GUEST POST BY NABEHA LATIF

Instagram has seen dramatic development in recent years, from roughly a million clients in 2010 to more than one billion. One could contend that Instagram is an online media network like no other. Rather than words, the stage is constructed on the whole around sharing pictures and recordings. This visual contort is the reason Instagram is the social stalwart it is today — “Instagramming” is authoritatively an action word now.

Assuming you are keen on getting an Instagram account or just made one but are not sure how to utilize it, you are in the right place – Here, we will cover every one of the fundamentals, so you can see why Instagram is the top online media stage for commitment today.

To assist you with the beginning, we will stroll through the basics with your Instagram account.

Why Instagram?

Instagram is an online media stage that underlines photograph and video sharing through its portable application. You can take, alter, and distribute visual content for your followers and build a lasting relationship. With roughly two billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide.

It’s hard to remember a time before Instagram. “Do it for the ‘gram” has turned into a typical saying, which implies, basically, “Accomplish something so we can snap a photo and post it to Instagram.”

72% of users report making purchase decisions based on something they saw on Instagram. It makes Instagram a must-have for brands/businesses for building brand image via visuals. Also, it’s an amazing stage for staying connected to the target audience. Remember the trends are changing so quickly nowadays that if you have to keep an eye on social media in real time! (or hire a social media marketer to do it for you!)

Before you get started, connect with your social media and networking purpose again. Remember what you would like to achieve with social media and being connected with more people, grow a following or an audience, and what your one-sentence mission statement is. If you are in one of our programs or work with Angie Weinberger as a coach you probably already know that you need to make a few strategic decisions before you start. You should have clarity on your personal brand, your three labels, your main mission statement, your color scheme, and discussion themes, and decide about your filter already. You don’t just randomly add photos to Instagram, you do this with a purpose and mission in mind.

How To Get Started

To get on Instagram, you should simply download the Instagram application on your phone and get started on your new account by tapping “Join” Instagram is designed to be used via your smartphone only. You can access the platform via a desktop, but you won’t be able to upload content. You can decide to join through Facebook, email, or telephone number. Then, you have to pick a username (short, witty, and relatable to your brand)  and password. After that, you’re ready to get started! 

Once you are done setting up the profile, follow the steps below:

1. Download the application via App Store (iPhone) or Google Play Store (Android).

1. To sign up, click “Sign in with Facebook” if you wish to link the two together, or fill in the usual details such as phone number or email, name, username, and secret key. Then, at that point, click “Join.”

1. On Android, click “Join With Email or Phone Number.” On an iPhone, select “Make New Account.”

1. Enter your email address and phone number, then click “Next.” You can also join Facebook to reduce the time and effort to log in.

1. Whenever you’ve finished setting up your username and password, you will be told to complete your profile information. When you have, tap “Done.”

1. Remember your Short bio is crucial to reflect your brand’s personality. It should include a brief self-description, contact information, emojis, hashtags, and more. 

Bad  Example: 

A Coach, Author, and Keynote Speaker.

Good example:

Redefining success ✨

💡 Successful but stuck? I got you covered.

Global Mobility Lecturer * Author * Keynote Speaker

 🛋️ #HireMeExpress #RockMeRetreat 👩🏻‍💻

👩🏻‍🏫 #CareerStrategist

The Basics

At its core, Instagram is a friendly and casual platform, with most of the talking done through the visual content being posted. Each time you open the application, you’ll see the fundamental feed of ongoing posts from the accounts (people) you follow. A menu bar is available everywhere in the application at the base.

The Instagram menu bar, or the hub, has five buttons at the lower part of the application screen. Each has a unique function and will be the easiest way to navigate the platform. This is what each button does, from left to right:

• Home Button (Little House): Your fundamental feed where you can look through photographs and recordings posted by the people you follow.

• Explore (Magnifying Glass): The magnifying glass symbol takes you to the Explore page, where you can look at and peruse content from accounts you don’t follow yet may find interesting.

• Upload (The “+” sign): Select the photo (or video) you wish to post from your device’s library or tap the camera icon to take a new image with your smartphone camera. This is where you get creative and share engaging content!

