Did you know there are several ways to showcase your skills on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn’s help center says: “Maintaining a relevant list of skills on your profile will help others understand your strengths and match you with the right opportunities.” A robust and appropriate list of skills on your profile is essential, whether you are a job seeker or a business owner.

In her recently updated article Updating Your Profile on LinkedIn: 13 Skills You Should Add (and 3 Types You Shouldn’t), Zoe Kaplan covers:

  • Why you should add LinkedIn skills
  • Types of skills to add, such as job skills and transferable skills
  • Types of skills not to add, such as skills you don’t have and non-work-related skills
  • How to add skills to your LinkedIn profile

One of the most important places to include your skills is your profile headline. Review the skills you have listed in your Skills section to see which ones are the most vital to showcase.

 

How and Where to Add Skills to Your LinkedIn Profile

The most obvious way to showcase your skills is in the Skills section of your profile. You can now include up to 100 skills in this section, double the previous limit of 50 skills. In my profile, I list 51 skills.

In case you’ve never populated this section, click on the words “Add profile section” toward the top of your profile. Click on “Core,” and then click on “Skills.” LinkedIn will suggest skills based on the content of your profile.

When you add a skill, LinkedIn prompts you to associate it with one or more positions in your Experience section. Click on the box next to the appropriate positions. If you haven’t associated previously listed skills with positions, click on the pencil icon. Now, you follow the same process just described for selected skills.

LinkedIn suggests that you only associate up to five skills with each position. However, I’ve seen people add as many as 30 skills or more. Job seekers may want to associate a wide range of skills with selected positions.

Be sure to add up to five “Top skills,” which you populate by editing your About section. Click on the pencil, then scroll down until you see a bubble saying: “Add skills.” LinkedIn will prompt you to associate these skills with selected positions in your Experience section.

Other sections of your profile where you may choose to associate your skills include:

  • Education
  • Licenses & certifications
  • Projects
  • Volunteering
  • Publications
  • Courses
  • Honors & awards
  • Organizations

Remember you can revise the order of the skills listed in your Skills section. You do this by clicking on the pencil icon to the right of the word “Skills.” Click on the three horizontal dots, then click on “Reorder.” Put your cursor on the four horizontal lines to the right of the skill you want to move. Drag that skill to the position in the list where you want it to appear.

Also, for someone to endorse you for a skill on LinkedIn, that person must be connected with you. Email them a link to your profile and ask them to endorse three to five skills. They need to scroll to your Skills section and click on the word “Endorse” by the skills you want endorsed.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up, become more effective users of social media, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.