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LinkedIn: How to manage your professional brand online

LinkedIn blog post cover image. Text says: LinkedIn: Tips and tricks to grow your reputation, network and career - download free toolkit with arrow. Image within graphic shows Aurora50 LinkedIn profile guide. Aurora50 logo appears top right.
Suzanne Locke 25 September 2024
Editor's picks, Insights, Latest, Resources
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Contents

LinkedIn blog post NOORA polls 1 & 2 results as pie charts. Pie chart 1: Do you have a LinkedIn profile - 93% YES, 7% NO. Pie chart 2: Do you have a photo on your profile? 65% YES, 32% NO, 3% it's an illustration of some sort but not a photo of me.

Free LinkedIn download

Download the Aurora50 toolkit breaking down the elements of a LinkedIn profile for free as a PDF. And find out more about NOORA, our network for corporate women in the GCC, where we teach a workshop on personal branding using LinkedIn.

Introduction

Whether we want to or not, in today’s digital world you have a digital footprint and a personal brand.

With 1 billion LinkedIn members globally, this is the first place you should go online to take control of your professional reputation.

Yet, when we polled members of our NOORA network for corporate women (who all want to network and connect as part of growing their career) we found that seven percent did not have a LinkedIn profile at all. And 29 percent used LinkedIn only occasionally – or less.

If you’re not convinced, stats show the UAE to be a highly digital country keen to use social media for business:

  • The UAE has the most social media users in the entire world, when measured as social media identities as a percentage of population (Kepios Analysis, 2024).
  • It is also second in the world for social media for work activities (GWI, 2023): 49 percent of social media users report using social media for work-related activities. (South Africa was first.)
  • Globally, 20 percent of people use social media to make new contacts and do work-related networking or research (GWI, 2023).
  • Within its 1 billion global membership, LinkedIn has over 7 million members in the UAE and 8 million in Saudi Arabia.
Aurora50 graphic of Taylor Swift quote: "There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation."

Audit your digital footprint

Social is the new search engine.

Half of employers use personal social media profiles to research job seeker candidates (Robert Walters Group, 2023).

As social entrepreneur Marcos Salazar says in a TED Talk, “Whether you realise it or not, you have a personal brand. If I looked you up on Google and didn’t find anything about you on the first page of results – that’s your personal brand.

“If I found an out-of-date LinkedIn profile or a bunch of random social media posts… that too, is your personal brand.”

Get ahead of the curve and know how you look online: check your digital footprint.

  • Open an incognito browser window (in Chrome on desktop you’d go file – ‘new incognito window’. On mobile you have options for private browsing). This allows you to see what others see, not what you would normally see, as it is searching without a cache. None of your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms are saved on your device.
  • Search your (brand) name in Google and Google Images (Google Images is a great way to get more branding than from text alone and you should always check how you appear both in text results and in images too).

When Google’s search engine is deciding what information to deliver to a user for their search, one of the key sites they index is LinkedIn (the others are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia).

Often your LinkedIn page will be the very first search result against your name. But make sure you know what else is appearing – and what can be seen publicly, especially of your various social media profiles.

LinkedIn blog post graphic: Some of most followed LinkedIn profiles - 1. Bill Gates (35m) 2. Richard Branson (18.7m) 3. Satya Nadella (10.7m) 4. Jeff Weiner (10.4m) 5. Ariana Huffington (9.6m) 6. Mark Cuban (7.6m) 7. Simon Sinek (7.6m) 8. Tony Robbins (7.1m) 9. Jack Welch (6.9m) 10. Melinda French Gates (6.6m) 11. Daniel Goleman (5.7m) 12. Deepak Chopra (5.6m) 13. Justin Trudeau (5.4m) 14. Gary Vaynerchuk (5.4m) 15. Adam Grant (5.2m) 16. Brené Brown (4.3m) 17. Narendra Modi (4.2m) 18. Kevin O’Leary (3.8m) 19. Anthony J James (3.7m) 20. Ian Bremmer (3.7)

Maximise your LinkedIn profile

It’s worth taking a look at some of most followed profiles on LinkedIn:

  1. Bill Gates (35m)
  2. Richard Branson (18.7m)
  3. Satya Nadella (10.7m)
  4. Jeff Weiner (10.4m)
  5. Ariana Huffington (9.6m)
  6. Mark Cuban (7.6m)
  7. Simon Sinek (7.6m)
  8. Tony Robbins (7.1m)
  9. Jack Welch (6.9m)
  10. Melinda French Gates (6.6m)
  11. Daniel Goleman (5.7m)
  12. Deepak Chopra (5.6m)
  13. Justin Trudeau (5.4m)
  14. Gary Vaynerchuk (5.4m)
  15. Adam Grant (5.2m)
  16. Brené Brown (4.3m)
  17. Narendra Modi (4.2m)
  18. Kevin O’Leary (3.8m)
  19. Anthony J James (3.7m)
  20. Ian Bremmer (3.7)

Note that only three women appear in the top 20! The most followed woman is Ariana Huffington, in fifth place.

