8 Ways to Effectively Display Your Skills on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has many ways to feature your skills to help you find a job. By displaying your skills effectively, it’s possible to stand out from thousands of job seekers and increase your credibility on the platform. Here are some of the best ways to highlight your skills on LinkedIn.
1. Integrate Your Skills Into the Headline
An eye-catching LinkedIn headline caters to the client or employer. If you were the one looking for a potential hire, what keywords or phrases would you search for? You’ll probably look for the job title and the specific skills for the role.
All parts of your headline can be a strategic way to highlight your skills. For example, let’s take a social media marketing specialist profile. You can emphasize your top skills by mentioning the tech tools you use, your unique value proposition, your niche, and a call to action. Here’s a sample headline:
Social Media Marketing Specialist & Data Analyst | I strategically build SaaS brands on Twitter | Send me a DM for a free consultation!
The headline doesn’t only show hard skills such as social media marketing and data analytics. It also indicates soft skills without using buzzwords. “Strategically building brands” paints a more concrete picture of your skills than simply saying “strategy-driven.” Additionally, the tone aims to be personal, approachable, and professional.
In such a short headline, it’s possible to make your personality shine. Feel free to modify the templates you see online, including this one. Don’t be afraid to use humor, emojis, or other words that show creativity and uniqueness. By doing so, you will align with the job requirements and match with your ideal client.
2. Include Your Skills in the Experience Section
You can use theExperiencesectionon your LinkedIn profile to highlight the skills you acquired and used in your present and previous jobs. Click the pencil icon on a specific job to add skills to this portion. Scroll down toSkillsunder theProfile headline, and add your top five skills for the role.
LinkedIn allows you to add a maximum of 50 skills to your LinkedIn profile. Consider the skills you want to highlight in your profile and add those skills to each role, if applicable. If you specialize in a specific position, you want some skills to be consistently seen.
TheExperiencesection also lets you add aDescriptionportion for each role. Don’t let your professional experiences fade into the abyss of generic descriptions. Instead, highlight the skills you’ve honed along the way. Rather than merely stating your job responsibilities, focus on the impact you made.
For instance, instead of saying, “Managed social media accounts,” you could write, “Orchestrated a strategic social media campaign that resulted in a 50% increase in engagement and a 20% growth in followers.”
By quantifying your achievements and emphasizing the skills you utilize, you paint a vivid picture of your capabilities and attract the attention of potential employers searching for proven results.
3. Add Your Skills in the Top Skills Section
LinkedIn’s Top Skills section is a feature that lets you list your skills and expertise. This section is prominently displayed on your profile, just below the About section, so recruiters and clients can easily see your primary skills.
Click the pencil icon in theAboutsection to change your top skills. UnderSkills, you’ll see anAdd skilloption in blue. Use keywords to add up to five of your top skills. Once you’ve added the maximum number, theAdd Skilloption will be grayed out.
If you’re undecided, check the portion that saysSuggested based on your profile. LinkedIn provides these suggestions based on the skills you added in each job detail. Focus on highly sought-after skills in your industry and align them with your career goals.
4. Take a Skill Assessment
Ready to prove your skills beyond words? LinkedIn offers Skill Assessments, mini-quizzes designed to validate your proficiency in various areas. Completing skill assessments not only demonstrates your expertise but also enhances your credibility.
Skill Assessments is one of thefree LinkedIn features to use in your job search. you could take theavailable LinkedIn skill assessmentsfor technical skills (e.g., Amazon Web Services), business skills (e.g., Microsoft Word), and design skills (e.g., InDesign).
When you pass an assessment, you earn a badge on your profile, showcasing your skill level. LinkedIn allows you to retake an assessment twice if you fail, don’t complete it, or want to gain a higher score.
To take a skill assessment, scroll down to theSkillssection on your main LinkedIn profile. This section should come afterEducation,Licenses & certifications, andVolunteering. ClickDemonstrate skills, then scroll down toTake Skill Assessments.
5. Demonstrate Transferable Skills
Transferable skills are like a Swiss army knife for your career—they can be applied across various jobs and industries. Transferable skills are beneficial if you’re considering a new career. Even if you don’t have experience in a role, you can demonstrate that you’re not coming in with zero knowledge.
LinkedIn’s Demonstrate transferable skills feature is currently in Beta. you could pick a role in Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, and Project Management. Once you’ve chosen a role, you can prove your transferable skills through written or video responses.
To access Demonstrate transferable skills:
6. Use Skills Match
Imagine a magic wand that matches your skills with job postings—Skills Match on LinkedIn comes pretty close! Skills Match assesses how well your skills align with the job requirements by showing the skills added by the job poster.
Skills Match lets you quickly know which skills aren’t in your profile. You will see a list ofskills on your profilethat match the job poster’s requirements. You will also see a list ofskills missing from your profile. From here, it’s possible to add your skills to your profile to “match” the job poster’s.
To access the Skills Match feature and add skills to your profile:
7. Share Useful Content Related to Your Skills
LinkedIn is not just a job search platform; it’s also a treasure trove of knowledge that lets you demonstrate your skills. By posting on LinkedIn, you back up your list of skills with proof through your content.
You’ll see the Activity portion below theAboutandFeatured(if you used theFeaturedsection). From here, you may hitCreate post. Regularly post articles, industry insights, or tips related to your skills. Write about what you know and learnhow to get more engagements on LinkedIn using hashtags.
Don’t be disheartened if you don’t see immediate engagement. It takes time to build a following. Continue to gain experience, learn from other creators, and share your insights. Slowly but surely, you’ll establish yourself as an authority in your field.
8. Take Advantage of Creator Tools
There are reasonswhy you should turn on creator mode on LinkedIn. For one, LinkedIn’s arsenal of creator tools elevates your credibility. Features like LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Stories, and LinkedIn Video allow you to showcase your skills more effectively.
To access these creator tools, you need to turn on creator mode. On your main LinkedIn profile, scroll down toResources, which should be underAnalytics. You’ll see the option forCreator mode.Click this to get an overview of this feature. Then hitNext.
Once you hitNext, you’ll seeTopics. This optional section lets you select up to five topics to display on your profile and lets your audience know what you post about. We highly recommend turning this on for better engagement.
Afterward, scroll down toCreator tools. You’ll seeLinkedIn Live,Audio Event,Newsletters, andFollow linkhere. You’ll also see a green checkmark markedAvailableif the tools are available. Turn onCreator modeto activate theFollow link.
You can use LinkedIn Live to host a live Q&A session or Audio Event to start real-time conversations with your followers. By employing these creator tools, you can demonstrate your skills and connect with your audience more personally, making your profile memorable.
Display Your Skills, and Land a Job on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is more than just a professional social network; it’s an influential platform that can catapult your career. By strategically using LinkedIn’s features to display your skills, you may present yourself as an expert in your field, build credibility, and streamline your job search.
LinkedIn is the best social media platform for professional networking, and has plenty of features for your job search.
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