Okay, well, I'm so excited to be here with each of you today. We're going to talk about our LinkedIn profile. You know, if you're looking for a job it's so important that your profile is up to date on LinkedIn. You want to have it as accurate as possible and you want it to stand out. So some of the things I'm going to talk about are going to give you some hints, okay?

Prior to completing your headline, review LinkedIn's guide to creating your standout headline. This is the area right below your name on your LinkedIn profile. Your headline communicates who you are, what you do, and if you will be that best person for the job. It is best to create your own headline and not use a standard default headline, and you need to make sure that you keep this updated.

It's so important to keep it updated so you can use short phrases or complete sentences in creating your headline, whichever you prefer. Again, this communicates who you are. Look at the job titles to the keyword synonyms — those are important too. Communicate what you do. Expand on your duties versus your title because people who are looking for candidates for their job position opening, they want to look at what you've done. And then again, look at the big picture and your value proposition. What do you have to offer?

Communicate the results you have produced in the credibility in your headline. Demonstrate that you are excellent at your job. And include languages about your strength, this is also very important. So, you also need to use keywords. Think of keywords and industry-specific jargon that a recruiter in your field might look for.

Look for jobs that you're interested in. If you're not interested in a job, don't apply. Write down the job titles and the keywords. Compile common keywords and write them in order of importance to you. What is important to you might not be important to someone else. And make sure you use at least use three of your top keywords in your headline. Use strategic keywords to appear in more LinkedIn searches. Make sure your headline is grammatically correct and don't overstep your headline with keywords.

So, what do you need to avoid in your headline? Excessive capitalization — you're not yelling at anyone. Controversial topics have no place in the headline. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Do spell check, proof it. A blank headline section — you don't want to have something that has no data in it. Cryptic words, abbreviations that are not widely used, and inappropriate language. These are things you need to avoid.

So you can also look at LinkedIn headlines. Just go to a person and look at what their headline is, kind of get some ideas of how you want yours to be. There's some great ones out there. And you're talking about your professional brand now, so your headlines should summarize your entire professional brand. There are 220 characters that you can use — use every one of those characters. This as your brand. Do not use your job title to convey your brand as they vary from company to company.

Your professional brand should focus on the 4 aspects of your personal branding. Those are:

1. Skills and competence

2. Personality and character

3. Motivation and drive

4. Achievements and experience

And let's talk about your profile. Your LinkedIn headline and your photo are the most important parts of your profile. When someone scrolls through LinkedIn search results, the first impression they will get is your photo and your headline. You can test it out and go look for somebody and you'll see the same thing. Just make sure yours is there. You need to stand out and catch someone's attention because you're one in that job, right?

You want someone to look for you. Your photo needs to be just you. It doesn't need to be that photo on Facebook with your cute little kitten or your little puppy dog. It should be a professional image. If you don't have a professional photo you can take one. All the cameras nowadays on the cell phones take great pictures. Be neatly dressed, have your hair done, and a background that does not distract from who you are.

Turn your summary into your story. This is all about you. Write a compelling "About You" section. Expand your network to be more visible. You will get people who want to be connected to you on LinkedIn. You know, look at them and say, "Is this what I need?" And you can actually grow your network.

There are courses that you can do for profiles. So there are beginning courses on LinkedIn, intermediate, less than one hour, and 3+ hours. You can go there, I looked at these courses, and you can look at how you would create your profile from the courses that are offered — and these are free.

The top five tips for your headline are:

1. Review linkedin's guide to creating the standout headline.

2. Your headline is your professional brand. Use all 220 characters allowed.

3. Look at the big picture and your value proposition.

4. Use strategic words to appear in more LinkedIn searches.

5. Include languages about your strength. You want to focus on your strengths.

So here are the top 5 tips for your LinkedIn profile:

1. Your LinkedIn headline and photo are the most important things about your profile.

2. Review the LinkedIn courses to create your profile.

3. Turn your summary into a story about you.

4. Write a compelling section about you.

5. Expand your network to be more visible.

Again, I'm Karen Bowman and I hope you've enjoyed these tips that I've given you. And, I hope you take away a nugget of information. I appreciate you being here and we'll see you next time!