• Activity/Notifications (The heart sign): The heart symbol takes you to a page that showcases likes and comments on your posts.

• Profile (Your own picture!): Clicking your own image takes you to your account wherein you can see your posts, edit your profile settings as well as view your posts insights. Posts insights are crucial in understanding the type of posts which are attracting relevant audience.   

How To Post

To share a photograph or video on Instagram, tap the “+” button on the bottom middle of the screen, where you can choose photographs or recordings from your phone’s camera app to post. Instagram permits you to choose up to 10 photographs and recordings to post immediately.

• Decide your Instagram Theme. Decide a theme that you want to follow – which helps in giving your brand a familiar look. You can decide to apply a filter for each post, which, contingent upon who you ask, is vital for the Instagram experience. Filters make it simple to alter shots with various visual preset overlays. 

• Add Suitable Captions. Captions are dependably a smart thought. You can utilize words, emoticons, or hash tags. Very much like in remarks, you can likewise “tag” followers and friends by putting “@” before their username. Remember, you can alter inscriptions whenever — or erase them if it becomes necessary later on.

• Consider Tagging Contacts. Instagram permits you to “tag” somebody in your photographs. When you label somebody, they’ll get a notification in their news feed. Feel free to tag brands/businesses as they will love the promotion done. However, It’s best to ask permission prior to adding tags of people you don’t know. 
• Add Your Location. Location labels let others know where your photograph was taken. Tapping on an area label carries you to its related  area feed, where you can examine other public posts.
• Post to other Social Accounts. Instagram likewise enables you to simultaneously publish a post to other social records. You can cross-post to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr by connecting accounts.

Explore These Great Features

As you would expect, Instagram carries out new highlights consistently. From a new substance to a continually growing arrangement of inventive devices, Instagram offers a lot of chances for self-articulation and inventiveness. Here are the best-in-class Instagram highlights.

• Instagram (IG) Stories

Many individuals use Instagram solely to make and survey Stories, which are adjustable posts that remain on your feed for 24 hours. These posts, which could be a blend of photographs and short-structure recordings, are introduced in a slideshow design and available through the highest point of the home feed.

• Instagram (IG) Live

Instagram Live is an element that lets you “Livestream” — as such, broadcast live video from your gadget to any individual who needs to watch. Viewers can send you messages and hearts while you stream, making this an extraordinary method for conversing live with audience and doing Q&A sessions in real time!

• IGTV

IGTV is Instagram’s committed video stage, allowing clients to transfer recordings as long as 15 minutes long (or an hour in the event that you utilize the work area variant). IGTV has its own application for iPhone and Android, yet you can likewise find it inside the customary Instagram application.

• Instagram Shopping

Given Instagram’s ubiquity, it’s nothing unexpected that brands are doing all they can to transform Instagram users into clients. As indicated by Instagram, a great many individuals shop on Instagram consistently.

• Instagram Reels

Worked as an adversary to TikTok, Instagram Reels allows you to record and transfer brief recordings as long as 15 seconds in length. When you record a video, you can alter it and add music, text, and enhancements.

Different followers can like or remark on your Reels recordings, which can be a pleasant method for getting more followers.

I know it can be overwhelming in the start so I always recommend to set attainable short term goals and work towards them. Don’t expect to go viral overnight, but stay consistent with postings. Use the right hashtags and engage! You can also run ad campaigns to attract relevant audience but your content needs to be compelling enough that it stands out and keep your audience engaged. 

Request:

Please follow Angie Weinberger on Instagram. You find her as angie_weinberger.

About the Author

Nabeha Latif is a Digital Media/Branding Consultant specializing in leveraging online marketing channels to achieve desired goals. Since her majors in digital marketing, she has collaborated with names like UN, Ali Baba Inc, Uber, UNESCO, UNDP, etc., to name just a few. She is also actively involved in providing business development services related to marketing. Drop her an email at nabehalatif21@gmail.com for any queries

Facebook has changed considerably since we initially logged in in 2008. Back then, Facebook was still called “The Facebook.” Facebook has advanced dangerously fast since then, and it’ll continue to adapt and improve at a quick speed however long it exists. Multiple updates and new features are rolling out regularly, but the core concept and workings have not changed essentially. It’s a place where you can connect and network. Being an expat, you can find like minded people and even make friends via Facebook groups.

