Optimize Your LinkedIn URL
Change the URL (web address) of your LinkedIn Profile so you will look more knowledgeable, and also much cooler, when someone sees it on your resume, the "signature" at the bottom of your email messages, your Google+ profile, and wherever else you choose to show someone where they can learn more about you.
Sponsor:
If you are using the default URL that LinkedIn assigned you, which probably looks like this - "http://www.linkedin.com/pub/yourname/29/890/2b9/ - you can do better. Here's how:
To make this change to your Profile:
- Go to your LinkedIn home page (“Home” on the left end of the the menu bar near the top of the page when you are logged into LinkedIn).
- Click on the "Profile" choice, and
- Select “Edit My Profile” from the options on the drop-down menu.
- Scroll down the Edit Profile page until you come to a box, usually at the very bottom of the blue section, which is labeled "Public Profile" (see below). Your current Public Profile URL is probably something like, "http://www.linkedin.com/pub/your-name/29/890/2b9/
- Click on the "Edit" link at the right end of the same line, and you'll see this box on a new page -
- Clicking on "Customize your public profile URL" will open this dialog box-
- Type in your name or your personal marketing message in the box beside "www.linkedin.com/in/" and you're done!
Pick something that will be applicable and you'll be happy using for a long time. A personal marketing message would be something like marysmithfinancepro (up to 30 characters).
Using only your name is common if it's available. Add your middle initial or middle name if your "real" name is already being used by someone else. and you are not comfortable with anything else. Pick
No spaces or hyphens or other punctuation will be allowed, and capitalization will be ignored.
- Bear in mind that this URL will become quasi-permanent as you use and distribute it, so try to pick something you won’t need to change in the near future.
- Click on the “Set Custom URL" button. You are done!
Bottom Line
Anyone searching LinkedIn for you will find you more easily, and when you link to your LinkedIn Profile, you’ll look savvier. And, don't forget to add this line to your email "signature" section at the bottom of every email you send out.
© Copyright Susan P. Joyce, 2011. All rights reserved.
------------------------------
About This Author:
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.
Return to Job-Hunt Home.
