LinkedIn Glow-Up: Start 2025 with a Profile Refresh
New year, new LinkedIn! Kick off 2025 by giving your LinkedIn profile the glow-up it deserves. In this hands-on, we'll walk through actionable steps to help you create a profile that aligns with your professional goals and makes you stand out.
What you’ll learn:
✨ Declutter & Polish – What to remove, update, or highlight to ensure your profile feels current and aligned with your goals.
✨ Mini Glow-Up Goals – Small but impactful updates like reworking your headline, adding a new banner image, updating your About section, and showcasing 2024 accomplishments.
✨ Standout Strategies – Tips to optimize your profile for recruiters, clients, or connections who can help you achieve your 2025 vision.
Take the LinkedIn Glow-Up Challenge! Pick one area of your profile to refresh, and share your update in the comments or tag me for personalized feedback. Let’s celebrate your transformation together!
Whether you’re looking to land your dream job, attract new opportunities, or simply stand out, this session will help you start 2025 with confidence and clarity.
When to Update Your LinkedIn Profile
One of the biggest misconceptions about updating your LinkedIn profile is thinking it’s only necessary when you’re actively job hunting, prospecting, or pursuing board opportunities.
Sure, those are great reasons to refresh your profile—but they’re not the only reasons.
If you want to consistently attract the right opportunities and build meaningful professional relationships on LinkedIn, the best time to update your profile is always now.
If it’s been more than six months since you last reviewed your profile, it’s overdue for a refresh.
LinkedIn operates on the expectation that professionals keep their profiles up-to-date, reflecting recent accomplishments, shifts in focus, or career changes. It’s almost like an unwritten rule of the platform.
So, let’s flip the script: updating your profile isn’t something you rush to do when you’re scrambling for a new opportunity—it’s something you should do any time you experience a noteworthy career milestone.
Your LinkedIn profile should be the first place you make updates when something significant happens.
When to update your LinkedIn profile is a personal decision, but there are three key scenarios where a refresh can make a huge difference:
#1 – Pivoting Your Career or Business
If you’ve recently decided to take your career in a new direction or have already started the pivot, this is the perfect time to update your profile.
Your excitement and clarity about your new path are fresh, so use that momentum to craft a profile that reflects where you’re headed. Let your connections celebrate your shift with you and make it clear how they can support your journey.
#2 – It’s Been A While (or You’re Brand New!)
If your LinkedIn profile has been sitting untouched for years or you’re brand new to the platform, now is the time to refresh it.
Maybe you’ve been focused on other social channels or haven’t felt the need to use LinkedIn actively—but it’s smart to have an up-to-date profile ready for when opportunities come your way.
#3 – Growing Your Network or Generating Leads If you’re using LinkedIn to grow your connections or generate leads, having an optimized profile is non-negotiable.
Your profile is the first thing people will check before they connect with you or respond to your outreach. If it’s not aligned with your messaging, it can work against you.
Before you hit “connect” or send a message, make sure your profile tells a cohesive story about who you are and what you offer.
Your LinkedIn Profile is Your First Impression
As I mentioned earlier, your LinkedIn profile sets the tone for every interaction you’ll have with a potential connection, hiring manager, board member, or peer in your industry.
The details on your profile matter more than you might think.
Picture the last time you came across someone through a referral, a podcast appearance, or a mention from someone you trust. What’s the first thing you did? You looked them up.
When you land on their LinkedIn profile, you expect to find current information, a cohesive personal brand, and attention to detail. But what happens when their profile is outdated, their links are broken, or their work history hasn’t been touched in years?
Immediately, doubts start to creep in:
Can I trust them?
Do they take their personal brand seriously?
If they overlook this, what else are they neglecting?
Whether we admit it or not, first impressions stick. Research shows they form in as little as 1/10th of a second to just a few seconds—and that’s not much time to make an impact.
For LinkedIn experts, every detail of their profile is intentional because they understand how crucial that first impression is to their success.
Here’s the good news: once you put in the work to optimize your profile, maintaining it doesn’t require much effort.
7 Major Areas to Focus on in Your LinkedIn Profile Glow-Up
If you'd like to see me discuss all of these (and a few more), hit play on the video above about halfway through when I start screensharing.
1. Profile Picture
What to Do: Use a high-quality, professional headshot with good lighting and a clean background.
Pro Tip: Your face should take up 60% of the frame, and you should dress to match your industry.
Why It Matters: Profiles with a professional photo get up to 21x more views and 36x more messages.
2. Background Banner
What to Do: Create a custom banner that reflects your personal brand or career focus. Use tools like Canva for a polished design.
Pro Tip: Include your tagline, logo (if applicable), or a relevant visual that communicates your expertise.
Why It Matters: It’s prime visual real estate that instantly communicates what you’re all about.
3. LinkedIn Headline
What to Do: Write a clear, compelling headline that highlights your unique value proposition. Avoid defaulting to just your job title.
Pro Tip: Use a formula like: [What you do] + [Who you help] + [How you do it]. For example: “Helping SaaS Companies Scale with Data-Driven Marketing Strategies”.
Why It Matters: It’s one of the first things people see and plays a major role in search visibility.
4. About Section
What to Do: Write a story-driven summary in first person that highlights your expertise, accomplishments, and goals.
Pro Tip: Use the first 2–3 lines to hook your audience—they need to click “See More” to read the rest. Incorporate relevant keywords for SEO.
Why It Matters: This is your opportunity to build rapport and show people why they should connect with you.
5. Experience
What to Do: List your most recent roles with detailed descriptions that focus on results and achievements. Use bullet points for readability.
Pro Tip: Quantify your impact whenever possible (e.g., “Increased sales by 30% YoY” or “Launched campaigns that generated $1M+ in revenue”).
Why It Matters: It demonstrates your expertise and establishes credibility in your industry.
6. Skills & Endorsements
What to Do: Highlight 3–5 top skills that align with your professional goals. Reorder them so the most relevant ones appear first.
Pro Tip: Ask trusted colleagues or connections for endorsements to strengthen your profile’s credibility.
Why It Matters: Profiles with 5+ skills listed are 17x more likely to get profile views.
7. Recommendations
What to Do: Request recommendations from former managers, colleagues, or clients who can vouch for your skills and professionalism.
Pro Tip: Offer to write a draft for them to make it easier (and ensure the tone aligns with your goals).
Why It Matters: Recommendations are powerful social proof and can be a deciding factor for potential opportunities.
Bonus Sections to Highlight
Featured Section: Pin key accomplishments, posts, or links to this section to showcase your best work.
Custom URL: Update your LinkedIn URL to something clean and professional (e.g., linkedin.com/in/YourName).
Open to Work/Providing Services: Enable these options if you’re actively seeking new opportunities or clients.
If you’re ready to get started with LinkedIn and take the next step to optimize your profile once and for all, hop over to my website to join my weekly email newsletter at mindiramsey.com.
I’ll see you next week on Mondays with Mindi! Feel free to leave questions or comments below - and my inbox is open if you want to message me directly! :)
