This article is designed to aid you in setting up a LinkedIn profile in its rudimentary form. No bells and whistles, just the bare bones of your profile.
While LinkedIn guides you through the steps of creating a basic profile, it can still be confusing in places. When you set up your LinkedIn, it’s advisable to use a desktop or laptop.
First of all, if you’re not there already, you’re going to want to open LinkedIn in your browser. Type in www.linkedin.co.uk and click “Join Now”.
You’ll then be taken to a small form in which you will need to input some details. Make sure that the email address you choose is one that you will always have access to – i.e. your personal email, not your work email. You will be asked to enter your first name, last name, the email address that you would like to use to sign in with, and a password (which should contain 6 or more characters).
1. Country and Postcode
You’ll then be asked to enter a small amount of information, starting with your country and postcode. The post code you will want to put in is your home postcode, not your company’s post-code – remember, while you want to reflect your company it is still your personal LinkedIn account.
2. Job Info
Next up you’ll be asked for your most recent job title at your most recent company, so simply fill in these details and click next. It’s only simple details for now while we’re setting up your basic profile, there’s much more information you can input later on.
3. Email confirmation
At this point you'll need to confirm your email for security reasons. LinkedIn will have sent a 6-digit code to the email address you specified at the start, so simply type that number in or copy and paste the number. There will be small privacy notice below the code entry point which simply states that they will send you various communications. You can change your communication and privacy preferences once you have your account set up, so don’t worry about this for now, just press “Agree & Confirm”.
4. Connecting with people
Next you can choose whether you would like to add your email contacts. This is a good way of finding connections at an early stage, and will save you the task of searching and connecting with your close contacts at a later date.
In the next window LinkedIn offers a selection of connections that you may already know. If you know any of them, great! Simply click the + symbol in the top right of their icon and they will be selected that they are to be connected with.
If you find that you know most of the people, simply click the “Select All” button at the bottom and deselect the ones you do not know. You can also search for any specific people you want to connect with in the search bar above the suggested connections – simply type their name in and click the “connect button” on the right of their name.
Don’t worry about adding everyone you know; you could be here for hours! You can connect with other people you think of later on. Once you have found a good amount of people you want to connect with, press “Add # connections” to continue to the next stage.
5. Photo
At this point you’ll be asked to upload a photo so that your connections (and future connections) will recognise you. Your LinkedIn profile photo is your first opportunity to convey that you are a friendly, trustworthy and professional to a prospective client or connection.
First impressions last forever, so make it count!
It's a good idea to use your staff photo for your LinkedIn profile, as these will often meet a set of criteria:
These photos meet a set of criteria:
They are high quality (no pixels).
They focus on a smiling face.
The subjects are dressed in smart, business clothing.
It’s just you in the picture.
The background doesn’t distract from the face.
Your staff photo is a good indication of the “work” you, and after all, LinkedIn is a place for professionals, so we would advise you to use these photos. If you do not have a staff photo, would rather use a different background, or just want a different photo, I’d recommend getting someone else to take it in a natural environment with good lighting. Remember to smile, and dress in smart, business clothing.
If you already have a photo that meets the above criteria on your Google or Facebook account, simply click “Use my Google photo” or “Use my Facebook photo”. Once you have uploaded your photo, click “Continue”.
6. Jobs
You’ll then be asked if you want to create a job alert. We'll assume that you are happy in your role, therefore simply press “Skip for now”.
7. Get the LinkedIn App
If you want to download the app, type in your phone number to receive a link. Alternatively, you can just navigate to the app store on your phone and search LinkedIn to download the official app.
If you don’t want to do this yet, simply press “skip”.
Profile created!
By this point you will have completed setting up your basic profile, congratulations!
Setting up a LinkedIn profile is as simple as that, and it's a great tool for every professional to use for networking, researching competition, recruiting, generating leads and a whole host of other reasons. If you want to find out why it's so important for professionals to use LinkedIn, watch this short video we have created!
If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to contact our Marketing Department at marketing@chestertonhouse.co.uk.