How to add a portfolio to your LinkedIn profile

If you are wondering if you can add a portfolio to your LinkedIn profile, the answer is YES.  LinkedIn is the power of social media when it comes to professional networking.  Over the past year, LinkedIn has made changes that have made it more attractive to professionals and job seekers. 

One of these changes was the introduction of online wallets into LinkedIn profiles that include images, PDFs, presentations, and websites.

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  LinkedIn can be a positive addition to the tools you use in your job search.  Having a detailed and professional portfolio can help you differentiate yourself from other potential applicants.  By including examples from your work, you can make your LinkedIn profile a more effective tool for developing your career.

  Professional Portfolios was introduced to LinkedIn in 2013, but the early focus on PowerPoint publishing didn’t quite appeal to the design world. 

However, from the start, LinkedIn suggested that this feature could work with other designers and creatives.  The capabilities of this feature are ideal for a visually oriented job record where portfolios and job examples can say more than a static job description.

How do I add a file to my LinkedIn profile?

  Portfolio items can be shared in the Summary, Experience, and Education sections of your profile.  Your profile summary is usually near the top of the page, so organizing your best business examples there makes it more discoverable, while additional portfolio items added in previous posts and education sections serve as an archive of what you’ve achieved.

Portfolio Items follow a standard layout with two large business cards and multiple smaller cards below.  Regardless of the content type, all clipboard cards include a visual component.  With over 500 million registered users and two new members joining every second, LinkedIn is the largest professional social media network in the world and a powerful tool in a candidate’s job search arsenal.

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  LinkedIn profiles are widely accepted as “virtual business cards” that also help users easily share information about work history, education, and career interests.  One of LinkedIn’s newest features is the Professional Portfolio, which allows people to view examples of their work and experiences.

  Digital portfolios are of particular value to individuals who are new to the job market or who are looking to establish themselves in a different profession.  Many hiring managers report that they rely on LinkedIn as a way to validate past hires and confirm the skills listed on an applicant’s CV.  By including examples from your job, you can demonstrate that you have the skills and experience needed to perform the required job duties, even if you have not held a similar position before.

How do I upload my resume on LinkedIn?

  Adding to your portfolio is very simple.  Click the “pencil” icon at the top of each section to upload documents, presentations, audio and video files, as well as link to external content.  Make sure to give each file a meaningful title before uploading and add a description that defines the specific skill you aim to show.  For example, if a user is discussing their project management skills, they may include a copy of the project plan they produced in their description of that skill.

  You can upload any number of photos, videos, and presentations directly to the Summary, Work Experience, and Education sections of your LinkedIn profile with job descriptions.  For example, a designer can upload a magazine publication and describe the thinking process behind the design.  Or, an actor can upload a short clip for a speaking performance. 

All of these visuals appear as thumbnails on the user’s profile page, right below a specific job, job summary, and education record.  You can then click on the thumbnails for full-screen views.  LinkedIn will eventually add the ability to like and annotate individual photos and videos.

  This is an important addition to LinkedIn, which has traditionally been a professional network for white-collar office workers.  This move is likely to attract many creative professionals, who can now view their portfolios alongside their CVs.

How to add a portfolio to your LinkedIn profile

• First, select Edit Mode on your LinkedIn profile
• Next, follow the directions in the summary, experience, or education section of your choice.  The first time you do this, LinkedIn will encourage you to add visual content.
• Now, you can easily click on the following icon (while in Edit Mode) to add visual content to your LinkedIn profile.
• To add a link, paste the full URL into the field, and LinkedIn will fetch the content for you, pull out an image, and pre-populate the title and description fields.
• If you want to go back and edit any of the media, just look for the pencil icon in the lower right corner for any of your content, click on it, and edit the fields.
• It’s that easy.  In just a few steps, your profile comes to life!
• LinkedIn has created a SlideShare presentation showing how easy it is to add visual content to your profile, regardless of your profession.

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  Benefit from the visual content revolution

  Let’s start with the obvious.  Social networks are becoming increasingly more visual.  With Facebook acquiring Instagram, LinkedIn acquiring SlideShare, and Twitter launching Vine, it is evident that social media is thriving on visual content.  With the introduction of this new feature, individuals can now easily share their work with the world.  And this isn’t just limited to the creative genres;  The option to share a link (as we saw above) opens up a whole new set of opportunities for marketers and content creators to showcase their business and promote their business content.  Marketers, designers, writers, architects, artists, and the like can now make better use of LinkedIn to showcase their core work and stand out from other job seekers.  It can also benefit recruits looking for top-notch talents.

  Give your SlideShare content more reach

  SlideShare is fast becoming an effective channel for promoting visual content, and marketers are finding various ways to capitalize on the site’s popularity.  Given LinkedIn’s acquisition of SlideShare, it makes sense for the professional network to strive to integrate visual presentations more seamlessly with its primary site, and now users have the ability to display SlideShare offers prominently on their LinkedIn profiles.  Take advantage of it!