You are not the one who settles for the mediocre. 

You need something truly amazing – a LinkedIn profile that makes the onlookers jealous yet attracted to you. 

Getting instructions on how to create a LinkedIn profile or how to fill in a LinkedIn profile and creating one is easy. 

Anyone can find that information anywhere on the web. But that won’t be enough for you.

You are looking for how to create an amazing LinkedIn profile, with an emphasis on the word amazing. 

This article will give you exactly that – high-level advice on how to create an amazing LinkedIn profile. 

Let’s dive in!

A Happy Profile Picture

When it comes to creating an outstanding LinkedIn profile, the importance of an elegant profile picture can’t be overstated.

Hire an expert headshot photographer to take a happy and smiling photo for your LinkedIn profile.

One study of 800 profile pictures found that a smile in your photo makes people view you as more likable, competent, and influential.

If you prefer a more serious brand for your profile and do not want to be overtly smiling, try to at least look happy and smile with your eyes.

A Customised Profile Banner

Your profile banner is just as important as a profile photo.

A combination of an amazing profile photo and a highly customised and appealing profile banner can go a long way in impressing and attracting your profile visitors.

These 2 elements are highly efficient in showing the visitors what you are all about.

1. The banner should be self-explanatory about what you are offering to the world smartly and elegantly.
2. The design elements should resonate with the taste of your industry and target audience.

An expert graphics designer experienced in creating LinkedIn profile banners should be able to create an amazing LinkedIn profile banner for you.

Targeted and Witty Headlines

Your LinkedIn profile headline should articulate your most important selling point in clear terms while keeping the audience at the centre of attention. The headline should show what you can do to make your audience’s life and business easier. Also, it should point out what are the problems you will solve for them.  

Always remember that your audience is the hero here, not you. 

Here’s a great example of how to make it all about them, not you:

Here the hero is the audience – the candidates.

You can also go for showcasing your most cherished positions, accolades, and attributes on your profile headline using separators ( | ). 

Here’s an example from an expert LinkedIn profile:

The professional summary also has to be written with the same philosophy of celebrating your audience and keeping them in the centre of attention.

It’s all about what you bring to the table for solving their problems. It’s about your skills, surely, but not only that. It’s also about how your skills will help your audience to further their cause and business success.

It doesn’t mean you won’t talk about yourself at all. It’s that you have to talk about yourself in such a way that it feels as if you are talking about your readers.

Here’s an example:

Instead of saying..

Say something like..

Here’s another example from a real-life LinkedIn superstar:

Notice how it talks about inspiring and empowering people while also describing all the major attributes of the LinkedIn user. 

Accomplishment-Driven Experience Section

The philosophy of making your audience the centre of attention can be a game-changer. 

Most professionals take the easy route of just writing a bland essay describing all of their live events, skills, and accomplishments. It all sounds like a school essay. 

The moment you take the far better route of talking directly to your audience, you are already differentiating yourself from others. 

This same philosophy should also guide you while writing your experience section. 

Always adopt the angle of how your work and expertise at each of the roles helped the organizations. Provide tangible and quantifiable numbers for defining your accomplishments. 

Writing your LinkedIn experience section in this manner will show your visitors what you are capable of doing for them by showing what you have already done.

It’s a good idea to create separate sections within each of the experiences that you list.

The sections can be something similar to:

• Duties and Responsibilities
• Challenges 
• Accomplishments 

You can also utilise the formatting elements of bolding, bullet points, and numbered lists.  

Adding Skills and Getting Endorsed

Another crucial element for creating an amazing LinkedIn profile is listing the right skills on your profile and getting as many endorsements as possible. 

List all the hard skills that are most relevant and also add soft skills and other related skills for your field of work. 

You can add up to 50 skills to your profile. Most of the popular LinkedIn profiles utilise almost all 50 of the skills.

Most importantly, one of the lesser-used tactics to make the most out of your LinkedIn skills is to seek and get endorsements from your connections actively. 

According to LinkedIn, when a connection endorses your skills, it contributes to the strength of your profile and increases the likelihood that you’ll be discovered for opportunities related to the skills you possess.

So, do not shy away from requesting endorsements from your connections, especially from your colleagues and managers. 

LinkedIn specifically values and displays separately the endorsements that you get from your colleagues. 

Making the Best Use All the LinkedIn Profile Sections

Apart from the main LinkedIn profile sections discussed above, there are quite a few other profile elements that you should also tap into to strengthen your LinkedIn profile. 

• Add visually appealing and valuable info on the “Featured” section of your profile. It’s situated right below your about section. That’s why it’s super useful for making an impression on your visitors. 

• Request LinkedIn recommendations from your colleagues, managers, and other connections. 

• Add industry licences and certification if they are relevant to what you are offering. 

• Leverage your volunteer activities and experiences to double down on what matters to you and your audience the most.

• Add as many profile sections as you need from the “add profile section” button on the top of your profile. The button should appear after you scroll down on your profile a bit. 

• Make the most use of the publications, patents, honours & awards sections. 

These high-impact ideas and action points are sure to take your LinkedIn profile to new heights.