I reviewed thousands of LinkedIn profiles. These 3 things make or break your first impression.
During my time at LinkedIn, I reviewed thousands of profiles. Between coaching sessions, running workshops for Fortune 500 companies, and getting access to the behind-the-scenes data on the platform, I developed what I can only describe as an uncanny ability to spot optimization opportunities within seconds of landing on someone's profile.
Here's the thing: you have maybe 3-5 seconds before someone decides whether to keep scrolling or actually read your profile. That's it.
There's a lot that goes into an optimized LinkedIn profile, but the top three are the most important to start with because that is the first impression. You really only have a matter of seconds before somebody is going to scroll away.
Here are three ways that you can grab the attention of people checking out your profile:
1. Your Profile Photo - Why That Gray Floating Head Is Costing You Opportunities
The first and the most important is your profile photo. It is what is going to build trust and credibility, being able to see your face. LinkedIn's data shows that profiles with photos get 21 times more profile views on average.
You want a photo of you that is professional, clear, and crisp with either a neutral or happy expression.
What we don't want: cropped wedding photos where there's clearly somebody else in the picture, blurry selfies, and the most critical thing to avoid is not having a photo at all.
A common mistake that I see is that people will have a profile photo, but then in their settings they'll set it so that people outside of their first connections can't see their photo. Even though you can see your photo and your first-degree connections can see your photo, when a recruiter is taking a look at your profile, they are just seeing the gray blob floating head.
Here's how to fix it:
- Go to your profile and click on your little "Me" icon
- Select "Settings and Privacy"
- Click on "Visibility" (there's an eyeball icon there)
- Select "Edit Public Profile"
- Set your profile photo to either "All LinkedIn members" or "Public." Make sure that it is not on "LinkedIn members connected to you" because that's going to run into the problem of the people who are researching you. If you're looking for a job, a recruiter is not going to be able to see it.
Recruiters are ultra focused on whether accounts and people applying to jobs are authentic right now with the number of AI bots out there, and you don't want that very simple setting to be the reason that somebody loses trust or confidence in you.
2. Your Banner - The Free Billboard You're Ignoring
Your banner (also sometimes called your header) is that large horizontal image that sits at the top of your LinkedIn profile, right behind your profile photo. It's the visual backdrop to your entire profile.
Most people waste this space. You probably either have nothing there, you have the grayish blue blob background that almost everybody on LinkedIn has, or you maybe have put one of LinkedIn's available banners up, which is going to make you look like everybody else.
At the bare minimum what I would say about this is that we know the numbers support that the top of your profile is going to be the most viewed part. Common sense also supports this. This is like having a free billboard space, and if you're not using it, you are losing out.
The bare minimum would be to update it to a photo of your city skyline where you're based, a picture of your office, or something else that has to do with you personally and professionally.
The better thing to do is to actually create a customized banner that can tell more of your story quickly. If you have LinkedIn Premium you can create a slideshow that tells your story with up to five slides. There are some free Canva templates, it can be super basic, but it is yet another signal that you are a real person and it's also an opportunity to tell somebody about what you do and what you offer.
3. Your Headline - Stop Wasting 200+ Characters
Your headline is that text that appears directly under your name on your LinkedIn profile. It shows up everywhere on LinkedIn: in search results, when you comment on posts, when you send connection requests. It's one of the most visible pieces of real estate on your entire profile.
The majority of people on LinkedIn just have "Title at Company" or if you're just starting your career, maybe (Student at University), whatever the case may be. From the LinkedIn documentation I want to say it's like 220 characters that can fit here, so I think of it like a tweet. If I'm not utilizing some of this space I'm not fully optimizing on priming people who land on my page and also the optimization for search for recruiters and other people looking across LinkedIn.
You can still have your current "Title at Company", but consider adding some additional context: who you help, how you help, and the outcome. You can include accolades. It's also sometimes nice to just add personal things in here that can be a really great way to open a conversation.
When I say personal things, it's the same kind of fun facts that you might share if you were at a networking event. It could range from a sport that you're passionate about, if you're a marathon runner, to if you're passionate about rescuing animals, or whatever it may be. I've talked about matcha before and that opened up more conversations than most things I've ever done on LinkedIn.
The Bottom Line
These three things really make up your first impression on your LinkedIn profile and are going to get people to scroll through the rest of your profile.
Now, it is not the full picture, and the way that recruiters search on LinkedIn requires you to optimize other parts of your profile. If you're interested in setting your profile up for success so that a recruiter or your ideal client can find you, book a full LinkedIn audit or LinkedIn profile review with me where I can set you up for success.
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