Like most social platforms, LinkedIn is constantly evolving and adding features to help you get the most out of connecting with others, typically for professional reasons. Consider using these features to your advantage by giving your profile a professional makeover. LinkedIn features that will help position you as an expert in your respective area include:

1.) Keywords

Incorporating keywords will boost your SEO and help you become found on LinkedIn and your LinkedIn profile found by search engines. Consider the ideal person your profile would speak to, consider your buyer personas, and — if your profile were side by side with another — which words would make you stand out. Have these words thought out and ready when creating or editing your profile.

Areas to incorporate great keywords include your headline, summary, interests, job titles, job descriptions, and skills. A keyword-centric headline will boost your profile traffic and makes you more appealing to prospective employers.

Your summary should include keywords relevant to your goals and objectives in your business area. Your interests area is under the additional info area on your profile and another place to incorporate more keywords related to your business or career goals.

2.) Recommendations & Endorsements

Recommendations can be a critical part of your LinkedIn profile, while endorsements seem to confuse people. Both play a role in how you are found during advanced people searches. Endorsements make it easy for a connection to quickly say that you are experienced in a certain area without a full recommendation.

The fact that it’s so easy for a connection to endorse someone makes some LinkedIn users, especially recruiters, dismiss the authenticity of the expertise. Endorsements add to your presence on LinkedIn, though, and can be thought of as a kind of “pantry” full of your best keywords. There may be cases where endorsements for specific skills should be hidden so no one can see it if it is an expertise that you do not feel is a good reflection of your positioning.

To hide an endorsement, go to the pull-down menu at the top of the screen, and under “profile,” click “edit profile.” When you scroll to the “skills” section, you will see a pencil icon. Click the pencil, and see your “skills and endorsements settings.” Hit the “X” next to the skill you would like to delete. You can also reorder these skills simply by dragging them into a different order.

Recommendations are important to your profile because the number of recommendations you receive is highlighted at the top of your page when your name appears in a listing of group members. The number of recommendations you have is also a criteria factor for search rankings.

Often, recommendations can only be acquired if you ask someone to provide one. Be sure the writer includes specifics such as the results of your work together, sales increases, or how your expertise was used. Always thank a connection that provides a recommendation.

If you’d like to stand out on Linke

3.) Professional Gallery (with work examples, photos, videos & Slideshares)

dIn and attract more business opportunities, visual content and creating a portfolio of work examples is a great way to get noticed. There are a few ways you can create a portfolio by adding project examples, images, embedded videos, and Slideshare presentations to your profile page. (If you need help creating your LinkedIn professional portfolio, this SlideShare will walk you through the process.)

Source: Hubspot – 11 Lesser-Known LinkedIn Features You Should Be Using