6+2 powerful insights to rocket boost your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn is a unique platform that gives you the chance to brand yourself within a strictly professional network. If you want to boost your career and keep elevating, it is crucial to own a profile that stands out and catches the attention of the recruiters and your connections. By applying the following tips, you can achieve outstanding results by investing minimal personal time. So, let's get started!

1. Make a great first impression

First of all, use a Profile picture. I wouldn't trust a lot a person that hides his/her face. Add a picture and your profile will get 11 times more chances to be visited. Moving deeper, it's said that another person that sees your photo makes a first impression about you in the first 0.5 seconds! So, take care that the picture you use is really good. Achieve this by doing the following: Use a professional photo. LinkedIn is all about professionalism. So, be in that context. Photos that suit to other social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc), dark backgrounds and provocative clothing are only going to be a setback for your elevation. Use a recent photo. Not that one you think you are looking good and was shooted years ago. Finally, take care of your body language. Remember how important the first impression is. Work on your body language and pick the photo that reassures that you make the best possible first impression.

2. Use a background photo

The Chinese state that one picture is worth a thousand words. Considering that, there's no better way to brand yourself and your work than using another photo: the background photo. Choose a picture that catches the attention of the visitor, promotes your work and also represents your philosophy. This could certainly be an update for your profile.

3. Keep everything up to date

All the information that exists in your profile has to reflect your current situation. Keep your current professional position, your skills, your content, your location and, really important, your contact info up to date. A single skill may be the turning point that catches a recruiter's attention. So, don't be lazy and keep updating your profile.

4. Create a crazy as hell summary

Your summary is somehow your identity in LinkedIn. The profile section that shows your personality, instead of the education, experience and accomplishments sections that tend to be more impersonal. So, make it count. For your personal completion, for your connections (and not only) that want to discover the personality of a qualified person. The following are some good "rules" you could follow: Generally, there are no rules! But you could use some of the following. Don't write down your skills, education and accomplishments. This is done in other sections. Try to connect your skills with your personality. Prove to the visitor that what you are doing is an integral part of your life and that you are passionate about it. Present your character and personality and be pursuant that you are the most suitable. Formalities are prohibited. Unveal your craziest, your most passionate self. Write like a dreamer, not like a bureaucrat. Although, hold your horses when you have to. Don't be rude or too punchy. A common summary is the worst thing you can do to your profile. Avoid it at all costs. Instead, do something like this:

5. Endorsements are more important than you believe

Don't be afraid to endorse skills. It's part of the branding process. Some of the people you endorsed may also endorse you back some skills and so on. Generally, be happy to be endorsed. Although, you have to be careful. You shouldn't keep it basic. For example, Microsoft Office may sound a very useful skill. But it's really basic. Who doesn't know how to use Microsoft Office nowadays?. Select skills that stand out to be at the top of your list. Only this way you are going to be noticed.

6. Typos? Oh, come on...

There's no better way to prove your carelessness and unawareness than by making typos. A visitor that discovers typos may conclude that you either aren't fluent in English or that you haven't taken much care of your profile, which can be pretty insulting for the visitor, who spends his/her valuable time to gather information about you. A valuable partner to avoid typos is Grammarly. Just check it!

7. Dare to connect unknown people, but do it right

Building your network requires connecting with people you don't know, but you would like to. The simple solution is to just hit the connect button and then the send now button. The majority would do so. The simpler, the better, right? Wrong! When inviting an unknown person to connect with you, let him/her know why you do so. Explain your motive and your expectations from him/her. Give him/her a taste of your plans. This way, it's not only more possible that this person accepts your invitation, but it's also easier for you to be noticed by this person and build the desired relationship with it much easier. Sounds good, doesn't it? So, next time leave a note!

8. Let people know you are out there

LinkedIn offers you a variety of ways to be more traceable by the recruiters and generally all LinkedIn users: Make your profile public. In this way, people who are not connected with you can see more about your profile. This can lead to a connection and, who knows, a job offer. Learn how to make your profile public by clicking here. Let recruiters know you're open. Do this by just enabling that option via your dashboard. You can see your dashboard by clinking Me->View profile.

Finally, join groups relative to your interests. In this way, you boost your networking with people having similar concerns with you and increase your chances to meet a future partner or employer, to find interesting content or simply broaden your horizons. Finally, you are strongly recommended to post. By posting, you keep informing your connections about stuff you consider as important, you can find out who is interested in what you post - and consequently about what you are doing, as you post similar stuff with your interests - and, finally, you cause traffic, which means that people view your profile and get to know more about you via your content choices. This is really important for your profile's elevation.

All those tips referred above only require a couple of hours to be applied. By following them, you can achieve an impressive outcome. They might seem simple, but they could be the boost you need to start walking the long path of conquering the job market.