How to Create a LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is more than just a digital resume, it's your professional storefront on the world's largest networking platform. A strong profile can unlock job opportunities, attract clients, and build your personal brand. This guide will walk you through creating a compelling, professional LinkedIn profile from scratch, optimizing every section to make the best possible impression.

Make a Powerful First Impression

When someone lands on your profile, you have just a few seconds to capture their attention. Your photo, background banner, and headline are the first things they see, so let's make them count.

Your Profile Photo: Look Professional, Feel Approachable

Your profile picture is the digital handshake. A profile with a photo gets up to 21 times more views than one without. Forget the blurry vacation photo or the cropped picture from a friend's wedding.

• Use a recent, high-resolution headshot. People want to see the real you, as you look today.
• Keep the background simple and clean. Avoid distracting backgrounds that pull focus away from you. A solid color, a lightly blurred office setting, or even a clean brick wall works well.
• Aim for a warm, approachable expression. A genuine smile makes you seem more likable and open to connection.
• Dress professionally. Wear what you would for a business meeting or an important client call in your industry.

Your Background Banner: Set the Scene

The background banner (or cover photo) is prime real estate to add personality and context to your profile. Don't leave it as the default blue design. Instead, use this space to tell a visual story.

Consider using a banner that shows:

• You in action: speaking at an event, leading a workshop, or collaborating with a team.
• Your brand or company: A simple image with your company logo and tagline can reinforce your professional identity.
• Your value proposition: A web designer could use a clean image with text like, "Building beautiful websites that convert."
• Something that represents your field: A writer could have a clean shot of a keyboard and notepad, a developer could use a stylized image of code.

Canva is a fantastic free tool with pre-sized LinkedIn banner templates to make designing one incredibly simple.

Your Headline: It’s More Than Just a Job Title

Your headline is arguably the most important piece of text on your profile. It appears next to your name in search results, connection requests, and posts. Instead of just listing your job title, use it to explain the value you provide.

A formula that works well is: [Your Role] | Helping [Your Target Audience] achieve [Their Goal] with [Your Skillset]

Instead of:

Social Media Manager at Company X

Try:

Social Media Marketing Manager | Helping SaaS startups build organic communities & drive leads through content strategy

This revised headline immediately tells visitors who you are, who you serve, and how you do it. It’s also loaded with keywords that will help you appear in relevant searches.

Tell Your Professional Story in the "About" Section

The "About" section is your chance to expand on your headline and give people a reason to connect with you. Think of it as your elevator pitch. A well-written summary should be conversational and tell a compelling story about your professional journey.

Structure your "About" section with these four parts:

1. The Hook (1 sentence): Start with a strong opening line that summarizes what you're passionate about or the main problem you solve.
2. Your Journey & Mission (2-3 sentences): Briefly explain your background and what drives your work. What’s your professional "why"?
3. Your Expertise (Bulleted list): Clearly list your key skills or areas of expertise. This makes it easy for recruiters and potential clients to see if you're a good fit. Use keywords relevant to your industry.
4. Call to Action (1 sentence): End by telling people what you want them to do next. This could be inviting them to connect, check out your portfolio, or send you a message. Also, be sure to include your email address here.

Example "About" Section:

"I believe great content can build community and drive business growth without feeling like a sales pitch. Over the past 7 years, I've worked with B2B tech companies to turn their brand stories into engaged audiences. My journey has taken me from a small content agency to leading the organic social media strategy for a series-B-funded startup, where I focused on building connections, not just collecting followers.

My areas of expertise include:

• Content Strategy & Calendar Planning
• Organic Social Media Marketing (LinkedIn, X, Instagram)
• Community Management & Engagement
• Copywriting & Brand Voice Development
• Social Media Analytics & Reporting

I'm always open to talking about content and community building. Feel free to connect or reach out at [your.email@email.com]."

Document Your Experience and Prove Your Skills

This is where you show, not just tell. Your experience and skills sections provide the hard evidence for the story you told in your "About" section.

