Now that you have a LinkedIn account up and running, you might be thinking: "Amazing! Time to get connecting right away."
Woah, woah, woah - hold that thought!
If you have Facebook, would you accept a friend request from someone without a profile picture or any information about why they reached out to you? Mmm, probably not.
Think of your profile as a mini sales pitch that tells people who you are and why they should accept your connection request. A top notch profile will get people so excited about you that they send you a connection request.
In this second part of our LinkedIn journey, let's 10x your LinkedIn profile game in 60 minutes. Have your created LinkedIn profile next to you, and let's finish this article with at least these three things done:
Your professional profile photo
Your cover photo
Your catchy headline
Get ready to level up your LinkedIn game... let's dive right into it 🤿
Psst... If you want the juicy tips on what to do, scroll to the bottom. It's okay. We won't judge you. 😉
Your Profile Photo 🤳
Say cheese! Let's upload a professional and friendly picture of your face.
It’s the first thing people notice, and first impressions count! 🤗
Pretty please (with a cherry on top) use a high quality photo with a clean background. Avoid photos that are blurry, dark or have other people in it.
Boss mode: You can tell employers you're interested in finding work through your profile pic! Use the 'Open to Work' frame so anyone can see that contact you about work opportunities. To enable this, click on your profile pic and select 'Frames' in the bottom toolbar. Of course, you can keep this off your profile picture if you don't want to make your career switch public yet.
Before
After - voila! Much better already.
🖼️ Cover photo 🖼️
Your cover photo is the background photo in your profile. It falls right behind your profile pic. People often forget to check or update their cover photos, but don't skip it!
Let's pick a photo that's professional, but this is where you can start adding colourful backgrounds and visuals.
To add a cover photo, click on the camera icon on the top right corner of your profile's banner space.
Boss mode: Use a custom header with the Trailhead or Salesforce logo on it!
This banner gets straight to the point - Natasha Ong is 100% a Salesforce professional! Anyone in the Salesforce ecosystem will recognise Salesforce's logo, art style and logos right way.
📢 Headline 📢
Your headline is a single sentence that people will notice right after seeing your profile photo and name. And yup, it's a pretty big deal! It's your chance to convince people to click on your profile and learn more about you. Your headline will also set the scene on how recruiters and employers perceive you.
Your headline is 'searchable' - if an employer searches for "Salesforce", your profile will pop up on the search results if your headline has this word!
❌ Avoid generic titles like "seeking new opportunities" or "open to new challenges". A recruiter or employer sees this tens of times a day.
✅ Since we're not yet certified, we can update our headline to "Salesforce Administrator". If you're interested in Developer roles, you could use "Salesforce Administrator / Developer".
Once you're Certified, we'll come back to update our headline to "Salesforce Certified Administrator" or something similar.
To add a profile headline, click on the pencil icon that's next to your name:
Boss mode: Leave out your current company's name and mention your transferable skills instead. Transferable skills = skills that can apply to all kinds of industries and roles. Project management, sales, problem solving and communication are some top ones in Salesforce!
For example, let's say you're working in customer service, but you want to work in Salesforce. Stakeholder management and CRM* might be skills you use in your current job, and Salesforce employers will find these skills attractive too. You could change your headline to "Salesforce Administrator | Customer Service | Stakeholder Management | CRM".
*CRM = Customer Relationship Management. No worries if this isn't a word you're familiar with yet! You'll be a pro in no time at our course.
Summary 👋
Write an 'about me' section that tells your story. This is your 30 second pitch (don't make this section too long) for why you're a great candidate for a job in Salesforce.
Look at any LinkedIn profile and you'll see that only the first 4 lines of their summary are visible. The rest is hidden by a 'read more' button. This means you have 4 lines to hook a Salesforce recruiter/hiring manager to keep them on your profile. Use this space wisely!
Explain your career change or role transition, and showcase your personality. Highlight your passions, skills, achievements, motivations, and goals. Think about these questions: how do you see yourself? What is your story? What do you want to be known for? Why are you on LinkedIn?
End with a call to action that invites people to connect with you.
To add your Summary section: Click on the 'Add profile section' button on your profile (it's right underneath the headline), then click on the 'Add about' option.
Boss mode: Use bullet points or short paragraphs to make it easy to read.
According to LinkedIn, members who include a summary receive up to 3.9 times as many profile views.
Here's an example:
I'm on a journey to make a meaningful impact in the world of Salesforce. With a background in customer service and a relentless drive to master the Salesforce ecosystem, I'm embarking on an exciting career change into a Salesforce Administrator role.
🚀 Why Salesforce? My love for Salesforce stems from its ability to transform businesses, drive innovation, and enhance customer experiences. It's the backbone of many leading companies today, and it's on a path to growing even faster with the introduction to Salesforce AI.
🎯 What drives me? I'm motivated by the prospect of leveraging Salesforce's capabilities to streamline processes, boost productivity, and create lasting value for organisations.
🌟 Skills & achievements: I bring five years' experience in stakeholder management, CRM, and problem-solving. I'm studying an intensive 6-month course to understand Salesforce basics, get practical experience, pass the Salesforce Admin cert, and get 100 Trailhead badges by June 2024.
