I was out for coffee with a colleague doing some networking. I was telling her how I was spending an hour a day on my LinkedIn Profile to see if it would generate some business leads. Another colleague of ours had told us that he got all his work the last few years from LinkedIn. So, I thought that I would put in the effort to have a great LinkedIn profile.
My colleague was new to LinkedIn so I thought that I was an ‘expert’ compared to her. Then, she says, what is your LinkedIn Profile Strength? I was stunned! She knew something that I didn’t about LinkedIn. I didn’t know what a LinkedIn Profile Strength was. She said that it showed on the right-hand side of your profile page in LinkedIn. When I went home, I signed into LinkedIn, clicked the Profile tab, and there it was on the right-hand side….I was an All-Star! Yeah baby!
Your Profile Strength shows within a circle. If you aren’t yet an All-Star then the circle is not filled up. If you move your mouse over the circle it tells you the next level that you can attain. Supposedly, it also gives you a link to suggest improvements to your profile. The profile strength levels you can have are: Beginner, Intermediate, Expert, and All Star.
How did I become an All-Star? I did a little research and being an All-Star relates to how complete your profile is. You need to have a photo, title, industry, a summary, some experience, some skills, and education entered. You also have to 50 connections. There are probably some other requirements also, but these are the main ones.
What does it mean to be an All-Star? Now, below the circle a link to ‘Share your profile’. Clicking on this link opens a window that allows you to share your LinkedIn Profile on Facebook and Twitter. There is a generic message followed by a link to your profile, e.g. ‘Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn http://lnkd.in/R3YYeX’. You can change the message to say whatever you want. In addition to be allowed to share your profile, you also will rank higher in searches in LinkedIn. One job seeker wrote in a blog post that after achieving All-Star status, he was contacted much more from Fortune 500 companies.
So, it is good to be an ‘All-Star‘!