How To Make Your LinkedIn Profile URL Shorter

When you joined LinkedIn, their system  automatically assigned a Public Profile URL to your account.  It looks something like this:  http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/yourname/0/123/123

Make it shorter.

Extra letters and numbers make URLs harder to remember.

Sometimes, advisors who aren’t allowed to have their own websites (yet), use their LinkedIn address as a substitute for a website.  I often see those long random URLs on business cards.  It bears repeating:  Every extra letter or number in a URL makes it harder to remember (and type in correctly) when someone attempts to contact you.

You can do better than that!

Currently, LinkedIn allows you to change the URL for your LinkedIn profile.  But if you’re been using that URL throughout the Internet and in your marketing materials, changing it will be a lot of extra work.  If you start by creating the site with your name, life will be so much easier!

NAMING TIPS

Choose a Public Profile URL that is easy to remember and easier to share.  Here are some tips:

1)  Remember that your LinkedIn profile is PERSONAL. Don’t name your profile after a business. Your business name may change or you might close or sell your business*.

2)  If your name is taken when you’re naming your profile URL, then you’ll need to add “something” else to it.  My advice is to use your middle initial, middle name, or if you’re like me and have no middle initial, look at something else that is easy to remember.

Examples:  JohnDoe, JohnEDoe, JohnEdwardDoe

3)  Don’t add a hyphen, slash, or period to your Public Profile URL or for that matter, your email address or website name.  They’re just too easy for someone to miss, type wrong, or forget.

This also makes it easier for anyone who creates marketing materials for you, off or online.  Create a Public Profile URL that’s easy to remember and use without error.

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LINKEDIN URL

• Log in to your LinkedIn account.
• From the “Profile” drop-down, you can select “Edit Profile” and then click on the tiny gear that appears to the right of your Public Profile URL.
• OR, click this link and find the Public Profile area on the right side of your screen. Don’t forget to give the new link to your web designers (so they can fix the social networking link on your website or blog).
• Here’s the link again:  https://www.linkedin.com/profile/public-profile-settings

WHAT NOT TO DO

If you have been using your current profile URL for a while, and have it posted all over the internet, you might want to NOT consider this tip.   Because once you change your URL, if someone clicks the old link, they will not be taken to your page.

I think, for longer-term marketing, a shorter URL is worth it.  But you have to decide for yourself.

*A Company Profile is created AFTER the owner/partner of a firm creates a Public Profile.  When you sell your business, your LinkedIn Company Profile is part of the business’s assets.

(c) 2015 Elevating Your Business.  Maria Marsala, RIA Operations Marketing Manager & Coach.  As an early user of technology (1973), Maria joined LinkedIn on March 27, 2004 and is their 399,261 member.  Like this tip?  Get the next social networking or best practice management tip delivered to your Inbox “almost” weekly. Go to http://www.CoachMaria.com