the post appears, the person�s name is a clickable link

People will notice when you engage with their postings and articles. They�ll pay attention to you.

Close the message with an action step. Ask the person to connect with you. This can be a simple question such as �Would you connect to me? Thanks, Bob�

Note: LinkedIn looks at the success rate of your connection requests. If you get 45% acceptance, that�s good and your SSI score goes up.. If someone has only 3% acceptance rate, that�s bad and his SSI score will suffer. Write good requests for connections.

A Few More Items

Synchronize Your Calendar to LinkedIn

Sync your calendar to LinkedIn, so when you go to a meeting, you see information about the person