There are only two times in your professional journey when you need to ensure that your online profile is updated and appealing to potential employers, professional contacts, and recruiters — when you are looking for a job, and when you are not!

Unlike in the past, first impressions are now made when your name is entered into a search engine, and it is great news for professionals everywhere that your LinkedIn profile features among the first few search results.

A well-built and well-maintained online profile is critical to making that first impression, and a poorly-curated LinkedIn profile is probably going to result in the creation of a poor impression right off the bat. Increasingly, given the growing popularity of LinkedIn as a talent sourcing platform, it could also affect whether or not the prospective employer actually reaches out to you.

After reviewing LinkedIn profiles from across the region, including those that fell into of the ‘most engaged’ professional’s category in the UAE, some patterns emerged.

Most engaged members are those who are part of various industry or alumni groups, company or brand pages, and engage and communicate regularly with their network, peers, and others on issues of mutual interest.

The leading profiles in the UAE represent a microcosm of the LinkedIn universe, drawn from our fastest-growing sectors. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the leaderboard comprised 30 percent of professionals from recruitment, 20 percent each from general management and HR consulting, and 10 percent each from the technology sector, banking and financial services industry, and the health care sector.

Some of the key take-aways to create and maintain an effective LinkedIn profile are presented below.

HOUSEKEEPING: The quickest way to ensure that your LinkedIn profile is easily recognizable even by those who you met just once or share a common interest with is to have a profile picture and a wealth of information about yourself. A photograph itself can drive 11x more traffic to your profile as people can put a face to the name easily.

LinkedIn has also found that detailed listing of all areas of experience and expertise, training and education, and professional history in a profile is valuable information for employers, who can find suitable candidates among existing employees. LinkedIn research has shown that members who include their skills and education details on their profiles get 13x and 10x more profile views respectively.

WIDER NETWORK: Profiles on LinkedIn that have a good number of contacts in their network are more likely to be taken seriously. We do stress however that you should only connect with trusted professional contacts — folks that you have met with, gone to school with or done business with in the real world. Ultimately though, LinkedIn is a networking platform, and a well-populated profile shows the ability to both build and maintain professional contacts. To aid industry contacts and recruiters to find your profile, adding the industry to which you belong can bring you 15x more profile views.

MORE ASSOCIATIONS: With a range of professionals on LinkedIn, it is fast becoming an excellent platform for content. Being part of groups or company pages brings our members access to a wide array of articles and commentary that are valuable from a professional as well as a personal development perspective. It also ensures that you are able to stay informed on developments in your current and previous companies, your alma mater, companies you admire, and the industry at large. Some of the key groups around the region include the UAE-focused recruitment group with more than 125,000 members, and the Emirates Airline company page, with over 220,000 followers. Even a fairly specialized group like one for ‘Arabic-speaking SAP Consultants’ has nearly 2000 members.

BE INFLUENCED: LinkedIn’s Influencer program now brings the collective wisdom of the world’s business and thought leaders on to the platform, from various regions, sectors, industries, and cultures. The MENA region is represented as well, with Jordanian entrepreneur and business catalyst Fadi Ghandour on board as one of the best known regional Influencers, among others in a growing list.

ENGAGE & DISCUSS: A networking platform is a great way to actually network with people easily from your desk or mobile device. Discussions are a great way to deepen one’s understanding or expertise in a subject, and when this discussion can potentially include LinkedIn’s 300 million members, it can be very enlightening indeed! Engaging with people with similar interests and expertise can also help to expand your professional network beyond your current location.

STAYING ACTIVE: Like, share, comment… Frequent activity on and from your profile ensures that you remain top-of-mind for those in your network. Given the pace of daily lives, a comment or a post may not always have the effect you imagine, but it will still make its mark as a way of connecting. To proactively drive engagement, sharing articles, videos or other media is a great way to kick-start a debate or conversation on your profile.

The good news is that this does not require a significant investment of time or effort. Due to its promise of added convenience, the LinkedIn mobile app is being used widely in the region.

Today, in key markets like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, more than 50 percent of all access comes from a mobile device.

The reward will be seeing your engagement and respect levels growing in direct proportion to the effort that you put in.