Ten ways to supercharge your career on LinkedIn

As an agency made up of PR and comms pros, we’ve partnered with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Midlands committee to lend our expertise with CPD sessions to benefit professionals in the industry. Most recently under this partnership, we teamed up with Mark White - aka The LinkedIn Professional – who shared practical tips to on how to use LinkedIn to supercharge your career.

Our senior account manager, Huma, brought this event to life, leading the planning and marketing, and steering an engaging Q&A session that kept the conversation flowing.

Here, she dives into it the key takeaways from this session and shares Mark’s top ten tips for making LinkedIn work for you.

Once considered an online CV platform, LinkedIn has evolved into a dynamic networking and social platform, offering a shop window into the world of work. Whether you’re looking for a new role, building your professional reputation, or exploring fresh opportunities, smart engagement can open doors.

Treat LinkedIn like a networking room

It’s not just an online CV - it’s a place to meet peers, advocates, recruiters, and industry leaders. Approach it like you would a busy networking event and engage with different people.

There are different ways to work a room, and that’s no different for LinkedIn. Companies and recruiters are looking for you on search, while colleagues and friends are introducing you to their networks. You may also approach companies directly or apply for a role through the platform. All of these connections are ways for people to see you and build on conversation.

Give your profile a health check

First impressions matter. A keyword-rich headline, professional banner image and strong intro make you easier to find and more memorable. A sparse or outdated profile can cost you opportunities before you’ve even spoken to anyone – or worse, mean you’re not findable to those looking.

Hook them with your ‘about’ section

The first four lines on your profile should hook readers. Write in the first person, show your personality, and explain exactly how you help the people you want to work with.

Make sure to use relevant keywords throughout to make you easier to search, and reference what your current situation, especially if you’re looking for work.

Be sure to fill in all elements of your profile, including your work history, the skills you have, any additional qualifications you hold, and encourage your network to give endorsements for your skills.

Don’t just tell - show

The ‘featured’ section acts as your personal portfolio. Include posts, articles, videos or case studies that show what you can do, and let employers and contacts see the standard of your work upfront. This could be the difference between securing an interview or job.

Make the most of your network

Reconnect with past colleagues, friends, and industry contacts and let them know what you’re looking for. Most people are happy to help, and the communications industry is full of connections, so utilise the platform for what it’s intended to do.

To build on your network, pick five to 10 people close to you and send an invite, explaining your why you’d like to make a connection, you can then build on this by targeting another 10 people who you’ve either worked with or met in the industry.

Be proactive with outreach

Don’t just wait for opportunities to land in your lap. Research companies, recruiters, and industry figures, and then make personalised approaches. On LinkedIn, you can search 10 different areas - including posts, people, companies, groups, services and events. Although ‘people’ will be the key one, it’s useful to look at the groups and events sections as well to see if anything aligns.

Commit to consistency

Daily engagement keeps you visible. Comment thoughtfully, share insights, and experiment with different content formats, whether it’s a long-form text, videos or polls. Regular activity such as posting, commenting, and connecting builds visibility and trust over time.

Notifications raise your profile, and comments also increase profile visits, so it’s important to keep steady, sustained engagement that helps you show up in other people’s feeds.

Create for your audience

Think about what your target audience would find useful, inspiring, or engaging. Share stories, behind-the-scenes moments, advice, and questions to spark conversation.

Taking a story or article of interest and expanding on it with original commentary and further discussion is a good way to increase that engagement with your audience.

Although it’s a platform for professionals, people engage best with authentic content and stories they can relate to, so let your network get to know you as a person and professional.

Build a content vault

Giving time to LinkedIn can sometimes feel like an extra task on the list, but building a vault of ideas and content is a great way to get around this. Save searches, posts and profiles so you can jump back in quickly and having ready-to-go ideas and connections will make using LinkedIn feel like less of a time drain.

Use every tool at your disposal

When using the search function, consider using the filters to find the company size, location or industries you’re interested in. This can be useful when searching for a new role or new business.

When out networking, use the QR function to send contacts directly to your profile, making for an instant digital connection.

A new feature currently being trialled in the search function is to ‘describe the job you want’, which should help you find more tailored connections.

LinkedIn rewards the effort you put in, and the more you treat it like a live networking space rather than a static CV, the more it can do for your career or business.

As a multi-service agency, we help clients create engaging LinkedIn content and build leadership visibility. If you’d like to grow your presence, get in touch.