Are You Using the Industry Sector List on LinkedIn Correctly?

Are you represented in the correct ‘Industry Sector’ on LinkedIn?

Have you selected the correct option from LinkedIn’s industry sector list on your LinkedIn profile?

Has it even crossed your mind?

I think you’d agree that being identified in the correct industry is a pretty fundamental setting on your LinkedIn Profile. Selecting the option from LinkedIn’s correct industry sector list can help you be found for the right jobs by recruiters if you’re using the platform to job hunt, as my Connection, Résumé Writer and Career Coach, Jared J.Wiese pointed out on LinkedIn. Doing so can also help you be found for the terms you want to be found for when potential clients or collaborators search for you.

Yet, LinkedIn doesn’t make this setting easy to find if you want to change or check it. (I think you should!)

Here Are the Steps to Take to Select the LinkedIn Industry Sector List Option That’s Right for You…

Note: I would advise changing settings and doing anything else of a similar ‘strategic’ nature or making technical amendments to your LinkedIn Profile on desktop rather than on your mobile.

Workplace Engagement and Leadership Strategist, Kimberly Ficklin informed me that she couldn’t access her site preferences (see below) when she looked and asked if you needed a LinkedIn Premium account to change your LinkedIn industry sector list selection. While you don’t need a Premium account to edit your selection, you will need to make the change whilst logged into LinkedIn on a desktop computer or laptop, as Kimberly was trying to do so on her mobile phone.

Go to ‘Me’ on the right on top navigation:

Scroll down in the drop-down menu and click on ‘Settings & Privacy’.

By default, you will arrive on the ‘Privacy’ column/tab.

Scroll across to the ‘Account’ tab and drop down to ‘Site Preferences’.

There you will find ‘Name, location, and industry’.

On the right, you will see a ‘Change’ option.

Click on this and a new pop-up box will appear with other editable fields on your Profile.

If you scroll down, you will find ‘Industry’.

Once you are there, click on the arrow and a long list of options will appear:

Choose the one which best represents your industry sector.

This can be a frustrating experience as either:

1. Your exact industry isn’t represented
2. You have a foot in more than on industry sector

Crystal Thies, who specialises in working with financial advisors, helping them grow clients and sales via LinkedIn, shared her troubles with the same issue on LinkedIn:

“I specialise in working with financial advisors. One of the great difficulties with LinkedIn’s “Industry” options is that there are three different options that relate to what they do. They would qualify for financial services, insurance, and investment management. How do they pick? I always recommend thinking about which industry the people you would want to have as clients would associate with you. But there’s still a lot of missed opportunities for them being found in searches because of this.

“On the opposite side of the coin, those working in manufacturing struggle because there isn’t a generic manufacturing and it’s split up across multiple industries.
 
“Picking the industry to which to attach your LinkedIn profile is not as easy as it seems!”

What I would recommend doing in this situation is picking one, the one that is most important to you, but then make sure to mention the other sectors in your ‘About’ section (formerly known as your ‘Summary’ section) on your Profile. I would also make sure you cover ALL the keywords and expressions you can that match your customer types and industry sector in your LinkedIn About section. It’s not a perfect solution, but hopefully it goes a long way towards helping you get found for the terms you wish to be identified by when people come looking!

There you go, you can now be confident that you will be recognised in the right sector for your skills and experiences and be more likely to be found where you should be for your customers and prospects!