How to Share Your LinkedIn Profile to Expand Your Professional Network

Your LinkedIn profile is your professional presence on the world‘s largest professional networking platform. With over 850 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is the go-to site for employers, recruiters, and professionals looking to connect.

Sharing your LinkedIn profile allows you to showcase your skills, accomplishments, and career aspirations to a global audience. Whether you‘re actively seeking new career opportunities or simply looking to grow your professional network, sharing your profile can open many doors.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know about sharing your LinkedIn profile, including:

• The benefits of sharing your profile
• Customizing your share settings
• Personalizing connection requests
• Using LinkedIn‘s automated sharing tools
• Avoiding common sharing mistakes

Why You Should Share Your LinkedIn Profile

Here are some of the top reasons to share your LinkedIn profile:

Expand Your Network

Sharing your profile allows you to connect with more professionals in your industry. Instead of waiting for others to find you, proactively sharing your profile invites more people into your network.

A larger network means more exposure to job openings, business opportunities, industry updates, and new connections. In fact, LinkedIn members with 500+ connections are 17x more likely to receive opportunities through their network.

Increase Your Discoverability

The more people that view and engage with your profile, the more LinkedIn‘s algorithms boost your visibility in search results. This makes you more discoverable for recruiters and hiring managers looking for someone with your skills and background.

According to LinkedIn‘s analytics, profiles with certain keywords receive up to 13x more profile views. Likewise, profiles with multimedia see a 5x increase in reach.

Show Off Your Professional Brand

Your LinkedIn profile showcases your personal brand as a working professional. Sharing it widely promotes your qualifications, accomplishments, credentials, and unique value in your industry.

In fact, 92% of talent acquisition professionals rely on LinkedIn profiles as their primary tool to vet candidates during hiring.

Get Noticed by Recruiters

LinkedIn Recruiter is a powerful tool used by talent acquisition specialists to find qualified candidates. By sharing your profile, you may attract the notice of recruiters seeking someone like you.

As per LinkedIn, there are over 55,000 approved recruiter accounts actively sourcing candidates, plus additional enterprise and corporate recruiting teams leveraging the Recruiter platform.

Utilize LinkedIn Automated Tools

LinkedIn offers several automated tools to share your profile, including Featured Guest Posts, Creator Mode articles, and newsfeed updates. Using these can exponentially increase profile views and connections.

Customizing Your Share Settings

LinkedIn allows you to customize exactly who can see your profile activity, including when you share your profile. Here‘s how to update your share settings:

1. Click the Me icon in the top nav bar
2. Select Settings & Privacy
3. Click Visibility on the left sidebar
4. Under the Profile section, adjust visibility for profile edits, shares, views, and more
5. Click Save

For example, you can set your settings to share profile activity only with your 1st-degree connections rather than your entire network. Configuring these settings gives you more control over with whom you are sharing.

Based on analytics data, profiles with customized visibility settings receive up to 20% more profile views and 15% more connection requests.

Personalize Your Connection Requests

Simply sharing your raw profile link feels impersonal. Instead, customize connection requests to introduce yourself and explain why you want to link up.

Here are some tips for personalizing:

• Remind them where you met or your previous interaction. This provides context and jogs their memory.
• Compliment their work. Flattery will get you everywhere. Point out a recent achievement that impressed you.
• Note shared connections. Seeing a familiar name builds credibility and trust.
• Explain why you want to connect. Share common interests, similar career paths, or potential synergy.

Taking this extra minute turns a generic request into meaningful outreach.

In A/B tests, personalized connection messages see between 13-26% higher acceptance rates versus generic invites. Tailoring your requests is worth the effort.

Leverage LinkedIn‘s Automated Sharing Tools

Beyond manually sending connection invites, LinkedIn also provides several options to automatically share your profile:

LinkedIn Featured and Open for

Turn on Featured or Open for settings in your profile to broadcast that you are available for career opportunities or general networking.

As per LinkedIn analytics, active Open for profiles receive 30% more connection requests and 15% more profile views versus inactive profiles. The Featured section yields similar engagement lifts.

Publish Interesting Content

Producing interesting LinkedIn posts will organically increase profile views and shares as your content reaches more users. Consider contributing personal insights, industry news, career advice, workplace trends, and more.

In general, Creator Mode posts drive 2-4x more profile views compared to standard activity updates. Well-produced content acts as a magnet, pulling viewers back to your profile.

Creator Mode

Creator Mode allows you to create content directly within the LinkedIn platform. Followers and viewers of Creator Mode content are one-click profile shares. Use this integrated blogging feature to expand your audience.

On average, Creator Mode posts drive 6x more profile views and 8x more profile shares versus regular profile activity updates.

LinkedIn Newsfeed Updates

Regularly updating your connections on job changes, new skills, professional milestones, and career progress through newsfeed posts maintains awareness of your evolving profile.

According to social media scientists, users who post at least weekly on LinkedIn see around 30% higher engagement and network growth rates over more sporadic posters.

Common Profile Sharing Mistakes to Avoid

While sharing your LinkedIn profile can yield fantastic professional benefits, it‘s important to avoid these frequent sharing mistakes:

Not Personalizing Requests

As mentioned above, sending generic connection requests is a common but damaging mistake. Failing to personalize outreach makes you seem disinterested in establishing a relationship.

Oversharing Profile Updates

There can be too much of a good thing. Flooding your networks’ newsfeeds with excessive profile updates risks annoyance. Be selective in broadcasting relevant changes.

According to data analytics, sharing 1-2 profile updates per week is optimal. More frequent posting sees declining engagement, while less frequent posting misses opportunities.

Privacy Overlooks

Review your profile’s privacy settings before sharing it widely. You likely don’t want every piece of information visible to all 850 million LinkedIn members.

Stale Profiles

Nothing turns off new connections like a clearly neglected profile. Ensure yours is updated with your latest roles, skills, credentials, contacts, and accomplishments before sharing.

Spelling or Grammar Errors

This vital first impression should be polished to perfection. Double check for any embarrassing spelling, grammar, or formatting errors before allowing important contacts to view your profile.

Even a single typo can undermine your professional brand. According to surveys, 75% of users feel editing mistakes negatively impact a profile‘s credibility.

Key Takeaways on Sharing Your Profile

Sharing your LinkedIn profile opens up your professional network to:

• New connections
• Increased discoverability
• Greater visibility to recruiters and hiring managers
• Interesting opportunities

Leverage customized privacy settings, automated sharing tools, and personalized outreach to proactively make new contacts. Avoid common sharing mistakes like stale profiles or privacy oversights.

Remember, consistently maintaining your profile and strategically sharing it over time are critical to LinkedIn success. The more your profile is viewed, the more chances for exciting career doors to swing open.

Consistent activity and selective broadcasting will grow your audience and opportunities. Apply data-driven best practices to optimize your LinkedIn profile‘s visibility and impact.