I assure you that I am not a guru nor expert.  I am a student of LinkedIn and an evangelist.  I learn from others who write about LinkedIn and from other members like you.  I share my thoughts and solicit your feedback.  Hopefully, some of my thoughts will provide ideas that move you to action resulting in an updated LinkedIn profile that has you feeling better and delivers improved results.  Ideally your feedback will prompt me to include your insights into future postings.

WHAT’S THE OBJECTIVE?
So, let’s identify your objective(s) as a LinkedIn member before writing your profile.  Job seekers, consultants, business owners, professionals and retirees will have different objectives seeking the attention of different audiences.  Professionals like accountants, attorneys, doctors and such will craft profiles that define their areas of expertise with an objective of attracting clients and patients.  Sales professionals, consultants and business owners will seek partners, prospects and customers.  Job seekers want to attract employers’ attention.  Consider your audience first.  Understand what they wish to know about you and share the information they desire.  Put yourself in the position of someone seeking your skills and talents.

GENERAL GUIDELINES….almost common sense.

• Write so your audience understands your message.  Use “plain English” routinely and field jargon where appropriate.
• Use a spell checker.  LinkedIn does NOT have a spell checking feature deferring this function to web browsers.
• More robust content and keywords usually enhance better search results than brief and concise. More details in later postings.
• Keep all content relevant to your objective. If your past is irrelevant to your present and future goals,  consider not including it.
• Reveal your personality in your written word.  Let them hear your voice as partner, co-worker.
• Remember that your making a first impression and you only get one chance at that.  Don’t be careless.

Here is a post from Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com and his review of a profile.

Subsequent postings will include insights on various aspects of the profile that you may have overlooked – headline, status, web links, contact settings and more.  C’mon back and offer your comments.