It is now going to turn into a metaverse wherein we can interact in virtual worlds focused on social connections. Metaverse is however still in its introductory phase so we will see if it will be able to replace Facebook in the near future. 

What is Facebook
Facebook is a social media network that interfaces individuals through an online platform. By sharing content like messages, status, posts, images, videos, and outside joins like blog entries, Facebook clients can contribute thoughts and discuss with others who share something similar or various interests. As well as sharing their thoughts, clients can draw in with the content others share on Facebook by responding to it with a like, a laugh, anger, surprise, and care reaction. Facebook is a great tool to gather feedback on your product/service and also to promote special offers to your target audience.

Organizations can utilize their Facebook Pages to stay in contact with their customers, target new ones, and offer direct customer support. To completely comprehend Facebook and how it functions, you’ll need to get comfortable with common terms utilized on the platform. Here is a rundown of key Facebook terms and what they mean.

What is Facebook Business
A Facebook Business or Facebook Page is open to all public accounts from Facebook that brands can set up based on their own theme and branding. It may also be used as a social page for Public Figures, artists, and people alike. These pages or Business accounts allow users to share contact information, post updates, share content, promote events and releases, and stay linked with their audience.
These pages can easily be integrated with profiles and Facebook shops to offer a broader package for businesses.

Create a Business Page

Before you can sign up for your Facebook Business Page, you have to log into your own Facebook account. You don’t need to worry: the data from your personal account won’t become public on your business page.

This is a relevant question because business pages often have more than one-page manager. The moderators are individuals with each their own individual Facebook accounts. Your personal account works like the way to give you access to your new business page. If you have partners assisting you with your business page, their own accounts will have equal access to the business as an admin account.

Along these lines, in case you’re not currently logged into your own account, log in now; otherwise, click on Sign Up to get started.

Setup Your Personal Account

To sign up for a Facebook account, follow these three easy steps.

• Visit Facebook’s website.
• On the homepage, enter your

1. First name
2. Last name
3. Mobile number or email
4. New password
5. Birthday
6. Gender.

Click Sign Up.

After you’ve signed up for a Facebook account, you can adjust your privacy settings to control who can see your profile and information. Follow these four simple steps to change your privacy settings.

1. Click the arrow (downward-pointing blue triangle) on the top right corner of any Facebook page.
2. Click Settings.
3. Select Privacy from the sidebar.
4. Set who is allowed to see your posts and how people can contact you.

Set Up a Business Page

To create a page for your business, follow these steps.

Visit the Facebook website and Open your Facebook profile.

Basic Setup:

1. At the top of the homepage, select Create and choose Page.
2. Name your page, and make sure to spell your business name out correctly.
3. Add a category to describe your pages, such as a marketing agency or restaurant.
4. Enter business information, such as address and contact information; the more detailed, the better!
5. Select Continue.

Page Setup:

1. You can add a profile photo to your page, then add a photo or business logo and click next.
2. You can add a cover photo to your page. Similarly, add a cover or banner and click next.
3. You may skip either of the pictures if you desire.
4. Select Next to go to your new page when you have completed the steps.

Extra Setup:

1. Link your website.
2. Add a bio or about section for your business.
3. Add as many helpful images as possible (menus for restaurants).
4. Connect to Whatsapp Business (if any).
5. Connect to Instagram Account (if any).
6. Vanity URL (create a username in settings).
7. Add business details (working hours, location, holiday timings, etc.).

Now Post! Ready, Set, Post!

The primary motivation behind Facebook is to help friends and family interface with one another. You can stay on top of your contacts’ minds by refreshing your status once in a while. To share a Facebook status, go to the text box at the highest point of your news feed page or on your profile page.

Types of posts:

1. Feeling/Activity/Update
2. Check In
3. Tag Friends/Followers
4. Tag Event
5. Ask for Recommendations
6. Poll
7. Support Nonprofit
8. Answer a Question
9. Lists
10. Facebook Stories

Open and Facilitate a Group

The Groups page on Facebook will show you which groups you oversee and those you are a member of. Likewise, you can find groups to join depending on Facebook’s ideas and a huge load of different factors.

