LinkedIn recently celebrated it’s 10^th anniversary with over 200 million members.  No matter our views or participation in more personal social media outlets, it’s clear that LinkedIn has established itself as a vital tool in communicating our professional identity.   It’s a must have and it’s not going away.

Having an updated and complete profile on LinkedIn is not just essential to potential candidates in order to be presented new opportunities.  It’s also essential for hiring managers to land great talent.  Candidates will want to understand the background of their potential boss and partner.  If they don’t get a complete view, they will be unprepared, uninspired or otherwise uninterested in the opportunity.

Here are five tips to making sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized.

1. Update your Email Settings.   Often we fail to update our email address in our account profile when we change jobs or alter our preferred personal email address.
2. Make your Headline Statement count.   Do you want to be seen as a leader, an expert or a worker bee?   This is your personal brand statement.  Be credible, but if you don’t define yourself here – others will.
3. Tell your story in the Summary. Always write in the first person.  Give the reader some context and color about your career path.  Provide some insight about what makes you unique.
4. Be succinct and impactful in describing your Experience.  If a job title is obvious, there is no need to write five sentences to describe the tasks and responsibilities.  Instead, tell the reader what you accomplished and provide some specifics about the nature of the work – particular projects, products or clients.
5. Use an appropriate and recent professional Photo.  First impressions count and your choice of photo will send a strong message about who you are.   Above all, make sure you have a photo.  Without one, you send a strong message that you don’t care about your profile – and your professional appearance.

At the end of the day, your LinkedIn profile is not trivial.  It matters for both potential candidates and hiring managers alike.