---
tags: A2, Prospecting
---
# ✍️ Assignment 1: Pimp your LinkedIn profile
Let's jump right into your first practical lesson - pimping your LinkedIn profile!

:::info
**Your goal**
- [x] Optimize your LinkedIn profile following the steps below.
:::

When someone gets a connection request, they decide in a matter of seconds if they will accept or not depending on your profile and whether they think you will add value to their lives.

**:bulb: A carefully crafted personal profile is key to boost your acceptance rate.**

Pimping your LinkedIn can be a huge rabbit hole. We want to make sure your LinkedIn profile looks great BUT we don't want you to spend a crazy amount of time making it perfect.

Below we will share

1. A step by step guide
2. A video from Patrick with helpful tips

Enjoy!

 
## Step by step guide

Below we take you step by step through each item to craft a great LinkedIn profile. Once you finish, check out this summary and make sure you tick all 8 points!

### 1. **Edit your custom public profile URL**

- Click on “Edit Public Profile & URL” - this appears on the top right of your profile (see image below).
- There, we can change our URL to whatever we want. Our recommendation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname/

 
### 2. **A clean, clear professional profile photo**

If you don’t have a professional headshot of yourself, get somebody with a high quality camera/ phone to take one of you next to a white wall, or bare brick wall (edgy), or if you’re luckily enough to have a rooftop with nice scenes of your city – that’ll look great too.

Avoid selfies/ photos of you taken from nights out etc.

**Hack:** Check-out [this blog post](https://www.dux-soup.com/blog/driving-that-extra-percent-from-linkedin-lead-generation) on testing your profile photo (highly recommended.)
 

### 3. **A relevant, professional background image**

Keep it simple. Generic background images are fine. We suggest trying to find one related to your company or industry. Google images is your best friend here 😉
 
### 4. **A headline that portrays your value proposition**

Some ideas:

- Sales Specialist/SDR @ [Name of your company]
- Helping [target audience] accomplish [y] @ [name of your company]
- Example for Hyrise Academy: Helping companies hire the best sales talent @ Hyrise Academy

In some industries, including "SDR" in the title will automatically get you rejected, and in others it might be the best way to open the door.

We recommend you do some tests and see how different headlines yield different results until you find the best one for you. Try one and connect with 20 leads, and do the same with a different one. Which one is more effective? 😉
 
 
### 5. **Summary**

- Focus on your target audience and not so much on yourself.
- A suggested structure: Who am I, what makes me unique, how I can bring value to other people. Here's an example:
 
> I'm a dedicated sales professional with a huge passion for the future of work, sales and tech.
>
> At Hyrise Academy, I help tech companies struggling to find qualified sales talent hire the perfect candidates for their team by delivering trained sales talents on demand - reducing recruiting costs and helping them scale effectively.

 
### 6. **Experience**
- Only include relevant work experience.
- If you don't have any previous relevant work experience, don't worry, just add your position at your partner company.
- If you do have relevant work experience, include maximum 2 or 3 bullet points of description per experience. Focus on results "I helped increase company revenue by X".
- Add your position at your partner company. Specifically: Sales Specialist @ [Partner Company]
- In the description, add your UVP (unique value proposition): At [Company name], we help [target audience] accomplish [y] through [z].
 

### 7. **Rich media**
Add any content that you want your prospects to easily access. This can include your company's website, and any other content or presentations you have.
 
### 8. **Recommendations and skills**
Two of the most powerfool features to make your profile standout and look legit? Skills and recommendations.

- **Skills:** Add in there the most relevant skills and keywords you want to be known for. Little hack: Every day go to other profiles and validate their skills... they will likely look you up and validate them in return 😉
- **Recommendations**: There's no better way to make aprofile look solid than a recommendation by a reputable person. Ask for people inyour company and network to write up some recommendations in your profile, and offer to do the same in return.
 
### 9. **Bonus: Education**
Include your university degree if you have one and any certificate or education you have received. No need to describe in length, just the basics.

 
## Additional tips
Make sure to watch Patrick's video for additional useful tips and ideas, but remember, don't get too hung up on creating a perfect LinkedIn profile.

{%youtube h02t3EUjOj8 %}

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