How to Update Your LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is more than a digital resume - it's the home base for your professional brand. A profile that’s actively managed and strategically updated can attract opportunities that you never thought possible. This guide will walk you through a complete, step-by-step update to ensure your profile stands out, builds your network, and opens doors.

Your First Impression: Nailing the Top-Fold

The top section of your profile is what everyone sees first, whether they're on a desktop or a phone. This is your digital handshake, so every element needs to count.

1. Professional Headshot: More Than Just a Picture

Your profile picture is the most important visual element on your LinkedIn. It’s what makes you instantly recognizable and humanizes your professional experience. A good headshot communicates confidence, approachability, and professionalism.

Here are the key criteria for an effective headshot:

• High-Resolution and Clear: The image should be sharp, not blurry or pixelated. Most modern smartphones can take photos that are more than high-enough quality.
• You, and Only You: Avoid group photos or pictures where you've cropped someone else out. The focus should be entirely on you.
• Head and Shoulders Shot: Your face should take up about 60% of the frame. A full-body shot is too distant, and an extreme close-up can feel a bit intense.
• Warm and Approachable Expression: A smile goes a long way. You want to look like someone people would want to work with. Think relaxed and confident.
• Unobtrusive Background: A simple, solid-colored wall, a blurred-out office view, or a neutral outdoor background works best. Avoid distracting or messy backgrounds.

Action Step: If your current photo is a selfie taken in bad lighting, from an odd angle, or is more than a few years old, it’s time for an update. You don’t need to hire a professional photographer, just ask a friend to take a few photos of you in front of a well-lit window with a neutral background.

2. Strategic Background Banner: Your Digital Billboard

The banner photo that sits behind your headshot is valuable real estate that most people waste. The default blue gradient is a missed opportunity. This is your chance to add context, show off your brand, or provide a call to action immediately.

Ideas for your LinkedIn banner:

• Company Branding: Use your company’s logo, tagline, or brand imagery. This is great for founders, executives, or anyone central to a company’s identity.
• Your Value Proposition: Display a short sentence that summarizes what you do. For example, a financial advisor’s banner might say: "Helping Millennials Build Long-Term Wealth."
• A Photo of You in Action: If you're a public speaker, show a photo of you on stage. If you're a designer, showcase a clean image of your work.
• Team Photo or Workspace: Let people get a glimpse into your work culture or environment.
• Contact Information or Website: Make it easy for people to take the next step by including your email or portfolio URL directly on the banner.

Action Step: Use a free tool like Canva, which has pre-sized LinkedIn banner templates (1584 x 396 pixels), to create a professional-looking banner in minutes.

3. Compelling Headline: Your 220-Character Pitch

Your headline is arguably the most important text on your profile. It appears right under your name in search results, connection requests, and posts. The biggest mistake people make is settling for the default: "Job Title at Company." That tells people what you do now, but not the value you create or the problems you solve.

A formula for a better headline:

[Your Role] | Helping [Your Target Audience] achieve [Their Goal] with [Your Key Skill or Method]

Let's see it in action:

• Instead of: "Marketing Manager at ABC Corp"
• Try: "SaaS Marketing Manager | Helping Tech Startups Drive Organic Growth Through Data-Informed Content Strategy"

• Instead of: "Software Engineer"
• Try: "Full-Stack Software Engineer | Building Scalable, User-Friendly Web Applications for Emerging Brands"

This approach instantly tells recruiters, potential clients, and colleagues not just what your title is, but who you serve and the results you deliver. It's packed with relevant keywords that make your profile far more discoverable in search.

Crafting Your "About" Section: Tell Your Story

The "About" section is your opportunity to move beyond dry facts and bullet points. This is where you connect with the reader, outline your professional mission, and explain why you’re passionate about what you do. The most important rule: write in the first person. Speaking in the third person feels formal and distant.

Use a Simple, Scannable Structure

No one wants to read a giant wall of text. Break up your "About" section into short, digestible paragraphs or use bullet points to highlight skills or achievements.

Here’s a structure that works well:

1. Paragraph 1: The Hook. Start with a strong opening that summarizes your mission. Who are you, what do you do, and whom do you help? Hook the reader so they want to learn more.
2. Paragraph 2: The Proof. Back it up. Briefly mention your years of experience, a few key accomplishments, or the methodologies you specialize in. You can use bullet points here to list your areas of expertise.
3. Paragraph 3: The Personality. Add a touch of who you are behind the professional title. Mention what drives you, a personal passion that bleeds into your work ethic, or what you enjoy most about your industry.
4. Paragraph 4: The Call to Action. Tell the reader what you want them to do next. Do you want them to connect with you, send you an email about A, or visit your website for B? Be specific.

Remember to strategically place keywords throughout your story that align with the jobs or opportunities you're looking for, such as "project management," "organic social growth," or "financial modeling."

