The Résumé Studio Blog

This blog post was updated on 12/6/12 to reflect changes to LinkedIn’s interface.

Thinking about tightening up your LinkedIn presence?

There are many ways to do that, but perhaps the easiest is snagging your custom public profile URL.

Customizing your public profile URL is great when you want to put it on your business card or résumé. Or anywhere else you want to publicly drive people to find out more about you online. Plus it’s easier to remember!

Confused?

If your public profile URL isn’t customized, it will appear as a confusing mess, ending in a stream of random numbers and letters, like this:

• linkedin.com/pub/12kdud9ekhgkdla93s

Ugly, right? (The “pub” part stands for “public.”)

Good news:

Getting your own customized public profile URL is simple, and you can do it in less than three minutes.

• Login to your LinkedIn profile
• Hover your mouse over “Profile” (top left navigation bar)
• Click “Edit Profile”
• Look an inch or two below your photo and find your http://www.linked.com/_____ address
• Click “Edit,” which appears immediately to the right of the URL
• Look at the column to the right on the resulting page
• The first long rectangular box is called “Customize Your Public Profile,” and the second box is called “Your public profile URL”
• Click “Customize your public profile URL”

Follow LinkedIn’s instructions, choosing the version of your name that best suits you.

As an example, mine is www.linkedin.com/in/jaredredick.

See that nice, clean rendering of my name at the end of the link?

(You don’t have to put the “in” part there. That shows that you’re somehow “in,” and it takes care of itself. A client recently tried that, which is why I mention it. Just input your name as you’d like it to appear. Enter your name using all lower case and no spaces.)

What if your name is already taken?

If you have an uncommon name (there’s only one other Jared Redick in the world, that I know about), it shouldn’t take long.

You’ll have to get creative if you have a more common name, but most people I know with common names already have a variation that they use to set themselves apart, including use of middle names or initials, maiden names, and interesting name combinations.

Some even include their credentials. For instance:

• firstnamelastnamecfa
• firstnamelastnamemba
• firstnamelastnamepmp

Still others use their industry or expertise, although this is less desirable in my opinion:

• projectmanager
• problemfixer
• headhunter

No matter what you decide, take a few minutes right now to do it. Keep it simple, then stick with it across your other branded content (like email addresses, Twitter profile, and other off- and online materials). It’s good LinkedIn housekeeping.

Until next time!

Jared Redick
Visit: The Resume Studio.com
Follow: @TheResumeStudio
Connect: LinkedIn.com/in/jaredredick
Call: 415-397-6640

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas | Tagged: linkedin |