How to Develop Executive Presence on LinkedIn

Executive presence is a term that might not be clearly defined, but has a nice “ring” to it. Some would associate it with proper communication, personal appearance, confidence or even body language. As it is often indescribable, others would dub it as the “it” factor. Human resource consultants agree that teaching professionals or top managerial applicants on how to develop executive presence might be a bit complicated because it cannot easily be described. 

Even though executive presence does not have a fixed explanation, building the presence helps in defining you as a credible professional in your field. It can also boost the level of expertise you can offer to your targeted company/manager. LinkedIn, being one of the most relevant tools of recruiters in executive search, is a great online platform where you can showcase your expertise. On LinkedIn, you can create a profile, showcase professional experience and skills, in order to establish your personal brand. 

See also: How to Message Recruiters on Linkedin 

Without further ado, here are tips to develop your executive presence on LinkedIn, strengthening your employment status: 

Celebrate your expertise by using an appropriate professional headline 

Not many professionals are comfortable in celebrating themselves, writing beyond the ordinary professional titles. While you might be tempted to simply use the usual title that defines your role such as Writer or Engineer, you are encouraged to dig deeper and create a good description of your expertise. A good description can help headhunters locate you when they type in keywords on the LinkedIn site and in search engines. 

Personalized URL 

When you personalize your URL, you can have your name or a combination of your name and title in it. In order to edit your URL on LinkedIn and change the generic one, you are required to go to “Edit my profile” > under the profile header click “Edit” > find the URL on the right of the public profile > click the pen then change the URL. 

Be proud of your professional story 

Take advantage of LinkedIn’s feature where you can create a profile based on your professional story. This story helps recruiters make an initial judgment of your expertise and assess whether you should be considered for recruitment or not. Another bonus when you do this is that LinkedIn will be able to analyze your profile and recommend job suggestions you might be interested in. 

Don’t forget to include keywords 

Make it easy for people to find you by using appropriate keywords in your headline, profile, job title, or even occasional posts. By using keywords, you strongly establish the many things that your expertise can do. This also makes it easy for your network connections to endorse you or refer you for a job or recruiter that they know. 

Use a professional image

People are visual beings and enjoy looking at images. By using a clean, clear image of yourself taken by a professional photographer, it will help complement your profile. Avoid using images with cluttered backgrounds that seem to have been taken from a private party, regardless if you look good in it. Impress your would-be recruiter that when it comes to being “professional”, you know what that means. 

Create regular posts that establish your expertise 

There is a good reason why other people on LinkedIn would like to connect with you – they value your expert opinion. Regularly create posts that demonstrate your work situation that you have improved, a basic FAQ in your line of work, or professional hacks that help improve work productivity where your service is involved.  

Read also: Should You Include Volunteer Work in Your Resume?