Tips for improving the results of your LinkedIn profile

It’s almost like a career fairy tale: a gallant recruiter rides up on a white horse (or sends you an email) and says, “I have a job for you!”

This situation is happening increasingly often as hiring specialists access the powerful, easy-to-use social networking tool LinkedIn to identify qualified candidates. If you’d like increase your chances for being found for great-fit positions LinkedIn specialist Lidonna Beer with Career Solutions Group, and Dan Stiffler with MaxOut LI offer these tips:

Unless you’re a first- or second-level connection to the recruiter she’s only able to view the initial 32 characters in your headline. Load this lead-in with a title describing your career niche such as Corporate Tax Accountant (that’s 22 characters by the way).

Similarly, a recruiter who’s a third-level connection to you is only able to see the initial paragraph of your summary, so pack the first 50 characters with primary keywords relevant to your target position (5 – 10 of them), and the second 50 characters with your contact information, including your email address. Do this even though you may also be listing your contact data in the “Advice for Contacting” section.

The zip code you associate with your profile should be within 25 miles of a major city, so Northern Colorado searchers would want to connect their profiles to Denver. This will increase the number of opportunities for your profile to be found.

LinkedIn now allows you to attach degree and certification details after your last name, such as CPA, further increasing your search-ability.

If your name is spelled unusually consider also listing the more common spelling in parenthesis to help it be found, such as Jon (John). Additionally, include multiple job titles related to your specialty, such as Sales Professional, Account Representative, and Business Development.

List awards along with your work experience and not just in the Awards section, as they will be more likely to be seen. Tip the recruiter off to your successes by leading with keywords such as Award or Achievement to draw attention to your accomplishment.