This presentation provides 10 steps for creating a LinkedIn Profile that will improve your personal and corporate branding.

1. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
10 Steps to Improving
Your LinkedIn Brand

2. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
Which LinkedIn Profile Do You Want?

3. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
LinkedIn is the premier professional networking website and currently has over 347 million
users worldwide and more than 107 million users in the US.
The best way to build your LinkedIn brand is to ensure that your profile is up-to-date and has
outstanding “curb-appeal”. When people are selling a house, they spend time to make their
property appealing by adding a fresh coat of paint, mowing the grass and sprucing up the
interior. In a similar manner, you want to do the same thing with your LinkedIn profile.
With LinkedIn, you are essentially advertising your brand and your skills, and a complete
profile makes people trust you more which will increase the likelihood that they will want to
connect with you. In addition, having a great personal brand has a spillover effect on your
company’s branding efforts as well. Even if you have been on LinkedIn for a while, the following
tips will help you polish your LinkedIn brand to generate more “curb-appeal” and set you up for
higher success.
The rest of this presentation provides you with a 10 Step Plan to improve your personal
LinkedIn Brand.
Get Curb Appeal For Your LinkedIn Brand

4. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
When you have a picture in your LinkedIn profile, you come across as more believable and
people tend to connect more readily when they visualize what you look like. In fact, studies
show that people are 11x more likely to view your profile if you have a picture. They are also
more likely to reach out to you as your photo helps to personalize and humanize your personal
brand. It is important to select an appealing photo that strikes the right image and professional
tone.
Add a Professional Profile Picture1

5. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
After your picture, your headline is the next thing that a user will see. By default, your headline
is the job title from your latest position – but that does not really tell people much about
yourself. You want to create a great first impression and the headline is the place to do.
Write a Strong Headline2

6. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
The summary section is best described as an
overview for the rest of your profile – by
providing the highlights of who you are,
what you do and why someone should
connect with you. You want to leave a
lasting impression – and remember that you
have 2,000 characters to make your point.
You should start your Summary section with
a short one-sentence elevator pitch and
then include the following information:
• What do you do
• Why people should connect with you
• What have you accomplished
• What are your skills and industries
• How can someone contact you (adding an
email and/or phone number is critical)
Use ALL CAPS to define sections and bullets
when listing items.
Craft a Compelling Summary3

7. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
At the top right of the Summary section there is box with a plus. This button allows you to
upload media to your profile. This feature provides you with another great way to improve
your personal and corporate branding. The media upload options include Documents, Photos,
Links, Videos or Slideshare Presentations. Examples of how you can leverage this option
include: uploading a corporate overview presentation or video, adding a logo, and sharing a
link to a favorite article or blog post. Note that only the top five uploads show on your Profile
and any additional uploads are available when a user clicks on the More link.
Craft a Compelling Summary3

8. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
LinkedIn lets you add contact information your profile – some is visible to only your connections
and some is visible to everyone on LinkedIn. Share what you’re comfortable with on the
“Visible to connections” section. For the “Visible to everyone”, you should include your
company’s primary website and you may consider adding links to your careers site, social media
page, a personal blog or a profile on another site. If you are Twitter or WeChat user, you can
also list your username as well.
Add Contact Information and Websites4

9. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
By default, LinkedIn assigns your profile with a URL that includes part of your name and some
random numbers and slashes. Smart LinkedIn users know that they can get a personalized
public profile URL which makes the link easier to remember and share with others—plus, it
raises the visibility of your brand on Google searches.
From this same page, you can review who can see your public profile. My strong
recommendation is that you make your profile visible to everyone which will include your
profile directly in Google searches as well as searches on LinkedIn.
Update Your Public Profile and URL5

10. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
When you are documenting your work
history, be sure to include a brief
description of the company, and what you
did and what you accomplished while
working at the company.
Add a bulleted list of your key
responsibilities and accomplishments and
be sure to include key words.
Document Your Work History6

11. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
At the bottom of each entry in your Work History, you also have the option to Add Media
to your profile just like you can do with your Summary section. This option is a great way
to add employer branding to your profile or to showcase some of your favorite projects.
You may want to check with your marketing group or team for appropriate corporate
information that you can share in this section.
The Add Media links for the Work History section are more straightforward than the
method for adding media to your Summary section.
Document Your Work History6

12. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
The Skills & Endorsements section is
where you can highlight your
strengths. In fact, users who list Skills
on their LinkedIn profile are 13x more
likely to have their profile viewed by
others.
You can add up to 50 skills, so try to
add as many relevant skills as possible
and expertise to showcase your
experience and to improve your
findability in LinkedIn searches.
Add Keywords to Skills & Endorsements7

13. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
Make sure you document your college education and majors under the Education section. If
you add the years when you were in college, it makes it easier to connect with others whose
college experience overlapped yours. Do not forget to add in your collegiate activities and
societies. Another way to connect with others who have a similar interest is to add in your
volunteer activities and causes.
Document Your Education & Volunteerism8

14. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
LinkedIn has more than one million different groups organized around professions, geographies
and interests. LinkedIn Groups provide an excellent way for you to network with others, gather
information and brand yourself as a subject matter expert. LinkedIn lets you join up to 50
groups—and you should join at least four groups as a starter.
Build Thought Leadership with Groups9

15. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
Be sure to review your Privacy settings by
clicking on your name in the upper right
corner of the LinkedIn homepage. In the
privacy settings, you can set who can see
your connections, who can contact you, how
often you receive emails from your groups
and manage other productivity and privacy
settings.
Key Privacy Recommendations:
• Activity broadcasts - ON
• Who can see – EVERYONE
• What others see – NAME & HEADLINE
• Who can see your connections – ONLY YOU
• Discover by phone number - EVERYONE
Review Your Privacy Settings10

16. 10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger
Summary – 10 Steps To Improving Your Brand
Step
1 Add a Professional Profile Picture
2 Write a Strong Headline
3 Craft a Compelling Summary
4 Add Contact Information and Websites
5 Update Your Public Profile and URL
6 Document Your Work History
7 Add Keywords to Skills and Endorsements
8 Document Your Education and Volunteerism
9 Build Thought Leadership in Groups
10 Review Your Privacy Settings

17. I am Social Media and Digital Marketing Strategist experienced in both B2B and B2C arenas, and
have proven expertise in multiple industries. My strengths include: developing and implementing
marketing and social media strategies, generating brand awareness and demand, crafting
marketing positioning and collateral, managing social media properties on a daily basis, curating
content and writing blog posts, developing training materials and instructing associates on social
media best practices, engaging with customers and prospects, analyzing marketing performance
to determine effectiveness and evangelizing stakeholders and customers.
I am an early social media adopter and have been involved in Social Media since 2006 -- and I was
the 82,754th person to join LinkedIn in December 2003.I also managed a LinkedIn Company Page
that was named as a Top 10 Company Page for 2013.
Contact me by email via tom@humbarger.com or check out my blog or LinkedIn Profile for more
information on how I can help your company achieve your social media goals and objectives.
Click here for my LinkedIn Profile
Click here for my Social Media and Marketing blog
About Tom Humbarger