It’s that time of year when I like to refresh and update my LinkedIn presence – over the course of the last 12 months, you may have found yourself connecting with people you don’t know, adding sections to your profile that are no longer relevant, as well as a whole multitude of other LinkedIn activities which you have no recollection of doing! So here is my New Year checklist for tidying up your LinkedIn presence (LinkedIn are in the process of rolling out a completely refreshed user interface so it’s worth going through this checklist now):
Your Profile
- Is your photo up-to-date? LinkedIn isn’t a dating site so your photo really should be a reflection of you!
- Check that your contact information and website links are still current – click on Edit Profile then Edit Contact Info.
- Is your professional summary, work experience and other sections a fair reflection of your day-to-day activities? Remember, if you have attended one of my workshops you will understand the importance of telling the reader ‘what’s in it for them’ – LinkedIn is not just an online CV. Why would the reader want to engage with you?
- Tidy up your Skills & Endorsements – this is one of those sections that really can get out of hand very quickly. Remove any skills that are no longer relevant, add any new ones, and remove any endorsements from people you don’t know!
- Scroll down to the very bottom of your profile where you will find a list of all the LinkedIn Groups you are a member of, as well as all of the Companies and Influencers you are following. I’m a big fan of keeping these lists to around 5-10 of each, otherwise I simply can’t keep up-to-date with everything that is happening on my LinkedIn newsfeed. Un-tick those Companies and Influencers you no longer want to follow, and leave any Groups that are no longer relevant to your objectives
Your Connections
I like to have an annual cleanse of my connections, otherwise the number can get out of hand. You have probably connected over the last 12 months with people you don’t know or have never met, so it is worth going through all of your connections and removing those that are no longer relevant (or have annoyed you!) – remember, they don’t get told that you have removed them. To do this, go to My Network, then Connections, and when you scroll down the page you will see a list of all your Connections. To remove someone, just hover over their name, click on More, then Remove Connection. You may also want to export your contacts to Excel for easy reference – do this soon as this feature isn’t available on the new version of LinkedIn!
Your Settings
In this era of data protection and online privacy, it is important to check that the visibility of your data is set to a level you are comfortable with. I won’t go through all of the various Settings here, but the ones to pay particular attention to are:
- See where you’re logged in (all of the locations where you are logged in to LinkedIn)
- Set the frequency of e-mails (this will tidy up your Inbox)
- View your applications (a list of all third-party sites that have access to your LinkedIn account)
- Select who can see your connections
All of these can be found by hovering over your photo in the top right-hand corner, then click on Privacy & Settings.
Happy tidying up!
