Today’s Task

Earlier in the January Jump, we talked about how the individual Tasks would build on each other as we progressed through January.  And, now that we’re in the final stage of the Jump, you are seeing this concept in action.

In last Weekend’s Task, for example, the goals you set in the Goal Setting Task (Task 2) led to the creation of your personal Task List (Task 3), and this updated Task List became the foundation for your 100 Day Plan (Task 15).

Today, we are taking things a step further, combining your efforts in 6 previous Tasks to update (or create) your LinkedIn profile.

Before you start this Task, here is a checklist of the items we will be using today.  Don’t do anything with these things yet, just ensure that you have them ready.  I will explain how to use them later in this post.

Checklist of Items

The below items are ordered from most important to least important.  If your time is limited, please do focus on completing them in order – first things first!

1. LinkedIn Login Details
Please have your Login Details to hand. If you don’t already have a profile and login details, jump back to LinkedIn Limber Up (Task 6) and follow the link to the LinkedIn website page to create your profile.

2. Settings & Privacy Set Up
Today you will be making changes to your LinkedIn profile and it is less risky (and less stressful) to do so in private mode, only publishing your changes to your network once you are completely happy with them. So, if you didn’t review and update your Settings & Privacy during LinkedIn Limber Up (Task 6), please go back and do it now.

3. Your New LinkedIn Photo
Hopefully you are the proud owner of a new profile photo which you are itching to share with your LinkedIn network.  If you skipped the first Jump Weekend project, A Better LinkedIn Photo (Task 5), now is the time to read our guidelines for a best-practice LinkedIn photo to check if your existing profile photo needs replacing and/or to find a new photo.

4. Your Headline
From yesterday’s Task, LinkedIn: Your Headline (Task 16), you should have a new, more effective, Headline ready for today’s LinkedIn profile update.

5. Your Personal Summary
In Brand Blast: Personal Summary (Task 11), you created or updated your Personal Summary, ready for inclusion in your CV and LinkedIn profile.  If you didn’t complete your LinkedIn summary, leap back to the instructions and expert tips we outlined here.

6. Achievements-Based Role Descriptions
The good news is that the achievements-based role descriptions you created in CV Sort Out (Task 13) can also be used in your LinkedIn profile.  Simply check that the achievements you’ve selected are the most appropriate for your public LinkedIn profile and, if you are hoping to move jobs or careers this year, ensure that the achievements are relevant to that future job/career.

“What If I Haven’t Completed All Of Those Tasks?”

In an ideal world, you would have completed all six of these Tasks and you would be able to quickly and easily update and launch your shiny new LinkedIn profile.  Well done if you have!

However, chances are that there are one or more things that you haven’t quite completed.  Perhaps you have a half-written Personal Summary or maybe you haven’t yet attempted to rewrite your role responsibilities into achievements.   Don’t worry!  You can update your profile in stages if you need to.

Important: For today’s task, do not start any LinkedIn Updates until you have competed Item 2 (Settings & Privacy Set Up) above.

Updating Your LinkedIn Profile

You are now ready to update the information and photo on your LinkedIn Profile, and you can do so safe in the knowledge that you are editing it in private until you change your Settings to make your profile public again.

If you are new to LinkedIn you may not be aware that, unless you tell it not to – via your Settings – LinkedIn will publish any changes you make to your profile to your entire network.  It is a way of people staying up-to-date with news from their network (job changes, new skills, etc).   It is helpful… unless you have uploaded 6 slightly different versions of your profile photo as you struggle to get the dimensions right!  So it really is best to edit your profile in private mode.

Assuming that you have competed Items 1 (LinkedIn LogIn Details) and 2 (Settings & Privacy Set Up) above, you can now update your photo, headline, summary and role descriptions, plus anything else you wish to update now while you are still in private mode.

These other optional updates might include:

Groups – It is a good idea to join relevant groups, which could be your University alumni group, your professional membership group, or industry/topic groups of interest to you.  You don’t have to take part in the group discussions, and you can turn off or manage group notifications in the Group Settings if you wish.  Simply having the visual logo of a group on your Linkedin profile can help people to “place” you in their minds, and can help them to more easily find things they may have in common with you.

Skills – You might also like to take a moment to review and add/edit any relevant skills to your profile.  These skills are becoming increasingly important as a recruitment tool so it is worth spending a few moments focusing on them.

Do not yet begin to connect with new people, since it is usually best to do this when in public mode, when your network can be informed of your new connections, giving them another reason to think of you and/or visit your profile. 

Time to Share Your Profile Edits

Once you are completely happy with all the changes you have made, go back to your Privacy & Settings and switch on ‘Sharing Profile Edits’.  You can see where and how to do this in LinkedIn: Limber Up (Task 6), where we showed you how to switch them off.  Simply toggle the switch in the other direction to “Yes”.

When you have a profile that you are happy with, and you have switched your Sharing Profile Edits back on, I recommend you do one final thing.

Save your chosen LinkedIn profile photo with a slightly different file name, and then re-upload it to your profile.  This step will give Linkedin something to share with your network (it will tell your contacts that you have updated your photo), and it will give your contacts a reason to come and see your shiny new (or newly updated) LinkedIn profile.  LinkedIn research shows that profile photo changes attract more visits than any other profile changes, which makes sense because most of us are a bit nosey and we may well click to see someone’s photo even if we no longer work or socialise together.

Updating a LinkedIn profile is an ongoing project, it is never actually completed.  But if you understand how you can remain in control of your updates, and control what information you share, it is a lot less intimidating than many people believe.

Today you have taken a positive step towards a better and more complete profile.  And next week or next month you can do a little bit more, a tweak here, a new contact added there, maybe a recommendation given or received.  LinkedIn will even suggest what you need to do next in order to get to an “All Star” rating for your profile, reminding you of sections you need to add or information that is out of date.

Soon you will have a great LinkedIn profile – one that is going to help you achieve your career goals.

It’s our very last day of the January Jump tomorrow. So make sure you read tomorrow’s post and don’t miss out on the finale!

Find out more about the January Jump, and see previous tasks, on the January Jump homepage.