Sophia Theriault

How to Display a Professional Personality on LinkedIn

This white paper explains how to go beyond setting up a LinkedIn profile and the proper

way to connect with future employers. You should refrain from solely copying and pasting your

resume onto your LinkedIn profile. Understanding all the opportunities LinkedIn offers will

accelerate the process of beginning your professional career. Learning to be professional while

showcasing your personality on this platform will contribute to your future success as well as

provide advantages to obtaining internships and interviews. When used properly, LinkedIn can

help you step into the professional world.

Crafting A Personal Brand

Before making a LinkedIn profile, you should brainstorm and identify personal and

professional goals in order to properly portray a purpose on this platform. By doing this, you will

obtain a better sense of how to express your personality in a professional way. Identifying goals,

traits, interests, and most importantly, values acts as a helpful starting point. Envisioning what

you want viewers to say and think about you after the first glance at your profile moves the

process forward. Doing this will help you build a more consistent and authentic LinkedIn profile.

After you make an account, the important task of setting up your profile and building

your personal brand begins. Author Jenn Herman suggests that ​“Your profile should accurately

represent your business brand - and appeal to your target audience.”​ Your profile acts as a first

impression online and possesses the same amount of power as an in-person impression during an

interview.

1
Sophia Theriault

Grabbing Attention with Keywords and Headlines

Including clear and interesting keywords and headlines that pertain to your interests and

aspirations acts as an important first step when setting up your LinkedIn profile. Using keywords

and headlines that grab viewer’s attention provides a ​clear description of what you do, who you

help, and what sets you apart from your competitors.​ Be clear and creative when crafting your

profile because it can determine whether a viewer continues to read or moves on to the next

profile.

Choosing the Perfect Picture

Profile photos are ​“cropped to a circle, so your photo should fit properly within that crop”

(Herman, 26) in order for viewers to see the entire photo. You should avoid using a logo or a

photo with other people. A professional, appropriate photo should appear on your profile.

Choose a simple headshot of you looking straight ahead​ and smiling. A non-selfie photo does not

equal a boring or fake photo. You should look​ professional, put together, and friendly.

You want to avoid portraying someone you’re not, so express your own style even if that

excludes business attire. ​For example, ​“a yoga instructor should still use a headshot and not a

photo of her/himself in a yoga pose.”​ ​Keep in mind that people​ remember faces more than

names and a photograph gives more meaning and depth to your words. Your photo should look

natural while demonstrating approachability and professionalism.

2
Sophia Theriault

Storytelling with Visuals

Incorporating visual elements into a LinkedIn profile can increase engagement and

likeability. ​Research from MIT shows that a person can process and remember a photo or image

after viewing it for just 13 milliseconds.​ Along with an engaging profile photo, you should also

upload a visually appealing background image to give your profile page ​a bit more personality

and branding​. A safe choice includes picking a neutral scene or a landscape as the background

image, but if you wish to stand out among your peers you may want to upload an image that

speaks more to your personality. A creative and thoughtful background image sets you apart.

Some examples of this includes a company or organization you currently work with or a picture

of a computer with a coffee if you enjoy working at a certain coffee shop.

Showing a Person Behind the Screen

Incorporating personal touches throughout your LinkedIn profile emphasizes the human

behind the screen. Use the extra space in the ​summary section for personal touches​ regarding

interests, hobbies, side hustles, or interesting facts that showcase your individuality. Of course,

this content should be appropriate, sensible, and honest. Depicting your personality perfectly on

social media proves difficulty, but listing personality traits and top values helps. Take advantage

of the summary section and​ ​“think of it as your "60-second commercial.”​ ​Research shows you

benefit​ ​from displaying certain traits such as conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to

experienced on social networks like LinkedIn. Adding your traits, top strengths, and a handful of

skills gives potential employers a greater sense of who your personality.

3
Sophia Theriault

Updating A Profile Often

The creation, viewing, and sharing of new content occurs every second and can

disadvantage you if you don’t keep up. Today, ​the majority of recruiters use LinkedIn as a tool to

find candidates to present to their client companies seeking professionals and top-tier talent.

Remaining active and present on LinkedIn equips you to engage with future employers and keep

up with continuous new content. Essentially, updating your profile and information on this

platform allows you access to more significant opportunities. If you change positions at a

company, win an award, obtain a degree, or learn a new skill you should add that to your profile.

If you travel or study abroad, you should change the language on LinkedIn to engage with more

people as well as challenge yourself.

Successful job seekers practice and​ “develop the mindset of constant networking, self

assessment and refinement of the process.”​ Explaining your past experiences, current positions,

and future aspirations on LinkedIn gives viewers a better idea of your background, current

situation, and future goals and endeavors. In addition, you can implement opportunities for

potential interaction by writing, ​please reach out to discuss opportunities in X, Y, and Z​ and

encouraging a conversation.

Receiving Recommendations and Feedback

LinkedIn provides a recommendations section for users to upload comments and

recommendation letters from other individuals. The addition of ​a​ well-crafted, glowing

recommendation from a peer rather than a few generic sentences from a manager or supervisor

provides you an advantage and sets you apart from others. ​ Asking other people to speak to your

4
Sophia Theriault

character and provide anecdotes unique to you and your experiences allows you to stand out

among your peers on LinkedIn. A variety of recommendations from at least three different

people with various positions showcases your personality in a more accurate light. In addition to

obtaining relevant recommendations, asking a friend, colleague, or someone who knows you

well to review your LinkedIn profile and give helpful feedback provides more value. As a

college student, another option includes visiting career services to receive more feedback and

opinions from professionals.

Conclusion

Joining LinkedIn and utilizing this social network to express your personality in a

professional way provides you with an advantage. College students should use this tool to ​start a

professional career and explore all the opportunities available through LinkedIn. The ​proper way

to connect with future employers on LinkedIn involves ​crafting a personal brand, grabbing

viewer’s attention, choosing the right photos and visuals, showing the person behind the screen,

updating often, and obtaining various recommendations.

5
Sophia Theriault

Works Cited

Bhardwaj, Shally, et al. "Personality Assessment using Multiple Online Social Networks."
Multimedia Tools and Applications,​ vol. 75, no. 21, 2016, pp. 13237-13269​. ProQuest​.

Breitbarth, Wayne. “Go Beyond All-Star: How to Create an Extraordinary LinkedIn Profile.”
The Savvy Intern by YouTern​, Youtern, 22 July 2017.

Fernando, Hiranya. “8 Steps To Creating A Powerful LinkedIn Profile.” ​Business Insider,​

Fertig, Arnie. “How Headhunters Use LinkedIn to Find Talented Candidates.” ​U.S. News &
World Report,​ U.S. News & World Report.

Herman, Jenn, et al. ​Instagram for Business for Dummies​. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018.

Kim, Larry. “22 Great Tips for Enhancing Your LinkedIn Profile – Marketing and
Entrepreneurship – Medium.” ​Medium,​ Medium, 20 Feb. 2018.

Rynne, Alex. “How to Easily Create Eye-Catching Content on LinkedIn [Infographic].” ​Business
Solutions on LinkedIn​, LinkedIn, 11 Sept. 2017.

The Path to Employment. ​Newstex, Chatham, 2014​. ​ProQuest.​