To get to the Groups page, tap the Home button, and afterward, on the left sidebar, you’ll see the Explore segment, where you can click Groups.

Facebook Groups address an organic chance to contact many individuals keen on particular themes, yet without paying for ads. Joining and presenting on a pertinent Group as your Facebook Page helps individuals interested in your posts navigate your business page rather than your own profile. 

This feature gives Facebook a major advantage over Linkedin and is a great way of building community.

Page Insights

The more data you have about your audience, the more targeted your content becomes and the better you can fulfill their necessities.

Facebook Page Insights makes it simple to assemble information regarding how your fans communicate with your Page and the content you share. To get to Page Insights, click Insights in the Manage Page menu.

Insights give you data about your Page’s general execution, remembering a few information for audience demographics and engagement. You can see measurements on your posts so you can see the number of individuals you’re coming to.

You’ll likewise perceive the number of remarks and responses are acquired from explicit posts-information that assists you with arranging future content.

Connect and Like Other Pages

Since Facebook is, all things considered, a social media platform-based organization, it’s really smart to involve your Page to construct a community for your business.

One method for building a community is to associate with other pages pertinent to your business (but not competitors).

For instance, assuming that you run a shop in a famous shopping region or shopping center, you could interface with different shops in your area. For example, consider this an internet-based adaptation of your neighborhood business improvement affiliation or office of trade.

Assuming you have a virtual business, you could associate with different companies in your industry that could offer extra benefits for your customers without contending with your offerings.

Look Into These Useful Features

1. Events:
   The Events page on Facebook will show you any forthcoming occasions popular with your Facebook friends or have been set up by the groups you take part in. Likewise, you can observe events dependent on their date, area, and class.
2. Marketplace:
   Facebook competes with Netflix in the streaming business; they also rival eBay in the commercial industry. With Facebook Marketplace, you can peruse for a wide range of items, join groups to trade items with individuals in your space or who share comparative interests, search for items sold from various shops, shop by category, and sell your own items.
3. Pinned Posts:
   Is there important data you need all guests to your Page to see? An advancement you don’t want them to miss? A top-performing piece of content you need to flaunt? Put it in a pinned post.

A pinned post sits at the highest point of your Facebook Business Page, right under your cover picture. It’s an incredible spot to put something eye-catching that will attract your guests and make them want to stay close by.

About the Author 

Nabeha Latif is a Digital Media/Branding Consultant specializing in leveraging online marketing channels to achieve desired goals. Since her majors in digital marketing, she has collaborated with names like UN, Ali Baba Inc, Uber, UNESCO, UNDP, etc., to name just a few. She is also actively involved in providing business development services related to marketing.

GUEST POST BY NABEHA LATIF

With all the world going digital and businesses indulging more in online servicing, communications, and social interactions have therefore been more of a hot spot, especially with the likes of LinkedIn helping now Freelance and stay-at-home workers connect and grow themselves.

LinkedIn is by no means a new platform or in its early stages, a well-established and maintained social platform for business-minded individuals and professionals. However, does being a professional on LinkedIn or being a veteran on the site mean you have the best profiles out there? Not at all! Much like everything else, each passing moment calls for a new development that brings multiple changes to the platform. So this brings up the question, how do you get the professional and sleek-looking profile to stand out?

As an ever-growing platform, certain aspects call for a sturdy base for an end-user, and such can be obtained by adding on and working around a few LinkedIn Must-Haves to boost your profile out into the digital world. LinkedIn requires each individual to start off by creating their own profile, but that’s where the majority of the users leave it. There are so many options, tips, and tricks to get the most out of your profile and make it attractive.

1 – Use your Real Name

Your name and title should be exactly how it is in your real life. Please refrain from using nicknames or pseudo names, just like you won’t dare on your resume. LinkedIn is a professional site, full of professionals and businesses looking to get the most of out their work. Hence, keeping it professional yourself will help you get on the bandwagon, people are looking for solutions, not gimmicks!

