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Here’s what a typical LinkedIn profile looks like… Look familiar?
Don’t worry. Mine did too.
But it’s time for you to give your LinkedIn profile a major facelift, and it’s never been easier to optimize your LinkedIn page thanks to the AI tools out there on the market.
Follow these steps, and you can easily transform your bland professional profile presence into a showstopping masterpiece in under 30 minutes.
Who Should Update Their LinkedIn Profile?
While I believe everyone should take the time to update their LinkedIn profiles, you should DEFINITELY level up your profile for the following situations:
If you’re engaging in any of these activities, definitely make sure your profile is updated before you start generating a ton of traffic.
Now let’s get into the top five ways on how to update your professional profile.
How To Update Your LinkedIn Profile with AI Tools
1. Provide A Winning LinkedIn Profile Picture
Whether we like it or not- you are heavily judged by your profile picture.
Start viewing your LinkedIn profile as a landing page for your personal brand. That means no cropped photos of just your face from that wedding you once attended (guilty), but you need an engaging, relatable photo.
If you don’t have the time, money, or patience to take a professional profile photo, then here are some creative options.
Option 1: Use An AI Headshot Photo Generator
I have tested nearly every generator on the market, and I have been beyond blown away by the realistic results. All you do is upload a bunch of photos that you like of yourself and watch the AI headshot generator do its magic. I personally love Aragon AI for this one.
Here’s what my LinkedIn profile looked like before & after I used one (I know, it’s extremely embarrassing).
HUGE impact difference right?
Option 2: Use An AI Background Image Background Remover
For some people, the AI photos can miss the mark and not look as realistic as you may want it. So, if that’s the case, take a photo of yourself with a white wall in the background, and then elevate your photo with some simple editing. There are tons of programs that will remove and swap out the background with creative or flat color options.
No matter what option you choose, be sure that the photo is both relevant to your industry (corporate vs. more business casual) and that it actually looks like you.
2. Create a Unique LinkedIn Cover Image Background
Next up, you guessed it, is your Cover Image background. If you don’t know instantly what this is, here’s a photo of my LinkedIn profile image with the generic background:
Now, you don’t necessarily need an AI tool for this one. If you subscribe to Canva, they have tons of cover image templates for you to utilize.
However, you can use AI background removers or AI art generators like Midjourney to create customized photos around your style and brand.
Some things I typically like to include in my cover image are:
3. Create A Winning LinkedIn Headline
Now it’s time to create a headline that can embody your brand. And you’ve guessed it, ChatGPT is great for this! If you need to learn how to use ChatGPT, then I highly recommend taking the 15 minutes to create an account and get going.
Here’s a prompt you can copy and paste with your information:
“I [insert one sentence about what you do here]. Can you create a LinkedIn headline for me that’s engaging, to the point, in one sentence? Come up with five options, and please keep them within LinkedIn character limits.”
Here’s an example of my ChatGPT prompt and the responses that it generated for me:
Now, I love starting with this because it allows more creative taglines to be generated. But this prompt misses that mark on one important aspect: searchability.
If you want people to easily find you (whether that’s a recruiter or future client), then you need to have specific optimized keywords within that tagline so that the right people can find your profile.
Here’s what I asked ChatGPT next:
“I also need to be searchable and have this tagline be SEO optimized for LinkedIn. Please use keywords that relate to small business, AI, digital, and technology and add metrics.”
Now, as you can see, ChatGPT was smart enough to combine the creativity of the headline in the first prompt with the SEO and keyword optimization needed in the second prompt.
4. Create an Engaging & Promotional “About Me” Section
Remember, this LinkedIn profile is an extension of your personal brand or your company.
Before I get into the ChatGPT prompts, here are some good things to keep in mind.
Here was my first ChatGPT prompt:
“Here’s my [insert your resume, website, or anything that tells about you]. Please create a keyword-optimized About Me section for my Linked In Profile that is compelling and promotes my website. Also include emojis and some personal touches to make it more engaging and fun.”
Here’s the final product.
It was able to hit the key points that I would want my target audience (small businesses) to know while also providing details of my expertise and key skills in a quick, digestible way.
5. Optimize Your Work Experience & Job Description
Now that you’ve updated your main profile, it’s time to fine-tune and optimize your Work Experience section. Many clients or customers want to see social proof of your background.
No one cares that you worked at XYZ company for three years. They want to know how you improved the company in that time, provide proven metrics or KPIs you helped increase during your time, and just overall how you benefited the company.
For each of your work experiences, here’s the prompt that I used:
“Create a bulleted list using emojis to write four metric-driven and key points about my time as an [xyz profession]. I did [write some things that you accomplished in the job].”
You can’t use bullet points within LinkedIn, hence the emojis.
But what came out was a wonderful, quick sample of what I accomplished while participating in that role. Feel free to play with the prompts and add in more specific information related to each of your previous work experiences.
The Updated LinkedIn Profile with AI
Here’s a final look at my new and improved LinkedIn profile, all done within about thirty minutes.
I wish I had taken a before snapshot, but pretty much it was a bland and unappealing general profile. I didn’t even want to work with me after seeing it.
But now, I have essentially created a personal landing page that exemplifies my unique skillset and experiences to help others with their business.
Wrapping Up
It’s amazing how you can use artificial intelligence to your advantage, even for a small task such as updating a social media profile page. But as always, it’s important to use these tools as a foundation for your work and edit/tweak it to be accurate.
Remember, AI can’t possibly convey your personal touches or BE YOU.
As this is often one of the first impressions someone will have about you, be sure to add your own flare or style to the writing and imagery.
