5 Ways to Visually Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile using Professional Portfolio

By Donna Moritz

In this post, I will discuss 3 reasons why LinkedIn is a Visual Platform and 5 Ways you can start visually enhancing your LinkedIn Profile by using the Professional Portfolio feature.

I know…I can hear you from here, thinking “LinkedIn isn’t Pinterest. It’s not Instagram. It’s a text-heavy platform.  Why do I need to include images?”.  I hear you. Most people think of LinkedIn as being a professional profile – where words do the talking, not pictures.

But things have changed in the world of LinkedIn with the introduction of what is called “Professional Portfolio” earlier this year…and for this Visual Social Media Fan, it’s a very positive change.

Let’s start with a quick Slideshare presentation from LinkedIn about the Professional Profile and what it means for you:

Visually Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile from LinkedIn

You can also read more about Professional Portfolio in this blog post by LinkedIn.

Now let’s look at 3 reasons why you need to start thinking about your LinkedIn Profile a little more “visually”.

3 Reasons Why You Should Think about LinkedIn Differently…as a Visual Platform: 

#1  LinkedIn IS a very Visual Platform
With the introduction of Professional Portfolio on LinkedIn you can now easily share the following visual content on your LinkedIn Profile:

• photos
• links with images
• images
• infographics
• screenshots
• slideshare presentations
• ebooks
• blog posts
• portfolios
• videos……pretty much any content you can think of as long as it has a link or can be uploaded as a file .

Put simply, if you can show it visually rather than saying it with text, then do so.

It’s time to give your LinkedIn Profile an injection of visual imagery. Don’t just say it – display it!

#2  LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for sharing Infographics
Crazy hey?  Not Pinterest. Not Facebook. But LinkedIn!  Who would have thunk it, right? Consider these stats and then after you have considered them, consider sharing infographics (even better, your own “original” infographics) on LinkedIn:

• Infographics get high click through rates and traffic on LinkedIn – in fact LinkedIn is one of the most successful platforms on which to share infographics.
• Infographic posts are shared more readily than traditional posts on LinkedIn (and also on Twitter and StumbleUpon).
• 
  

#3  LinkedIn Acquired Slideshare in 2012
The fact that LinkedIn acquired Slideshare should send a very strong message – LinkedIn is committed to showcasing visual content for the long term.  So get up to speed now and start integrating visual content in your profile.  Things are not going to change – the shift to visual social media is here and any way that we can say what we want to say with imagery, will stand you in good stead across all social media platforms.

So now that you have some reasons for looking at LinkedIn differently, here are some ways in which you can start getting more “visual” on your LinkedIn Profile by using Professional Portfolio.

5 Ways to Get Visual on LinkedIn with Professional Portfolio

See the five ways and the complete Socially Sorted article