2 – Use A Professional Headshot

At a glance, your name and photo are the most commonly viewed piece of information regarding yourself. Adding a professional headshot provides the first visual representation of you – do your best!. Remember, it will make your profile seven times more likely to be viewed by others.
       

3 – Optimize Location

Setting your location as accurately as possible helps businesses and other people look for the ones around them, so optimize yours to the best it can be. It’ll help you network where you will work geographically.  It doesn’t apply to Freelancers/Digital Nomads yet I would recommend you to stay honest regarding your location as preferred by the clients/companies.

4 – Profile Headline

We often wish to see a trailer of an individual before we get to know them for a better understanding, your LinkedIn Profile Headline is just that! You’ve got 110 characters to aptly describe yourself professionally.

5 – Industry Alignment

Looking for a business to match your skill set? You’ll need to be more visible, to make that happen. With the right words and by being specific about your industry, you’re paving a way for potential employers and connections.

6 – Get Connected

At its core, LinkedIn is still a social platform and what do we do on social platforms? Get social! Getting “LinkedIn” the site is part of the name. If you don’t have enough LinkedIn connections, you simply might not show up on as many LinkedIn searches as a 2nd-degree connection as you should.

7 – Be Reachable

It should be easy to find you on other social networks. This is crucial in checking your credibility as a person.  Provide your email address and do add links to Twitter/Facebook even if you don’t use them in a professional capacity.

Flex a little: Add items to your profile, such as projects, test scores, courses, patents, certifications, and volunteering/causes. Looking for work? 42% of hiring managers surveyed say they view volunteer experience as equivalent to formal work experience.

Make it Easy to Get Hired on LinkedIn

Now that you’ve got your head above the crowd, how about we get yourself on stage? With the basics covered and brimmed with your details, let’s get into the nooks and crannies to make it a tight seal.

• Stacking up on Experience: Work on adding more experience and skills. Being a Swiss army knife in this regard with tons of skills and expertise in your repertoire will help you stand out as well as be a prominent prospect for anyone looking to hire  Here are a few suggestions: Social Media, Newsletters, Copy Editing, Web Content, News Writing, Speech Writing, SEO, Email Marketing, Creative Writing, Online Journalism, etc. You can further add Knowledge Management, Learning Management Systems, Talent Management to represent your teaching skills.
• Tell Us About You: The basics will help lay the foundation, but you’ll need to ice the cake to make it look pretty! Show examples of your work, i.e. Youtube or Vimeo videos, presentations from Slideshare/Prezi/PowerPoint, documents from the scribe, word.
• Vanity URLs: Create a vanity URL to make your look sleek and extra presentable. Use a customized URL like linkedin.com/in/JohnWick rather than linkedin.com/pub/john-wick/4a/z89/145/

• Consistent Posting: Make it a weekly habit to post, comment, and endorse your connections on LinkedIn. Update your status on a regular basis. Share thoughtful/insightful news within your industry.
  
• Endorsements: Endorsements may likewise influence how you show up in LinkedIn searches made by users looking for similar people or results. Multiple billion endorsements are given out since LinkedIn’s initiation (10 million on a daily basis)! A normal number of endorsements per LinkedIn client is five. It is a simple method for being better in search results than expected!
• Polish Your Achievements: Add accomplishments, publications, blogs, certifications, and licenses. Bring out those tidbits of information and experience you have under your belt, even a little goes a long way!
• Recommendations: Get recommendations and endorsements on the skills from colleagues/friends on LinkedIn. That’ll help people trust your skill set more once it’s endorsed by other individuals. On LinkedIn you’ve got to establish your credibility, so get on the grind and ask for them!

Request

If you have worked with Angie Weinberger in the past or you enjoy her regular Club Sandwich kindly endorse her on LinkedIn or write a review for her. We also would love to see you follow us on LinkedIn.

About the Author

Nabeha Latif is a Digital Media and Branding Consultant who specializes in leveraging online marketing channels to achieve desired goals. Since after her majors in digital marketing, she has collaborated with names like UN, Ali Baba Inc, Uber, UNESCO, UNDP to name a few. She is also actively involved in providing business development services related to marketing.

