by Kathy Bernard
LinkedIn just doubled the number of skills you can add to your profile Skills section from 50 to 100. Adding as many as 50 more skills can help you and your business in several ways:
- Doing so lets you showcase even more of your abilities to prospects, peers, colleagues, managers, and recruiters on LinkedIn.
- It helps you build your professional brand and engage with your network when sharing information or seeking professionals with your desired skills.
- It can encourage more skill endorsements from your connections, which can increase the likelihood of being discovered for business and career opportunities.
- Having additional, relevant skills can lead people who visit your profile to your company because they can click on the logo next to your work entry to learn more about your organization’s offerings.
- If you’re a recruiter or are posting jobs on the LinkedIn platform, you can find qualified candidates based on their listed skills. For example, if you seek a Java Developer, you can now find one who has attained new skills not listed before because they were maxed out at 50.
Once you have added skills, assign relevant ones to your current and past-experience entries, About summary, education section, and other areas of your profile. Endorse others for their skills and ask them to return the favor. Being endorsed helps significantly in being found for what you do. If you are unsure which skills to add, ask me. I keep extensive lists for every job title and industry.
Kathy Bernard (kathy@wiseru.com), CEO of WiserU.com, is a St. Louis-based LinkedIn expert/trainer who trains and equips individuals and businesses to maximize LinkedIn for sales, marketing, or fundraising.