Completeness is important on LinkedIn. Fill in all sections for better visibility within LinkedIn algorithms.

You might not show up in search results if your profile isn’t complete or if important details, like a profile picture or work history, are missing.

1. Profile photo

If you read no other section of this guide, this is the most important part!

When we polled NOORA network members, one third (32 percent) did NOT have a photo on their LinkedIn profile.

It is so important to include an image – or the LinkedIn algorithm simply won’t present your profile prominently in searches.

LinkedIn says that members with a profile photo receive up to 2X more profile views and 3X more connection requests.

  • 400 x 400 pixels and less than 8MB.
  • Crops to a circle – how will your photo look in a circle? Zoom in close so people can see your face.
  • Upload a high-quality, professional-level headshot (an iPhone level of image is perfectly presentable but think – what does the background look like? Are you groomed? Is this how you’d present yourself in a work environment?).
  • Shoot wide, crop later (don’t grab a small photo and try to blow it up to fit).
  • Make sure it’s professional, visually clear and looks like you today (and fits your style and brand – wear neutral colours, a scarf or lipstick to pop, that represent your colours).
  • If you’re really uncomfortable publishing a photo of yourself publicly, use an illustration. Never just leave the photo space blank. There are many apps, tools and AI generators to do this online today.
Aurora50 Graphic shows initial sections of a generic LinkedIn profile: Background photo, profile photo, headline, connections, about, top skills

2. Background photo

Again, don’t leave the background photo blank – it’s wasted real estate as it takes up about 30 percent of the visible screen on mobile when you look at a LinkedIn profile.

  • 1,584 wide x 396 pixels high – a very narrow landscape picture. Use tools like Pixlr (a free tool similar to Photoshop)  to crop precisely to fit. Canva has a free LinkedIn banner maker.
  • A huge branding opportunity visually – who you are, what you’re about. Use this space to represent your business, your skills, your motto, your country, your personality. If you look at the most followed profiles, they all use great headshots and banner photo: author Brené Brown, for instance, uses one of her own quotes as her background photo, while Ariana Huffington uses the space to promote her company, Thrive. Dr Aisha Bin Bishr has a lovely image of a digitised Dubai skyline, in keeping with her digital transformation skills.
  • Optimise images for mobile – keep key elements to centre so they don’t lost behind profile photo, and check on the LinkedIn mobile app after you’ve saved. Think about things being visible and legible on a small mobile screen.

3. Headline

  • 220 characters maximum (write it in Word then use the word count tool to check).
  • Highlight the title, skills and expertise (think key words) for which you wish to be known.
  • Do add a little personality. Paul Polman, the co-author of Net Positive, who has 1 million followers on LinkedIn, writes: “Business, campaigning, younger me nearly a priest. ‘Net positive: how courageous companies thrive by giving more than they take’ #3 Thinkers 50”
  • Some people like to put in former companies here, e.g. “ex Microsoft” – this is up to you and can depend how strong that brand is.
  • Write a few versions in Word for comparison. And write it in combination with your About section, so you don’t repeat too much (unless you want to emphasise a point).
  • Use a Linked headline generator like copy.ai.

4. About

This is one of the key sections in LinkedIn, where you talk about you.

Think of it as your career synopsis or professional summary.

  • 2,600 characters limit – break it up and think of it being scannable, especially on a mobile screen. Don’t put more than three sentences in a paragraph – you could just have one per paragraph to be really punchy.
  • Write in the first person, not third person (“I do this”, not “Name does that”) – it’s about YOU.
  • Include short details and metrics for colour, that cover your sectors of interest, areas of expertise, projects, success stories and deliverables.
  • Think about future roles as well as now, particularly with sectors (for instance, if you’re looking at board roles that may be outside your current sector).
  • Many include a ‘call to action’ – this isn’t necessary if you’re in the corporate world, rather than running your own business. However, you could say “I’m looking to grow my network” or “I’m looking for new opportunities for my company”.
  • Top skills – you can cherry-pick up to five of your skills as ‘top skills’: these will appear in a panel at the bottom of your About section text snippet.
Aurora50 graphic shows other key sections of a generic LinkedIn profile: skills, recommendations, featured

5. Connections

The LinkedIn search algorithm heavily depends upon your network to work.

The more connections that you have, the more likely it is that LinkedIn will recommend your profile to others and rank you higher in search results.

Not only is it good for you to have lots of connections, but means LinkedIn is more likely to ‘float’ your profile in search results and raise your profile and personal brand.