Additional Resources

Here’s the thing with social media. Everyone keeps telling you that you must be on social media to develop your brand, but what nobody is telling you when you are a newbie is how much work it actually takes to develop a personal brand on social media. I’m not talking about being featured on posts that your employer (and their big marketing team and budget) developed to attract more clients. I’m talking about you and me as human beings. We thought about your struggle and came up with the Social Media Newbie Series for Global Nomads to help you understand LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, but we got stuck in the detail ourselves and I realized from the questions you are asking that you might still wonder: 

What for? 

Is it worth my time and money? 

So, I thought that today we should take a step back and revisit why it is worth having a digital media presence and share with you my top seven killer tips for job seekers and solopreneurs (and those of you who share my vision of becoming digital global nomads).

As a Career Coach, I have encountered job seekers and freelancers, who still believe that they can thrive in today’s world without a digital presence. In short, they refuse social and professional networking as they feel they will be stalked or annoyed by others. I started with online networking on XING in 2004. Before that “networking” for me meant only person-to-person (or IRL – in real life if you are my age and don’t know what IRL means). 

I would regularly have lunch with different internal and external colleagues to find out about what is going on in their line of work. In the early Millenium, the lunch date roster was your “dance card” and showed how popular you were.

It was almost embarrassing to lunch alone and if you were booked for several weeks this meant you had made it. It was part of the culture of that organization, but networking helped me to understand background stories, to build trust, and get support on a variety of topics. I still prefer lunch dates over any type of online interaction, but as a creator, I have more influence and a bigger circle to reach out to if I leverage my online network too.

Remember that in Germany, Switzerland, and other “Coconut” cultures we tend to be very task-focused and have to invest in building relationships. (Yes, it takes us a lot of energy to get out of that Coconut-Face.)

If I look back, I also pulled my team members, trainers, providers, and friends from my network. The network expanded to external contacts and it got harder to maintain when I left Frankfurt for Zurich, but I started to build a new network, which helped me to build and maintain a start-up in a rather difficult economic environment. If I was looking for a full-time role now, I would certainly try and source it through my network. If I am looking to hire an intern, designer, or specialist I am going to rely on my network. We are teaching the idea of leveraging your network to find a job in Switzerland rather than only applying online in our HireMeExpress program.

I know that you might be afraid to put yourself out there and have people laughing at you or trolling you or giving you negative feedback and comments. How do you even deal with that when you are already fragile and full of self-doubt on a daily basis?

Would it help you if I told you that I still go through the same fear and anxiety? Would it help you if I said: Yes, there are weird people on the Internet and many of them just want your money…but what if 10% of those following you, reading you, hearing you need to hear exactly what you have to say? What if there is one person out there who like me lost half of their family in a tragic accident and thought they would never, ever recover from that? What if one woman that you speak to just lost her child or her husband and needs to hear that it will be okay and that you are there for her? What if there is one person listening to you who is about to commit suicide because they are so desperate and you tell them that they are loved and they hear that and they reconsider.

What if what you have to say is important for one person only?

Don’t you think it’s worth it?

Don’t you think it is worth half an hour of your time?

Remember that you are loved, you are safe, and you are among friends here. 

1) Focus on Your Followers

In all likelihood, you will meet most of your followers on LinkedIn if you are in a professional field like banking, accounting, or human resources. If you are a creative writer, you might want to focus on Twitter because this is where readers will gather their information. On the other hand, if you provide makeup tips in short videos you should focus on Instagram or Youtube. Try not to overwhelm yourself by joining all platforms at once. 

2) Develop A Digital Home

In times of social media, it is hard to understand why you need to have your digital home. Imagine it this way: When you are on Twitter it is like you are attending a huge networking event where you exchange information with colleagues and potential clients. If you want them to look at the information (“content”) that you produce you have to invite them to your “home”. And when you host a party at your place you have to give people directions on how to find you and a good reason to party with you. When you go to a party you don’t expect to be asked to buy something or pay for your beer, right? So, when you start out you would probably provide some of your content for free until you have a followership. Then you can move to a membership model. A membership model guru is Stu McLaren.