📈 Connect with me: If you're as enthusiastic about Salesforce as I am, or if you're looking for an adaptable and committed Salesforce professional, let's connect and have a chat!
😎 Experience 😎
Your experience section is where you can showcase your current or previous jobs.
Focus on the jobs that highlight your transferable skills, relevant projects, or measurable results.
You don't have to list every job you ever had, especially if they are not related to Salesforce at all.
Use the 'description' section in each experience to be specific about what you did in this job. Use action verbs and numbers to describe your responsibilities, achievements and impact.
You can also add media files, like presentations, reports, or videos, to showcase your work samples. Note that this is not a must - it's okay to leave media files blank!
Speak to your Salesforce audience with keywords: Avoid special words that only applies to niche areas. For example, someone from the transport industry would switch out passengers ➝ customers. Someone in healthcare should switch out patients ➝ clients. A seemingly small change will make your profile more welcoming and relevant to Salesforce employers.
Boss mode: You don't have to do this alone! Get the Job Description of your current role from your HR team and use elements of it in here. This makes sure you get the best description for your job and is a pretty handy template to work with.
🎓 Education and certifications 🎓
Include your educational background and any certifications you’ve earned (like your Salesforce Admin cert once you pass the exam!)
Add your Salesforce course here!
Boss mode: if you've finished your studies some time ago, or you don't want employers to assume your age based on your graduation year, it's totally okay to remove the years off your education history.
According to LinkedIn, members who include a school get up to 2.2x as many profile views.
📍 Location and email 📍
When you move to another country or town, don’t forget to update your location (country, region, city) and email address. It takes less than a minute!
Let’s say you recently moved from Wellington to Auckland. You haven't updated your location, but you're looking for a new job in Auckland. A recruiter may run an Auckland-wide search for candidates like you, and you would easily slip through the filters!
Maybe you've recently moved from overseas to NZ and have the right to work, but haven't updated your location yet. Then it's very likely that you won't appear in a recruiter’s search at all!
Boss mode: You don't have to use a specific city in your location field. Pick something as broad as "Australia and New Zealand" if you want to keep your options open.
Add your email address to make sure anyone can contact you about great opportunities. Sometimes busy recruiters max out the number of connection requests they can make on LinkedIn, so your email would be a life saver!
If you've made your LinkedIn profile a few years ago, make sure your email is up to date. It would be a real shame if a recruiter noticed you on LinkedIn but can’t reach out because of the wrong contact details.
🍳 Skills 🍳
Your skills section is, well, where you show your skills!
It's also another part of your profile that will show up on a recruiter's search results, so get ready to sprinkle this with heaps of Salesforce related skills!
Some suggested skills are Salesforce.com Administration, Salesforce Lightning, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Delete any irrelevant skills.
Add skills that are key for someone in your industry and role.
Realign the list prioritising the most important skills on top.
Add the skills you've learnt when you complete a new course/training/certification.
Boss mode: You can ask for endorsements to boost your credibility! Endorsements mean asking your trusted LinkedIn connections (that ideally you'be worked with before) to visit your profile and click on an 'endorse' button. This button tells the world that they vouch for the skill you've listed.
According to LinkedIn, members who list at least one skill get up to 4x as many profile views.
⏳ In Summary ⌛️
A LinkedIn profile is so much more than a profile picture. Here are the things you can do to stand out and make a great first impression to the next person you connect with on LinkedIn:
Profile photo: upload a professional, high-quality profile picture. Avoid blurry, dark, or crowded photos. Consider using the 'Open to Work' frame!
Cover photo: choose a professional cover photo, you can even use colourful backgrounds and visuals. Consider using a custom header with the Salesforce logo!
Headline: Craft a catchy and searchable headline that highlights your skills. Make sure to include keywords like "Salesforce" and roles you're open to.
Bio: Use the first 4 lines as a hook for recruiters and hiring managers. Highlight your passions, skills, achievements, and aspirations. Use bullet points for readability and end with a call to action.
Experience: Focus on roles that showcase transferable skills to Salesforce. Be specific in the job descriptions, using action verbs and numbers. Avoid industry-specific words and try use relevant keywords that someone from a Salesforce background would understand.
Education and certifications: Add any tertiary education or certifications. Consider taking away graduation years.
Location and email: Update your location when you move. Make sure your email address is professional and up to date.
Skills: Delete irrelevant skills and prioritise important ones. Look for people to endorse your skills to boost credibility!
Whoosh! Awesome work, your profile is now 90% better than the default mode.
You'll be turning (recruiters') heads in no time as you keep improving your profile and add the skills and experiences you gain from your Salesforce course.
Now that we have a nice profile ready, let's get it out there in the world. 🌎
Are you feeling excited? I'm buzzing with excitement too, there's so many opportunities open to us from here. See you in the next one, where we'll go over how to get you known in the Salesforce community:
Connecting with Salesforce professionals
Following your dream companies
Liking, commenting and sharing
Making your first post
Psst... If you haven't already, definitely send us a connection request on LinkedIn! It's an awesome way to kick start your LinkedIn journey, and we get to follow and engage with all the posts you make on LinkedIn too. ❤️
