How to Build a Successful LinkedIn Profile

It is so important to create a LinkedIn professional profile as a college student. LinkedIn is a social network for anyone who is looking to take their professional life to a new level by connecting with different professionals to grow their careers. You may be thinking, what even is LinkedIn? How do I create an account? What is important to include on a LinkedIn profile? These questions will be answered later in this blog post. My name is Rochelle Podolsky and I am currently a Junior at James Madison University studying Communications and Human Resource Development. As part of my requirements for HRD, I had to take an instructional technology class in which my focused technology was LinkedIn. From this, I was able to gather the ins and outs of LinkedIn, and the importance of having a professional profile as a college student. I will share my knowledge on LinkedIn in this blog post through a variety of graphics and written explanations.

What is LinkedIn:

First, attached is an infographic that will allow you to understand what LinkedIn is, facts about it, and reasons why college students should use LinkedIn. It is so important to put your successes and accomplishments in a form other than a resume. LinkedIn will allow you to create and manage your professional profile, and give you the opportunity to network with others in your desired career. Please read more below.

How to create a LinkedIn professional profile:

1. To get started with a Linkedin account, type Linkedin.com on google, then sign up for an account with an appropriate email, and your full name. After this step, it will ask you to finalize your account by confirming it is yours with a code that is sent to your email.

2. There will be a variety of questions the site will ask in order to guide you in creating a professional account. If you wish to answer, you may do so. This is beneficial for adding all key aspects to your Linkedin!

3. Next, navigate the different icons on the top of the site and add information where you wish.

4. Add a professional photo to your account! This could be a headshot in business clothes, with a professional camera. Click on the icon “me,” then on your name, then the camera,

and it’ll give you an option to add photo from your computer. Statistics say that accounts with a professional photo are more likely to be looked at by companies!

5. Now it’s time to add your education, experience, and skills! Click on “me,” then scroll down to “experience,” click on the little plus icon, and follow answer the little subtitles to add your full experience! Repeat same steps for education and skills sections underneath. The more you add, the more people will search your account, and connect with you.

6. It is recommended to download the Linkedin app to your phone so it is easily accessible at all times. Continue to add to your page every week to keep it up to date.

7. Finally, once your profile is filled with content, you are ready to connect with different businesses/ people of your interest. You can either scroll through the recommendation box under “my network”, or manually search in the search box in the top left corner. The more you connect, the more professional you look!

I hope this has given you a better idea on what LinkedIn is, and how to create a successful LinkedIn profile! Overall, it is a powerful educational tool that has been ranked as the 5th most useful tool on “Top Tools for Learning 2018,” and is known to be the Facebook for professionals!

- Rochelle Podolsky, PRSSA member.