LinkedIn Masterclass – Important Changes to your Profile Scoring

With the rapid increase in users on LinkedIn (currently150 million worldwide), the LinkedIn technical team make regular changes to remain competitive in the social media race and to attract new members.

On Valentine’s Day – 14 February 2012 – two important changes were made to the Profile that may have an impact on your completeness score.  (Take a look to make sure your Profile is still 100% complete!)

First, the Profile will put more emphasis on Skills and Expertise (Skills can be found under the More Tab as a Beta version).  This means you can showcase your areas of expertise to easily connect with people that have similar skills or with companies looking for subject matter experts.

Secondly, LinkedIn has changed how they calculate profile completeness. The new calculation gives you more control of your score by emphasising things you have direct control over, like Skills, and putting less weight on areas you may have less control over, like Recommendations.

Most important though, the new scoring also takes profile freshness into consideration, so frequent profile updates can now help with profile completeness.  Using the network update box at least once a week is a quick way to keep your profile fresh.

Here are 7 easy steps to completing your profile based on the new calculation:

• Add a profile photo (adding a profile photo makes your profile 7 x more likely to be found in searches).
• List all the jobs or positions you have held, along with descriptions of your roles (having your 2 most recent positions makes your profile 12 x more likely to be found)
• Have 5 or more skills on your profile
• Write a summary about yourself (ideally using the skills you have identified)
• Fill out your industry and postal code
• Add where you went to university and school
• Have 50 or more connections – it’s easier than you think to get connected!

LinkedIn is making it really easy for you to network for career and business reasons by connecting with people you may know, helping top companies find experts like you, or even opening up new business opportunities.  All you need is a complete profile to help you stay connected and competitive.

Check out LinkedIn’s new ‘Improve your Profile’ tool that gives you a few simple steps to help you stand out.

Happy networking!

Katherine Wiid, founder of Recrion, is a Career Management Coach and Behavioural Specialist.  Helping you to move away from uncertainty towards clarity in your working life. Telephone +44 (0)1780 484910.