The Featured Section: Showcasing Your Best Work

LinkedIn's Featured section sits right below your "About" summary and functions as a mini-portfolio. It's your prime spot to visually demonstrate your skills and accomplishments. If this section is empty, you're missing a massive opportunity to provide proof of your abilities.

What can you feature?

• Articles You've Published: Whether on LinkedIn, your company's blog, or another publication.
• Projects You're Proud Of: Link to a website you helped build, a campaign landing page, or an open-source project.
• Media Appearances: A link to a podcast interview, a webinar you presented, or a video of you speaking.
• Slide Presentations: A deck that showcases your expertise on a particular topic.
• Your Resume or Portfolio: Make it easy for people to download your information.

Action Step: Navigate to your profile, click the "Add profile section" button, drop down the "Recommended" menu, and select "Add featured." From there, you can choose to feature an existing post, an article, a link, or a media file.

Detailing Your Experience: It's More Than a Job Title

Many people treat the Experience section like a simple copy-paste from their resume. This is a mistake. LinkedIn allows you to add much more context, and you should use the space to tell a compelling story for each role.

Focus on Accomplishments, Not Responsibilities

Don’t just list what you were *supposed* to do. Show what you actually *achieved*. Use quantifiable metrics to demonstrate your impact. Ditch passive phrases like "Responsible for…" and start your bullet points with strong action verbs.

• Instead of: "Responsible for managing the company blog."
• Try: "Grew organic blog traffic by 150% in 12 months by implementing a keyword-focused content strategy and doubling publishing frequency."

• Instead of: "Managed sales team."
• Try: "Led a team of 10 sales associates to exceed our annual revenue target by 20%, achieving $1.2M in new business."

For each position, supplement your bullet points by uploading or linking to relevant projects, reports, or articles that showcase your work in that specific role.

Optimizing Your Skills & Endorsements

The Skills section helps validate your expertise through endorsements from your connections. More importantly, it acts as a collection of keywords that the LinkedIn algorithm uses to match you with opportunities. A well-managed Skills section makes you more discoverable.

Action Steps:

1. Pin Your Top Three Skills: LinkedIn lets you choose three "Top Skills" to pin to your profile. These are the first thing people see. Make sure they are the three most important capabilities you want to be known for.
2. Audit and Update Your List: You can list up to 50 skills. Go through your list and remove any that are outdated or no longer relevant to your career goals. Add new skills that align with the direction you're heading.
3. Get Endorsements by Giving Them: The simplest way to receive endorsements is to give them thoughtfully to your colleagues. Find coworkers you've genuinely seen excel at a skill and endorse them. It often encourages them to return the favor.

The Power of Recommendations

If endorsements are a nodding approval, recommendations are a standing ovation. These written testimonials from managers, clients, or colleagues are powerful social proof that you are skilled and enjoyable to work with. Having even just a few high-quality recommendations can set your profile apart.

Don't be afraid to ask for them, but make it easy for the other person to say yes:

1. Personalize Your Request: When you request a recommendation, don't use the generic template. Instead, mention a specific project you worked on together to jog their memory.
2. Be Specific: Guide them on what you’d like them to highlight. For example: "Hi Jane, I'm updating my profile and was hoping you'd write a brief recommendation about our work on the Q3 marketing campaign. If you could touch on my project management skills, that would be fantastic."
3. Offer to Write One in Return: Recommendations are a two-way street. Offering to write one for them shows goodwill and increases your chances of getting one back.

Final Touches for a Polished Profile

A few small, final adjustments can make a big difference in how professionally your profile is perceived.

Customize Your URL

By default, LinkedIn gives you a URL with your name followed by a random string of numbers. Make it cleaner and easier to share by customizing it. Go to your profile page and click "Edit public profile & URL" in the top right corner. Change it to something simple like linkedin.com/in/yourname.

Turn On Creator Mode (If You Post Content)

If you regularly write articles, share insights, or post videos on LinkedIn, enabling Creator Mode will help your content get more visibility. It adds hashtags to your profile indicating topics you talk about and changes the primary call to action from "Connect" to "Follow," helping you build an audience faster.

Final Thoughts

Treating your LinkedIn profile as an evergreen, evolving asset is one of the best investments you can make in your professional journey. By sharpening your first impression, telling your story, and social-proofing your experience, you transform your profile from a static resume into a dynamic tool for networking, brand building, and attracting unexpected opportunities.

We know that managing a professional presence on LinkedIn is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to building your brand online. We created Postbase with this in mind. It's a simple, modern social media management tool made to help you schedule and plan content across all your channels - especially for video - without any of the usual headaches. With a single visual calendar, you can see your entire content strategy at a glance, keeping your brand story consistent everywhere you post.