more essential linkedin profile tips

Following on from my previous LinkedIn blog here are some more quick tips that often surprise attendees at my LinkedIn training workshops - (1) What does your contact information say, how to change, add or remove an email address and how to change the web address of your profile URL. 

1. What does your contact information say?
Did you know that if you add your email address, phone number and location address to your Contact and Personal Information section, these could be widely available to all of your 1st-degree connections? Not only that, but your website or twitter handle might be visible to ALL members. 

Are all of your contact details up to date or do you still have your old employer's email address listed as your current email address on LinkedIn? 

The first thing I do when I start a LinkedIn training session, is to ask everyone to check their contact details. More often than not, someone will have their ex-employer’s email address and possibly an old website still listed on their contact details as they didn’t realise that this information was listed on their profile.

f a connection was looking to send you an email, and they looked up your email address on your profile, that email is going to your old email address. So it's important that you check and update this now. 

If you want to check your own contact details, follow these steps:
1. Go to your picture at the top of LinkedIn (Picture and the word Me). Click the white drop down arrow.
2. Then click ‘View Profile’

3. On the right hand side (normally under a few advertisements and wording that says ‘See connections’) you will see a section titled ‘Contact and Personal Info’

4. Click ‘show more’

5. This section will expand to show all of your contact details. *I have all of my contact details completed. You might have no information for Address, Twitter and website*

 The most important things to check here are:

1. Your email address.
Are you happy with the contact email address that is listed here? Is this your current work email address or are you still using your personal email address?  If you have changed jobs recently, is this the email address you had with your previous employer and not your current employer? If you are between jobs, do you still have your previous work email address listed here? See steps below for changing / removing / adding an email address.

2. Website.
What does this say? Is it blank? Or is this your current employer, previous employer or your own business? If you want to change it, just click the blue pencil icon. 

3. Your Profile URL.
This is the web link to your LinkedIn page. You can add this to your email signature or to your CV. The link will be automatically set to default wording, normally: first name + last name + a series of numbers. But you can edit it and change it to make it more of a selling feature.

For example, I could be louisebunyan_digitalmarketing or louisebunyan_employerbranding. *But, your URL has to be unique. I’m lucky in that my last name is relatively uncommon, but if you are Mary Murphy you might have a tougher job trying to get a unique url. But don’t let that put you off – try out a few versions and see which one you can use. Just click the blue pencil icon to edit - see steps below. 

4. Address and twitter. 
These are usually left blank until you update them. If you want to add in your location or to link your Twitter account, just click the blue pencil icon and add the details. 

A. Adding a New or Primary Email Address​

​1. In the Contact and Personal Information box above, click the blue pencil. 

2. It will change to the box below. ​Look for the email address section. Click on the arrow at the end of the blue email address. 

3. The page will automatically redirect to the 'Account > Basics' section of LinkedIn. 

Here you will see either one email address or all of your email addresses that have been verified. ​

• You can have more than one email address (I have three) but only one can be the Primary email address. All of your communications will be sent to your Primary email address. 
• If you only have one email address, and want to remove it...well, you can't as then you would have no email address and no way of logging in. Instead you have to add a new email address, make that primary and then delete the one you don't want (a bit cumbersome but follow the steps listed)

​4. Click 'Add email address' 
5.  Type in the email address that you want to add

6. Hit 'Send Verification' 
7. You will be prompted to type in your LinkedIn password to confirm that you are the account owner
8. Click 'Done'

6. Check your email inbox. Confirm your email address by clicking the link - very important!

7. Did you check your email? Did you confirm your email address by clicking the link?
​ 
8. When you have clicked the verify link, you'll be prompted to sign back into LinkedIn again. 
9. Once you sign back in successfully, you will see this green notification "Thanks for confirming your email address"

9. Go to the Account > Basics > email address section again of LinkedIn and your new email address should be there. ​
10. To make the recently added email address your primary email, click the 'Make Primary' button.

11. Type in your password and then hit the 'Make primary' button.

12. ​And now you have added a new email address and made it your Primary email address. ​​

B. Removing an Email Address

1. If you want to remove an email address, just go to the email address that you want to remove and select 'Remove' on the right hand side. 

2. A box will appear looking for your password. 
3. Type in your password. And then hit the blue 'Remove' 
4. Now you have removed an email address. ​

​C. Changing your Profile URL

1. In the Contacts and Personal Information section, click the blue pencil icon to edit

2. Look for 'Profile URL' - it's the first link at the top. Click the arrow

3. The page will automatically change to the 'public view' of your profile
4. On the top right hand side, look for 'Edit URL'. Personalize the URL for your profile. Click the blue pencil icon (yes - another blue pencil icon)​​

6. Start typing in your new URL. In the example below , I have used louisebunyan_digitalmarketing

7. Click save. 
8. If someone else does not already have that URL, a 'success' message will appear. 
9. But if the URL is already taken you will get a 'sorry' message and you'll have to try again. ​​​

p.s. If you have a few minutes, check out my new online LinkedIn training platform 'SmartFox Training' with a range of video courses created specifically to show anyone and everyone how to become a savvy and speedy LinkedIn user. Learn at your own pace, at home or on the go with easy to follow and step by step videos.   www.smartfoxtraining.com