| On 24/08/2022

10 Ways to Enhance Your Football LinkedIn Profile in 5 Minutes

LinkedIn can be a useful tool for networking in the football community but it’s not easy to distinguish yourself from the many millions of other coaches, scouts and football professionals who are trying to make a mark.

You can make big changes with just a few simple tweaks. Better still: Take just five minutes to improve your LinkedIn Profile. Seriously! You can try one of these 10 quick methods right now.

1. Make your profile public

Check your account settings and make sure to set your public profile to visible. This will allow you to search for jobs and get noticed by potential recruiters.

2. Update your location

This will make it easier for someone to search looking for football coaches in the Manchester area. It is how extended networks of people will find you in their locality and invite you for coffee or at a cool event.

3. Add a background

Your background allows you show creativity and showcases your personality. Think about what people instantly associate with what you do (scout–IPSO notepad, coach–cones set up, etc.)

4. Don’t include non-essential skills

Do you have endorsements for all the same skills that you use every day? If they are, they could be distracting. You want your skills section to do two things. It should contain keywords that make you more searchable, and it should reinforce the story about who you are and what you can do.

Remove any non-essential skills from your profile to ensure the most important skills stand out and change the order of your list so that your most essential skills are at the top

5. Create a customised URL

A custom URL makes it much easier to send people directly to your profile and looks more professional.

6. Use the right profile picture

LinkedIn claims that profiles with headshots are 14x more likely to get viewed than profiles lacking a picture. Your headshot must be professional, clear that it’s a recent picture of you, not too far away or poorly cropped and in the clothes you wear for work.

Never use a picture of you in a pub or on a night out.

If you don’t have any photos that fit the above get your kit on and take one.

7. Update or add contact information

Make sure your email, phone number (if you feel comfortable), website and other professional social media platforms are listed on your profile. LinkedIn InMail can only be accessed by Premium users. Make sure that everyone has access to your profile to inquire about amazing opportunities.

8. Make your headline memorable

This is your chance for potential employers and clients to be impressed, so don’t waste this valuable space. Many professionals list their current job title and position. But don’t stop there. One more thing that can make you stand out is your experience.

Your headline should be quick, catchy and represent you

For example, the title “Assistant Football Coach” will be changed to “Football Coach – 25+ years of experience coaching in England, France and Asia”

9. Stop using buzz words and jargon

Are you a dedicated, results-oriented team player? These buzzwords don’t really convey anything. They just make you feel like everyone else. Instead, try to remember the classic advice “show, don’t tell”. Talk about your accomplishments, and make sure you include recommendations from others where you can.

LinkedIn recently released the top 10 most overused profile buzzwords.

Here they are in order:

Motivated
Passionate
Creative
Driven
Extensive experience
Responsible
Strategic
Track record
Organisational
Expert

10. Request a recommendation

The power of testimonials is priceless. Review sites are important. No one will ever go to a restaurant if they don’t have a review. Ask past or current colleagues, old managers or teachers for recommendations.

A good goal is to have one recommendation per role.

Once you’ve updated the profile, don’t stop there set 5-10 minutes aside each day to update your status and engage with others.

This will allow you to increase the visibility of your profile and make it easy to navigate.

Looking for help with setting up your Linkedin profile?

Jobs4football have a complete package to help you create a Linkedin profile that will make you stand out from the rest and will give you advice on how to start making the best of your network.