Speaker 1: In this tutorial I will help you create the best LinkedIn profile from a basic uninteresting page to an eye-catching LinkedIn profile. Now I will cover the most important sections and giving you access to free customizable templates so you can start receiving views and interest from your dream companies this year. Now watch till the end because I have a bonus tip that will definitely catch notice by recruiters. So without further ado let's start with the first one. Disabling profile edits because you don't want to share any changes that you make to your profile. So go to settings and privacy, click on visibility, scroll down and make sure it's toggled off. After that I want you to personalize your LinkedIn URL. Do so over here. You see a link including your name and surname with or without a hyphen in between or the first letter of your name followed by your surname. Not only looks better on your resume but it also helps recruiters find you on keywords that you want to be found on. But what keywords should you focus on? Well first you need to conduct keyword research. Search for a free word cloud tool. I like to use this one. Then you go to cloud generator. Next search for some of your favorite job listings on LinkedIn. Now I like to press enter first and then you search for let's say software developer. Now pick some of your favorite job listings, copy the requirements and paste them into this window and then repeat the process. Once finished scroll down and these are the keywords one should sprinkle across the upcoming LinkedIn sections. So let's start with the first one. Designing a LinkedIn background photo. Now to save you some time I've created these three customizable templates in Canva with the correct dimensions. You can download them via the link in the description. I've made them because, let me show you, most pre-made templates fall short. You see you don't need to include your name and job title because those belong to this part on LinkedIn and these colors and elements distract employers from what they actually want to know. Your field of expertise and whether you have the skills required to help them out. Sure you can add some nice colors or cool elements to spice it up as long as it amplifies your abilities to solve their problems. Besides these simple templates also look good on any device which is important since most LinkedIn users use their smartphone. So let's pick the first template. Now we remove this element, give it a name, only select the first page, click done, download as a png file, upload it to LinkedIn and refresh the page. Now if you want to design a similar banner template from start to finish make sure to watch my previous video. Okay next I will help you create a professional LinkedIn profile photo. Pick a photo with direct light on your face and a contrasting background. That will make your photo crisp and sharp. Then go to this free background remover website, upload your photo to make it transparent, click download but preferably download HD version. Once done visit Canva.com, a free editing tool. Click on create a design, enter LinkedIn profile picture so you have a canvas with the right dimensions and then upload your transparent picture over here. Now whilst it's uploading give your canvas a soft background color, add your picture. Note that I can make mine transparent here because I pay for Canva Pro. Now adjust and expand the photo until your canvas is covered. Once done click on edit photo and you can either click auto adjust or what I like to do is add some temperature, brightness and or sharpness manually. Okay let me put the transparent photo a bit lower. Now give it a name such as LinkedIn profile picture and download it as a png file. Now delete your old photo, upload your new picture, zoom in a bit and ensure it's a good close-up. Now I would like to zoom in a tiny bit more and then click on save photo and there you have it a professional LinkedIn profile picture. Next it's time to write a LinkedIn headline. Click on the pencil icon and scroll down to this window. Now avoid entering something like actively looking or seeking a new challenge because it only conveys your needs and not what you can offer to potential employers. You can use the open to finding a new job feature to express your desire to find a new job. Now there is a prompt you can enter in chat gpt beginning with your job title followed by some of the skills and or tools you've generated in your cloud and you can also include a problem you solve or a major solution you offer and optionally add the years of experience. Okay let's press enter and see what chat gpt comes up with. Now if you want to you can ask to spice it up with some emojis. I like to add things manually. You can open the character view by holding command control and space and this vertical line by holding shift plus the vertical line symbol. Okay now if you don't have any experience yet draw inspiration from the examples in my previous video. Now once done click save and there you have it the best optimized headline that you can get. Next it's time to look at the about section so you can add a linkedin summary. Click on add profile section or scroll down and click on add summary. Now if you've already created one scroll down and click this pencil icon. Now you can ask chat gpt for an example if you need inspiration but I feel like some parts are irrelevant fake or redundant. So here's a simple yet professional template that includes everything but let me show you an example summary based on this template to make sense of it all. Now this is a great example. Irrelevant topics are removed and this example focuses only on what's most important. Now if you want to bold highlight your headers simply search for linkedin text formatter. Copy the sentence or words paste them in here and then include the new format in your summary. Bullet points can be added by holding option and the asterisk sign on your keyboard. Now if you do at least some of the following activities that