  • You can have 30,000 connections – but what actually displays on your profile is the number until you reach 500, then just 500+.
  • If you switch to content creator mode, you can have unlimited followers. This is how the top profiles on LinkedIn, like Bill Gates, do it. When you go above 500 LinkedIn connections, LinkedIn will put the ‘follow’ button by default instead of the ‘connect’ one.
  • If you click the ‘follow’ button, you are not connected, you are just following this person in your feed. The person you’re following won’t see your posts. By default, you follow 1st degree connections, and you can choose to unfollow them.
  • If you can’t immediately see a ‘connect’ button – go to ‘more’. Use desktop, not mobile, to connect, so that you can add a personal message to your request (you can do this on mobile with the ‘personalize invite’ button but most people forget).
  • Use the invite text to remind someone how and where you’ve met, and why you’d love to connect.
Aurora50 graphic shows LinkedIn's top skills: top 10 overall - Communication Teamwork Problem-solving Analytical skills Leadership Sales Management Data analysis Team leadership Organisational skills Top 10 hard skills Sales Data analysis Marketing Customer relationship management (CRM) Python (programming language) Research skills SQL Business development Training Social media Top 10 soft skills Communication Teamwork Problem-solving Analytical skills Leadership Management Team leadership Organisational skills Interpersonal skills Negotiation

6. Skills & endorsements

Skills are important to show your expertise – and you can link skills to roles and have them endorsed by your connections. Your top skills will appear in the About section.

  • You can list up to 100 skills.
  • You can link five to each specific role on your profile.
  • You can choose five as ‘top skills’, which are immediately visible on your profile (in the About section). You can reorder them as you go.
  • How many skills should you list? There are different views on this, from just six to all 100. You choose – the jury’s out on this one.
  • LinkedIn will suggest skills, based on the text you’ve written and the roles and education you have put in (you’ve done that already, right?), and then it will ask you what roles or studies you used that skill in, so it appears against that role on your profile too.
  • You can turn off your endorsement setting so LinkedIn doesn’t suggest you or ask others to endorse you, but we wouldn’t recommend this.
  • AI-powered recruiter tools use skills to match to roles, and nearly half of recruiters use skills to hire for roles.
  • Endorse others’ skills and they may reciprocate.

7. Recommendations

It’s really important that you get recommendations. These validate you and your expertise, just as user reviews validate products.

  • You can request a recommendation by going to someone in your network, clicking the ‘more’ button and then clicking the request recommendation.
  • Do this on a desktop, rather than mobile – the app instantly sends off a generic request. On desktop, a message opens up and you can personalise your request here, e.g. “I admire you and know you’re skilled in x – I’d love a recommendation from you.” You could even write the draft recommendation for them (good when asking someone senior and busy), or prompt them by saying “these are some of the things we’ve worked on together that I’d like to highlight on my profile”.
  • Don’t immediately write a recommendation for someone if they’ve written a recommendation for you because others can see both recommendations you’ve written and those you’ve received… and tally up the dates. Write back to your recommender, thank them and tell them you will write them a recommendation too – soon. Then set a reminder to make sure you do.
  • If you don’t like recommendations or if, later on, they don’t feel like they work for you anymore and they’re out of date, you can just switch them off individually.

8. Featured

This adds ‘social proof’ to your profile and allows you to showcase some of the best things you’ve done or said.

  • There are no limits to the number of pieces you can put in here.
  • You can also media to individual roles, but also to your Featured section – like pinning the most important things, such as a post you’ve written on LinkedIn that’s been really popular. You can even write articles – like a blogs section – on LinkedIn itself and pin them. You can post other article links (that might have appeared in in newspapers or industry magazines) or on your own site, as well as videos. If it was on an intranet, or only in print, you could take a screenshot or scan and upload.
  • To protect the privacy of other LinkedIn members though, you can’t feature posts from LinkedIn events that you’re attending or from groups that you’re a part of, which is a bit of a shame, but you have to think about them.

9. Other LinkedIn sections

  • As well as your education (do put that in), you can also put in licences, certificates, honours, awards, projects, anything you’ve done in terms of volunteering, any publications that you’ve had, languages that you speak, interests you have, courses, patents, organisations that you’re interested in, causes that you’re interested in.
  • You can put in career breaks as well, which can be useful if you’ve had to take one, say for maternity leave.
  • If you’re a fresh graduate or have certifications where grades are important, you can even put in test scores.
NOORA poll for LinkedIn blog post - how often do you use LinkedIn? Daily 17%, weekly 39%, monthly 15%, occasionally 22%, rarely/ almost never 2%, not at all 5%

Creating LinkedIn content

Activity is important to appearing regularly in LinkedIn search results: share your ideas, viewpoints, opinions and journey with your professional network to showcase your expertise.

