Event professionals have a unique goal on LinkedIn. You use the site to network and scope out your next gig, but LinkedIn is also where many clients or sponsors will turn to get a sense of your work before working with you. So how can you put the best foot forward to all of these audiences in your LinkedIn profile?
While there are no “rules” as to what the perfect LinkedIn profile for event professionals should look like, there are some successful strategies for making the most of the career-focused social media platform. Use these LinkedIn profile tips to help hiring managers, prospective clients, sponsors, and vendors all recognize that you’re an event professional they should work with.
Use every picture to tell a story
What do your profile photo and background image say about you? Ideally, you want it to demonstrate that you’re professional and approachable. Take the time to have a professional headshot done, or use a photo that focuses on your friendly smile. Make sure you’re wearing industry-appropriate clothing, and that the photo background isn’t distracting.
As for the banner that runs along the top of your profile page, create a custom one that’s related to your job in some way. It can be an action shot of an event you ran, an image of something related to your expertise (for example, something technology related if you specialize in tech trade shows), or even a bright background with a favorite quote. Try free sites like Canva.com to create a customized banner with a size of 1400×425 pixels for this spot.
Draw people in with a smart title
You get 120 characters for your LinkedIn headline, so make the most of them. Your goal is to come up in search results and to have a memorable page when someone does click through.
The best way to do that is by slipping your specialties and specific industry keywords into your headline, rather than just saying “event planner.” For example, it might instead say: “Corporate Event Planner | Event Marketer | Event Manager” and include the names of some of your most popular events.
Give your bio a boost
For this section, you get 2000 characters to work with, and most people don’t use all of it. It’s fine to keep things short and sweet, but be strategic – this is your social media elevator pitch. Highlight your accomplishment and make it an interesting read. In other words, tell your career story.
Lose the resume format when adding job history
Many people tend to just copy and paste the bullets from their resumes when adding their job experience. You can set yourself apart by continuing the conversational, first-person style that you used in your bio section instead.
Also, add multimedia to help showcase your recent work. This is the perfect spot for photos and videos of your last event, or a slideshow illustrating how you updated the design of your event’s website.
The idea is to make your page engaging while showing evidence of your event planning prowess.
Use the remaining sections strategically
Education: You might think you can skip this area, but take the time to list your undergraduate and graduate studies, whether you had a formal event planning education, or your degree is in a related field. A robust education section can also make you more marketable since hiring managers often give preference to alumni from certain institutions.
Skills & Endorsements: This section is lower down and doesn’t carry as much weight as some of the others, but it’s still a good idea to do some maintenance from time to time. You can decide which three top skills will show, so it’s a good idea to make the ones most related to your event planning career aspirations show up top.
Recommendations: If you don’t already have a few great recommendations, ask for them. There’s a handy link that LinkedIn provides, but it’s a good idea to include a personal note when you ask. Give the recommender an idea of what you’d like them to write about, and always offer recommendations to your recommenders in exchange.
Accomplishments: If you’ve earned any pertinent certifications related to event marketing, management, or planning, this is where you can list them. Certifications are a popular way to differentiate yourself and demonstrate that your skills are fresh. You can also list some of the recent events that you’ve run (just choose ‘projects’ and fill in the form).
Interests: This section lists all of the companies and groups you follow. Make sure a good portion of them are related to your industry somehow. It can include influencers, industry publications, and networking groups.
Staying relevant on LinkedIn
Beyond your profile, it’s a good idea to stay active on LinkedIn by making contributions that can help others. That can include sharing insightful articles, adding comments on other people’s posts and in discussion groups, promoting someone’s work, or even posting about your own learnings.
Once you freshen up your LinkedIn page, if you have any career gaps, start working on filling in the blanks. Start by signing up for a free online event management certification.
