As you probably know, LinkedIn is a great place to make connections and potentially discover new business opportunities. But you may not be as familiar with some of the fantastic tools on LinkedIn that allow you to put your professional experience on display for the world – and more specifically, potential new customers – to see.
Just this past year, LinkedIn quietly rolled out a new ‘Projects‘ feature – a little known and underutilized tool that allows you to highlight work or projects you’ve completed as a consultant, or as part of team. This new feature is a fantastic way for ERP Resellers to emphasize successful ERP implementation projects and show the world what you’re capable of doing. Here’s how to get started with LinkedIn Projects.
1. Add ‘Projects’ Section to Your LinkedIn Profile
There are multiple ways to add the Projects section to your profile depending on how complete your profile is and whether you’ve applied edits recently. But the easiest way to get started is by clicking Profile > Edit Profile where you’ll find the option to Add Sections.
Navigate to the Projects section of the pop-up box and click the Add a Project link.
2. Add a Specific Project to Your LinkedIn Profile
Next, add a new project that you wish to highlight including the following details and options:
- Your Job Title and Organization – Allows you to relate the project to a position that you’ve held or currently hold. This is a great way to demonstrate your expertise in a particular or role or with a specific company.
- Fellow Team Members – If you and a team member collaborated on the project AND are connected on LinkedIn, begin typing the person’s name. His or her profile will appear and you can add this person to the project roster. If you aren’t connected, the person’s name will appear as plain text.
- Project URL – If you have a webpage dedicated to your project (like a success story PDF, press release, or other project details), be sure to add the URL here. This will turn the Project title (on LinkedIn) into a clickable hyperlink leading to the external page. A great way to provide more project detail and direct LinkedIn users to your website.
- Time Period – Add the date or time frame of your project, if applicable.
- Description – Describe the project and your role in as much detail as you like. This section does not appear to have a character limit so have at it (or, create a teaser and drive folks to your website for more detail).
Click Add Project.
You’ve now successfully added a new Project that will display on your LinkedIn Profile. If you’ve associated a project with a particular job or position, you’ll notice that LinkedIn attributes projects to your work experience. Here’s how your work experience section will look:
Featuring Your Successful ERP and CRM Projects on LinkedIn
This new functionality can be a great way to feature your ERP or CRM success stories and perhaps grab a few more readers than you otherwise would if the story was just sitting on your network or buried somewhere on your website. After all, millions of professionals and potential technology buyers are using LinkedIn every single day … and customer case studies are one of the most heavily-consumed pieces of content during the long technology evaluation process.
Now head over to LinkedIn and give it a try for yourself. And while you’re there, let’s connect on LinkedIn.
What do you think of the new Projects feature from LinkedIn?
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By Mark Badran
Thanks, Mark, but I don’t see the option to ‘add sections’. Have they removed it?
Emma – yes, LinkedIn has made significant changes since the time I originally published this post. I believe that adding new sections to your profile can now be found in the Right margin of your LinkedIn profile under the section “Recommended for You” as follows:
1. Move your cursor over Profile at the top of your homepage and select Edit Profile.
2. Under Recommended for You on the right, click one of the suggested sections to add it to your profile.
3. After you’re finished editing, click Save.