  • It’s a no-brainer if you’re trying to build a reputation as a subject matter expert that you create posts and that you re-share other people’s posts – it shows you as a thought leader.
  • You can also create video, of 30 seconds to 5 minutes, 75KB to 5 GB maximum. Creating native LinkedIn videos can really show your personality. And LinkedIn video get an an average of three times the engagement of text posts.
  • Add relevant hashtags (e.g. #womenempoweringwomen) to increase your post’s visibility beyond your network to people who follow that hashtag. Hashtags are also searchable. Just start typing in a hashtag and then the subject you’re writing about and see what comes up. Remember that you can’t put ampersands (&) in hashtags.
  • Do tag people and companies (where relevant and positively): it’s a good opportunity for them to comment, to like the post and to re-share.
  • You can also write an article directly on LinkedIn – and use LinkedIn’s AI to help you write it. LinkedIn says the best length is 500-1,000 words. Make sure it scans well and is well formatted. As with a newspaper article, the headline and image you choose are key. Think about the keywords you want the article to be associated to – that YOU want to be associated to (roles, job titles, skills, expertise). You can do a bit of research in Google – start typing something in the search field and see what the suggested ‘auto-completes’ Google provides are. Now use those to do some further searches and get your list of keywords into your LinkedIn article.
  • If you turn on content ‘creator’ mode, the connect button changes to a ‘follow’ button – that’s how those big LinkedIn names like Bill Gates do it.
  • LinkedIn has some best practices and a full LinkedIn sharing guide (PDF).

LinkedIn’s ideas for content to get you started:

  • What will (or should) your industry look like in 5, 10, or 15 years, and how will it get there?
  • What important trends should people in your industry or area of expertise know?
  • What are some challenges you’ve faced or opportunities you’ve seized?
  • What’s the biggest problem your industry needs to solve?
  • What concrete advice would you give someone hoping to enter your field?

 LinkedIn’s video content ideas:

  • Share professional tips.
  • Share from industry events or conferences.
  • Show a demo, lecture or conversation.
  • Record an explainer video.
  • Share a “behind the scenes” or insider view.
  • Engage viewers by asking a question.
  • Give context by adding text on screen.
  • Share everyday work moments with Linkedin video filters.
Aurora50 graphic of Most followed hashtags on LinkedIn, Jan 2024 - 1 to 40

Visibility & privacy

Go into the ‘me’ button on the LinkedIn top bar, go to settings & privacy.

It’s worth going through and having a play with that and checking what you’re comfortable with.

  • Visibility: Here you can select what other people see when you’ve viewed their profiles (page visit visibility). You can also change your profile photo visibility, your e-mail address visibility, whether your profile can be discovered by your email address or phone number. LinkedIn activity – status, profile changes such as new job – can be set to connections only or turned off.
  • You can also choose to make your connections private (visibility) from other visitors. There’s pros and cons to doing this. Obviously It’s a conversation starter: people can see who you can see and see that you know the same people. When you’re setting out in your career, you probably want to have your connections open as you build and grow them. Later – maybe you want to make them private. It can depend on your role too.
  • Privacy: Here, you can choose who can invite to connect (everyone on LinkedIn, only people who know your email), whether people can send you LinkedIn InMail messages.
  • Advertising data: Tailor which personal information is scraped to tailor adverts displayed to you.

Getting really bespoke

  • As well as your name you can choose to show your gender pronouns e.g. she/ her. On the mobile app, you can also make an audio recording of your name pronunciation when you edit the intro section. Go to your profile, tap your profile photo, then ‘View Profile’. Tap the ‘Edit’ icon in your introduction section then tap ‘Record name pronunciation’. Tap the recording button and hold to record your name. Tap the ‘Use’ button when you’re satisfied with your recording and tap ‘Save’. 
  • Most people want to know “who viewed my LinkedIn profile” or “who visited my LinkedIn profile”? You can find this by looking at your profile and the analytics section (which is private to you). If you have a free LinkedIn profile you’ll only see limited information – the number of visitors to your profile in the last 90 days and where they work or how they found you. For more, you’ll need a paid LinkedIn premium account.
  • You can have a secondary language profile. There are 26 different languages available within LinkedIn, including Arabic.
  • You can create a customised public profile URL. This makes it easier to share your LinkedIn address with others, and helps others more easily find and identify you.
  • If you set up Google Alerts for your name, you can see what is written by or about you publicly online (or about other people with your name, which is also useful to know!). Go to google.com/alerts.

Free LinkedIn download

Download the Aurora50 toolkit breaking down the elements of a LinkedIn profile for free as a PDF. And find out more about NOORA, our network for corporate women in the GCC.

Further reading

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