In the twenty first-century, having a LinkedIn profile is part and parcel to a complete professional brand. With more than 225 million members, LinkedIn is the largest global professional network that offers endless possibilities for finding potential connections, such as alumni, hiring & recruiting managers, prospective mentors, or simply professionals in the same trade as you. As a result, it’s in your best interest to create a polished LinkedIn profile with your own curated content to appeal to those who you would like to add to your network. For those reasons, you should update your LinkedIn profile in these ways:

Create a Vanity URL

• To create a new URL, hover over the Profile button at the menu bar at the top of your page, and click “Edit Profile.”
• Locate your URL under your profile picture, and select “Edit.” Once you are brought to your Public Profile, find and click the “Customize your public profile URL,” located in the top right section of your page.
• Write a new URL that is easy to remember, and reflects you personally, and click “Set Custom URL” to finalize your brand new link.

Share Content

Treat LinkedIn the way many treat Facebook – engage regularly with others, share professional content you’re enthusiastic about, and don’t hesitate to respond to a connection’s status or updates. Since you’re looking to get noticed and stand apart from the crowd, you’ll want to open yourself up to the possibility of new opportunities by actively participating on the site’s status feature. According to one estimate, 77 percent of LinkedIn members search for individuals and companies, and 50 percent use it to build new networks, so to stay fresh in people’s minds, regularly update your profile daily to show that you’re up to date and in the know.

Participate in LinkedIn Groups

You can further impact your online presence by participating in a few LinkedIn groups. Though LinkedIn does limit the number of groups you can be in to 50, you’ll only need to join a few – anywhere from 3 to 5. To make the most of your participation in those groups, you’ll need to get your chat technique down to a science. For each post in which you market yourself, make 10 comments on other daily topics. If you can, try to be one of the main voices in a key LinkedIn group. People will think of you as a thought leader, and hopefully this will start offshoots in which others converse with you on a more personal level and result in new connections.

Update Your LinkedIn Profile Quarterly

Each quarter, update the headline, summary and job experience portions of your job history to ensure your history accurately reflects your resume. It’s also a good idea to follow the prompts to complete your profile because according to LinkedIn, a complete profile adds to your chances of being found by 40 percent! If your profile is already complete, consider adding new duties you may have taken on at work, or a new skill you’ve started to learn. LinkedIn’s search functionality relies on the words in your profile, so your profile will pop up more frequently if there are keywords that speak to the specific skills and expertise you have.

Write Recommendations and Endorse Skills

If you give on LinkedIn, you most certainly will receive! LinkedIn karma goes a long way, and allows others you’ve vouched for to pay it forward to others (and you). The easiest way of affirming someone’s professional value is by endorsing their skills, which you can personally confirm. The process itself is easy, as LinkedIn allows user to quickly endorse skills through a popup at the top of the page which goes from user to user, enabling you to efficiently check off a large number of connections in a brief amount of time.

A more personal way of vouching for a connection is to write a recommendation for them, speaking about your own professional relationship with them and the knowledge you have of their work ethic, integrity, capabilities, and accomplishments. Once you complete a recommendation, LinkedIn will alert your connection to the recommendation you’ve written, which they must approve in order for it to show up on their profile. After writing the recommendation, personalize the message they see in the alert by creating a polite and sincere query wishing them well and hinting your encouragement for them to return the favor in kind.

The internet can be a great resource of information for employers to find out about your personality, work ethic, and portfolio of work. Using LinkedIn enables you to influence what they see. By keeping your profile relevant and up to date, you will be ready to make connections and explore new opportunities anytime!