Your LinkedIn profile is the fulcrum leveraging your professional credibility. Your LinkedIn profile is not only the story of your professional development. It also provides insight into what YOU stand for as a Businessperson of Worth, my post from yesterday.
Current customers and prospects will “check you out” on LinkedIn. It’s their way of vetting whether it makes sense for them to do business you, your company, and your employees.
Here are 3 tips for building and sustaining your professional credibility via your LinkedIn profile.
Tip 1 – What you “Do” isn’t as compelling as Who you Are. The Summary section of your profile is the structural foundation upon which you build your professional credibility as a Businessperson of Worth. Tell your story. Continue to build on your story throughout your LinkedIn profile. If you tell me you are a “results-driven team player interested in manufacturing,” I’m reading buzz words and commodity phrases that everyone uses. Alternatively, when you tell me you are “focused on manufacturing practices and processes which eliminate waste and increase productivity and profitability,” you give me a compelling reason to do business with you. I know that YOU understand your professional credibility, no matter how old you are.
Tip 2 – Focus on your Core Competencies, not your Job Description. The Experience section of your LinkedIn profile is more than a chronological compilation of all the jobs you’ve ever had. Tell me about your core competencies: the “more than just doing your job” stuff which delivers value to customers. Your core competencies are your professional signature, that “spin” you provide when implementing projects. In Chapters 5 & 6 of my book, Do YOU Mean Business, I deep dive into the significance of core capabilities in building your professional credibility.
Tip 3 – Get over your feelings of educational inadequacy. There’s a lot of educational disparity in today’s workforce, especially in the manufacturing community. For a whole bunch of reasons, not everyone went to college, let alone got an MBA or a PhD. I have worked with CEOs, operations managers and military personnel who “only” have a high school diploma. Guess who I’d pick to have my back in a tough situation? If it bothers you that much, achieve professional credibility in your own eyes. Earn an online degree. Move on. Whatever you do, don’t leave that section of your profile blank.
Your LinkedIn profile is your career passport to professional credibility. Cultivate opportunities. Grow your career. Tell your story on LinkedIn.
Babette N. Ten Haken, Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers, LLC, catalyzes revenue-producing business transition, startup growth and professional development in the manufacturing and engineering space as well as in the B2C space. Download her newest White Paper at her Free Resources Page.
Leave a Reply