I'm about to show you right now you are undoubtedly in the top five percent well on your way to creating the best linkedin profile. So if you're ready to build a strong online presence on linkedin then let's continue with the first one optimizing your skills section. Add at least five or more skills. I'm gonna add just one for the sake of this video. Okay scroll down and click the dots icon and then you reorder your top two skills to the top so employers can see them without having to click on show all skills. But what makes a skill section optimized? You see skills without endorsements, top voice badges or any connection to for example a recognized educational institution are quite meaningless to employers. LinkedIn's algorithm surely won't add much value to them in search. So your name and attached skills first need to build authority online and one of the best ways is to receive endorsements for a specific skill. If you manage to receive endorsements preferably from those who are highly skilled in the same area you will certainly rank higher in search. So let me tell you how you go about receiving endorsements. First find someone you know well and send him or her a message like this. It's a friendly and polite message with a focus on no more than three primary skills and an offer to return the favor. Now another way to stand out is by earning a top voice badge for a specific skill and you can pick many different skills to reinforce your core message to employers. As you can see you can connect multiple top voice badges to your name but they require some effort to earn. Now to get started you can go to this page to add your insights and advice on the collaborative articles in an industry relevant to you. You can also search for specific LinkedIn skill pages by entering the skill or field and then clicking on companies. You can identify skill pages with these icons and then you follow the page, visit the skill page, pick out any of the articles you find interesting and just start engaging by liking some of the pages and experts contributions you resonate with. The thing is you first need an invitation from LinkedIn to be able to start contributing and right now I'm trying to get a second badge and it's time for resume writing. So at this stage I add one sometimes two contributions each day. Now regularly check if you are on the right track. Now once you are in the top five percent it can take a week or maybe even a month before you receive this email but once you do you'll have an eye-catching top voice badge next to your name. Next up I want to talk about gathering recommendations and recommendations are no different than product reviews and in this case recommendations can help convince a recruiter to hire you. So how do you go about gathering them? The answer is to use the power of reciprocity meaning start giving recommendations so others are encouraged to give back the same value. Much like Austin Belsack did in his praise to Timothy. Now don't be discouraged if you don't receive anything back. Here's something else you can do select add profile section and under recommended click on add recommendations. Now search for the person you want to ask for a recommendation continue and then you complete these drop down boxes and write a personalized message. Now feel free to use my example and finally click on send to share your recommendation. Next I want you to add a LinkedIn featured section. It's an often underused feature that is positioned at the top so use it to redirect visitors to your best work. I've created these customizable Canva templates that you can download for free via the link in the description and once you finish designing yours download them and then add a featured section. If you haven't done so yet click the plus icon and in this example I add a link to my portfolio, change the title, upload a thumbnail and click on save. It's that easy. Now repeat the process to add your resume. Let me do that real quick and as you might have noticed I can work really fast. Now if you want to you can reorder them so your most important sources are displayed on the left side. Now below you can find the LinkedIn activity section which has a slightly different use case than the LinkedIn featured section. These components reflect your recent activity on LinkedIn just like how Instagram and Facebook work where your connections will be notified on their home page or feed so they can engage. Now you can use the activity section to share work experiences, achievements or tips with your network like I did in this example. Best tips for coming up with post ideas. This is called a carousel post. The most effective post format on LinkedIn to gain views. It's a PDF format that you can upload over here to share with your network. Now if you're interested I've created some customizable carousel post templates. You can download them for free to help you get started. Now if you're ready to show recruiters that you are open to work, enable open to finding a new job. That way employers can find you in their LinkedIn recruiter dashboard. And here's the bonus tip. Something LinkedIn released not so long ago. Go to your favorite company's page, about section and check if they have this I'm interested button. Your interest can then be seen by recruiters within that company and remains active for about a year before expiring. And don't forget follow their page because they may check your interest section to see if you are genuinely interested in working with them. And that's basically all you need to know to create the best LinkedIn profile. Now I hope this video was helpful. But more so I hope it inspired you to invest more time into LinkedIn this year. Now if it was helpful a like encourages me to continue making these kind of videos. And you can subscribe if you want to learn more about LinkedIn. Now if you have any questions don't hesitate and leave a comment down below. I will respond as soon as possible. Thanks for watching and I hope to see you in my next video. Bye.