4 tips to make your LinkedIn profile stand out

Okay, so you’ve completed your LinkedIn profile, crafted a killer tag line, have lots of glowing recommendations – now what? How do you make your LinkedIn profile stand out from the other 65 million other profiles?

Before you start, you should define your goal. My goal is to showcase my skills as a content marketing expert, especially for online media.

Here are 4 tips on standing out from the crowd. These items are in the Application Directory, which can be found under the “More” link at the top of your home page.

1. Use Amazon Reading List to share what you’re reading.
What are you reading? Share it with your network! Don’t just list the books you’re reading, but take time to write some insightful comments about the book. I happen to love this feature. But then again I love to read and used to love doing book reports in schools. Yes, I was a true nerd.

2. Use SlideShare, Google Presentation or Box.net to showcase your presentations.
Don’t just put something up there for the sake of putting something up there. Follow the rules of Presentation 101 – slides should just list the highlights so they’re uncluttered.

You can also use this feature to practice putting together presentations. I need to brush up on my Power Point, so this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

3. Highlight your blog.
You can connect a WordPress or a Typepad blog to your profile. Excerpts from your posts are shown on your profile. This is an easy way to drive lots of traffic to your blog; it certainly has helped me.

4. Find and publicize events
The LinkedIn Events feature is a great way to find out about events. I love this feature (okay, so what feature of LinkedIn don’t I love – lol). While the Event Search function is a little flukey, you can search by location, event type and subject.

You can also see which events your friends are attending, giving you a perfect excuse to reach out to them with questions or comments about the events. You can click “attending” or “interested” and this will show up on your LinkedIn updates. Since using the events search feature, I’ve found some great events that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

**Keep in mind that you will probably also have to officially register for the event via a separate link.

The Events feature is also great to market events you’re organizing. It shows initiative. It’s also another excuse to reach out to your connections and invite them to an event.

In summary, you want to create a personal brand that’s unique and that makes companies want to hire you.