The Experience Section: Ditch the Boring Job Descriptions

Don’t just copy and paste your resume here. Instead, frame your job responsibilities as accomplishments. Use bullet points and start each one with a strong action verb (e.g., Led, Developed, Managed, Achieved, Increased).

Wherever possible, use numbers and metrics to quantify your impact. This makes your contributions concrete and impressive.

Instead of:

• Responsible for managing social media accounts.
• Wrote blog posts and created graphics.
• Posted content daily.

Try:

• Grew our organic LinkedIn following by 150% in 12 months by developing and executing a new content pillar strategy.
• Launched a company blog, writing and publishing 2 weekly articles that generated over 20,000 monthly pageviews.
• Increased average post engagement by 45% by incorporating short-form video and interactive content formats.

Also, don't forget to link to your company's actual LinkedIn page in each experience entry. It shows up with their logo and makes your profile look much more professional.

Skills & Endorsements: Get Social Proof

The skills section is a quick, scannable way for others to see your strengths. LinkedIn allows you to add up to 50 skills, but focus on the ones most relevant to your career goals.

• Choose Relevant Skills: Add a mix of hard skills (like SEO, Python, or Project Management) and soft skills (like Leadership, Communication, and Teamwork).
• Pin your Top 3: Pin your three most important skills to the top of the list. These will be most visible to visitors.
• Ask for Endorsements: Don't be shy about asking former colleagues or managers to endorse your skills. A simple message like, "Hey [Name], I'm updating my LinkedIn profile and would really appreciate it if you could endorse me for [Skill] if you feel I’ve demonstrated it well," usually does the trick. Be sure to return the favor!

Complete Your Profile with Added Details

The small details matter. Completing every relevant section of your profile shows thoroughness and helps you appear in more targeted searches.

Customize Your LinkedIn URL

When you first create your profile, LinkedIn will assign you a clunky URL full of random numbers. Customizing it gives you a clean, professional link that’s easy to share on resumes, business cards, and email signatures.

You can edit it on your profile page. Change it to something simple like:

linkedin.com/in/yourname

Or if that’s taken:

linkedin.com/in/yourname-marketing or linkedin.com/in/janesmithwrites

Add Education, Certifications, and Volunteer Work

Rounding out your profile with these sections paints a more complete picture of who you are.

• Education: Add your degree(s), school(s), and any relevant activities or societies.
• Licenses & Certifications: This is a perfect place to feature any professional certifications, online course completions, or industry-specific licenses.
• Volunteer Experience: Highlighting volunteer work can showcase your values and demonstrate skills like leadership or community organizing.

Put Your Profile to Work

A great LinkedIn profile is a living document, not something you create and forget. It serves as the foundation for your networking and content efforts.

If you plan on posting content regularly, turning on Creator Mode will change the primary call-to-action on your profile from "Connect" to "Follow," helping you build an audience. It also allows you to designate topics you talk about (#hashtags) right under your headline.

Engage, Engage, Engage. Your profile gets more visibility when you’re active on the platform. Spend 15 minutes a day liking and leaving thoughtful comments on posts from people in your network. It’s one of the best ways to get on people’s radar.

Sharing your own insights is the single best way to build your personal brand. Document your learnings, share industry news with your own take, or create tutorials. An active, content-rich profile shows you're an engaged expert in your field.

Final Thoughts

Creating a stellar LinkedIn profile is a one-time project that pays off for years to come. By optimizing your photo, headline, "About" section, and experiences, you build a powerful tool for networking, brand-building, and career growth.

Once you’ve built a great profile, the next step is to stay active by consistently sharing valuable content. We know that juggling content ideas, scheduling posts, and analyzing what's working across different platforms can feel overwhelming. That’s why we built Postbase - to provide a simple, reliable way to manage a consistent content calendar from one central hub, specifically designed for today's visual, video-first world.