3) Build Trust First

The Internet is full of offers and scams. Before anyone wants to give you their email ID and bank details you will need to have their trust. You can develop trust by being a helpful source of information and by solving people’s problems. You can also build trust by being personable and by avoiding any sales touch in your content and copywriting. You can provide helpful advice and invite people to join your party, but you need to remember that building trust online is step-by-step process that takes mastery. You can follow Amy Porterfield and Ash Ambirge for further advice.

4) Reduce Self-Promotion

Instead of promoting yourself, you should promote other people’s work. If you help others you will not come across as a big-headed egomaniac, but as someone who cares about people. There is a point where you can also show your own work, but it needs to be in the context of solving a problem for your followers. For example, they might need a checklist or a how-to guide that you can provide when you often hear them ask you the same questions. I read that there is an 80/20-rule where 80% of the posts should be valuable content, and 20% you should promote your brand. So, in the case of your personal brand, you should talk about your work, what you have achieved, and other stuff related to your greatness for max. 20% of your posts.

5) Curate Content

A retweet does not always mean that you endorse the opinion of the tweeter, but at least you can verify that the information is genuine and up-to-date and that links are actually working. If you are like me, you probably don’t read everything you would like to read, but you know where to find trusted sources and where to be skeptical.

6) Encourage Others to Have a Voice

I know many people who suffer from “imposter syndrome” and who are modest. It helps once in a while when you tell others that their work is helpful and that you are actually reading their updates or their input. Instead of expecting others to support you, you can do a lot more to support others. Be a giver on social media. Learn why this is important by reading and following Adam M. Grant.

7) Charge Your Purpose Batteries

A Digital Presence is great. If people deal with you in real life or on a call, they should be positively surprised by your genuine interest in them. One of the reasons for the lack of trust nowadays is that everyone is putting their own interest in front. Many people have a hard time accepting support because they are not used to free help. They are used to being cheated and pulled over the table and you want to stand out. Charge your purpose batteries and get very clear on your purpose, and one-sentence mission, and become a real giver.

Kind regards

Angie Weinberger

PS: If this intrigues you and you would like to know more about it, please join our free workshop series in April 2023:

Workshop No. 1:  Partnering Masters – Building Effective Relationships

Workshop No. 2: Powerful Missions – Having a Voice in a Sea of Noise

Workshop No. 3: Persisting Mindsets – Designing Work to Support a Global Lifestyle
All dates and updates will be shared if you sign up on our HireMeExpress list. #HireMeExpress

A guest post by Nabeha Latif – Social Media Guru

This week I’ll be talking about one of the most important tools in a professional’s repertoire: the LinkedIn profile. With over 500 million users, a LinkedIn profile isn’t just an afterthought, it is a mainstay of modern recruitment. Something that essential needs to be mastered fully, so let’s get to it. Presenting:

Top 10 Tips for a Killer LinkedIn Profile

1 – Get a Personalised URL

In my experience, far too many professionals forget to do this, often because they simply forgot about it. LinkedIn provides you the ability to discard the standard URL (which is a jumble of letters and numbers) and have a vanity URL instead. This personalised URL can be used to promote your profile in email signatures, on business cards, portfolios and resumes. It also gives you the ability to target better organic SEO by putting in your job title or industry. Having your profile appear as a top Google search result against a job title keyword is a pretty useful trick! Check out LinkedIn’s own guide on setting up a personal URL for your profile here.

2 – Nail that Headline!

You’ve got only six seconds to catch the attention of a recruiter on LinkedIn, which makes your headline absolutely do-or-die. Do make sure your headline contains the necessary keywords that are SEO friendly (that is, they contain certain words that people generally use when searching for the relevant job title or industry) and allow people to identify your industry with ease. Do make the most of the allotted 120 characters, don’t just write your job description. Try being playful (if appropriate) with word choices – sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity. Of course, don’t forget your real purpose: catching a recruiter’s attention. If your profile views drop, a reason could be that your headline needs to be re-worked.

3 – Populate your Experience

Just like some people sometimes forget to update our CVs, LinkedIn profiles too can become stagnant. That’s why, every so often, you should sit down and make sure that everything from your summary, work history, projects, trainings and education is up-to-date. It helps to employ the same sort of creativity you used to create your perfect headline to show how you excelled during a particular role. Make sure that you review and plug in any gaps that may have been left in the first time round. The more a hiring manager sees of you, the easier it makes for them to decide if you meet their requirements.

If you have privacy concerns, you can choose not to share details about your career or self that you consider sensitive, as a LinkedIn profile is public and trawled by internet search engines. Concerns about private data stored by LinkedIn can be addressed by going through their GDPR-compliant privacy policy.

4 – Get Creative!

This is the third time I am mentioning creativity – that is how important it is. In a sea of automation (LinkedIn now has a feature that autofills your summary), it is very easy to drown in the overwhelming number of similar looking profiles. Learning to showcase your skills and experience in a smart, catchy manner greatly increases your chances of getting noticed by the right people. Put in media from YouTube, your favourite design wireframes or any public mentions or accolades you may have accumulated! You can do that by going to Add Profile Section > Accomplishments and choosing the appropriate section.

5 – Engage, Engage, Engage

LinkedIn is a social network after all and engagement is key to building a healthy profile. Engaging with peers through endorsements is a positive methodology, not only will you establish a good rapport with your network but will receive endorsements in return. That rapport can help you reach out for recommendations, an important aspect of building your brand and establishing yourself as a significant presence in your industry.
It is also imperative that you join the conversation. On groups, with key influencers, with colleagues and peers. Profiles that engage actively on groups are 5 times more likely to be viewed!

6 – Master the Algorithm

A killer LinkedIn profile is one that hits the top of the search results every time someone searches for a certain kind of professional. Want your profile to be the one the LinkedIn search algorithm chooses? Here’s how: Complete your profile, 100%.

LinkedIn’s algorithm is designed to give top priority to profiles which are complete (they are referred to as “All Star Profiles” and only 51% of users have those). This means that if you missed out on any aspect of your profile, you will essentially be invisible in the search results. No one wants that.

On the subject of LinkedIn Premium: spending money on a premium account will not affect your profile in any way, there are no new features there. Those accounts are targeted more towards recruiters and job seekers looking to directly connect with people not on their network. That is why purchasing a premium account will not be helpful in improving the quality of your LinkedIn profile

7 – SEO is King

Some digital specialists posit that the modern Internet is driven solely on SEO. That may be debatable but in the case of LinkedIn, that is very much true! Make sure that your profile is the one found by external search engines: optimize job titles, descriptions and as previously mentioned, in the vanity URL. All these fields are text only and thus will be parsed by search engines, you want to maximise your chances of being the top of those result lists. “Digital Guru” may sound like a catchy job title but people searching for “digital marketer” or “digital marketing specialist” will never know of you! The key is to keep it simplistic so that you can be easily found.

8 – Be Pixel Perfect!

Having a professional profile picture on LinkedIn is critical – first impressions matter! Questions to ask yourself when selecting a profile picture: Does it have a neutral background? Are you appropriately dressed? Did a professional photographer take the picture or is it just a selfie?

I’m also going to direct you towards how you can elevate your profile by making sure you optimize the technical aspects of the images you use. Hootsuite covers it in great detail if you’re interested, but to summarize: Make sure your images are the right aspect ratio, meet the minimum pixel count and are the correct file types. You don’t want your images to be blurry or misshapen due to incorrect dimensions!

9 – It’s not a Sprint, it’s a Marathon

You burn through an entire weekend getting your profile into tip-top shape. Great, you now have a killer LinkedIn profile! However, what happens after a week? A month? Six months? Remember this statistic: 40% of LinkedIn’s active user-base logs in daily to the platform. These are the people who take time out every day to post, interact, tweak and improve their profiles, connections and more. Emulate them, make LinkedIn a part of your routine, it will maintain your profile as one of the best and help maximise your chances of catching the eye of recruiters, should you be looking for a new job.

10 – Run a Company? Treat the Page as you would your Profile

If you run your own business and have it listed on your LinkedIn profile, you should make sure that the company page receives the same care and attention as your profile. After all, both must reflect the same values. Rigorously fill in and verify the information pertaining to your company, set up a consistent posting schedule and boost posts from your own employees – all add up to creating an interactive and healthy social space around your company.