You should invest time and resources into building your personal brand just as you would a professional one.
There are many things that LinkedIn can do for your digital marketing strategy, from making connections and establishing partnerships to generating leads and boosting your brand awareness.
LinkedIn is a great place for networking and growing your business. These marketing tips will help you make better use of the social media platform:
1. Choose the right profile picture for LinkedIn
Your profile picture is the image that represents you on LinkedIn. It is the first thing that people see when they are introduced to you, and it affects their initial impression of you.
Some tips for picking the right profile picture for LinkedIn are to make sure the picture is recent, that it looks like you, that your face takes up around 60% of it, and that you wear what you would like to wear to work. You should also smile with your eyes.
2. Add a background photo
Your background photo is the second most important element on your profile page. It catches people’s attention and sets the context for the rest of your profile. It also gives people a glimpse into what is important to you.
3. Optimize Your Title
A good background photo will help your page to be more eye-catching, engaging and memorable.
Your headline is one of the first things people see when they visit your profile, so make it stand out. Don’t just put your job title in your headline – put something that will make people want to keep reading.
You are not restricted to using only your job title in the headline field on your profile page. Feel free to use this space to say more about how you see your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you tick.
If you want to get inspiration for social selling at your company, take a quick look at the headlines on your sales reps’ profile pages. They will most likely have more than just their job titles in there.
4. Turn your summary into your story
Make sure to include a LinkedIn summary on your profile! Many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile, which is amazing.
Use your summary to tell your own story, rather than just listing your skills or job titles.
It is important to be able to communicate why your skills matter, and how they can positively affect the people you work with. Try taking some time to draft your thoughts, and then get feedback from others to make sure your message is clear.
Your most personal piece of content marketing is worth the effort.
5. Declare war on buzzwords
Adjectives that are overused in LinkedIn headlines and summaries to the point where they hold little to no meaning are called buzzwords.
The words that are most overused and considered to be buzzwords are ‘specialized’, ‘leadership’, ‘focused’, ‘strategic’, ‘experienced’, ‘passionate’, ‘expert’, ‘creative’, ‘innovative’, and ‘certified’.
I am not trying to say that you cannot describe yourself with these words or that they are not important, but using these words alone will not make others believe that you have these qualities.
Make sure that your profile reflects who you are and what you do in order to gain the trust of potential employers. Use the features on LinkedIn to highlight your professional accomplishments and give employers a better idea of what you’re all about.
6. Grow your network
One easy way to grow your LinkedIn network is to connect it to your email address book.
Connecting with others on LinkedIn can be really helpful in finding new opportunities. LinkedIn will suggest people for you to connect with based on your profile and activity. You can review the potential connections and only connect with the people you want to.
After meeting someone or having a conversation with them, follow up by sending a LinkedIn connection request. This is a great way to keep your network active and up to date.
7. List your relevant skills
One way to quickly improve your LinkedIn profile is to scroll through the list of skills and add those that are relevant to you.
When you add links to your headline and summary, it helps to support the things you said in those areas. It also gives other people a chance to agree with you. The most important part is to make sure the links are still relevant.
A skills list that is long and consists of skills that are not central to your identity or what you do, can be cumbersome. Make sure to take the time every once in a while to update your skills list.
8. Spotlight the services you offer
LinkedIn has introduced a new feature called Services that enables consultants, freelancers, and workers for smaller businesses to display the variety of services they have to offer.
Filling out the Services section of your profile can help improve your ranking in search results.
9. Spread the endorsement love
Being endorsed by other members on LinkedIn increases your credibility and skills. You can get endorsed by other members on LinkedIn by going to their profile and clicking on the button that says “endorse.”
Start by looking through your network and finding connections who you feel would genuinely benefit from your endorsement. This is often the trigger for people to return the favor.
Try not to be scared to shoot a courteous text asking for confirmation of a couple of essential abilities too. In any case, recall – pertinence is significant. Connect with individuals whose validation you would truly appreciate.
10. Manage your endorsements more proactively
If you start to receive endorsements on LinkedIn, you may notice that they cause your profile to emphasize certain aspects that don’t accurately portray who you are.
It’s possible that your main area of expertise is content marketing, for example, but the people who have worked with you on events are more likely to give you a positive review.
Endorsements are a way for other users to vouch for the skills you claim to have. You can manage which endorsements to show or hide on your profile by editing the skills section.
11. Stay on customers’ radars
Some companies use LinkedIn to help small businesses generate leads by finding people who fit their customer criteria and introducing them. They manage the client’s account so it looks like they are the ones doing the work, including daily status updates and weekly blog posts. They also send monthly emails with information about the client’s services and how they have helped other customers. Finally, they make offers such as inviting people to webinars or offering whitepapers.
12. Grow your email marketing list
I highly recommend writing a crafted letter to each LinkedIn connection, saying thank you for being connected and inviting them to be part of your email marketing list. Do apologize for the lack of personalization in the email. LinkedIn lets you message 50 people at a time this way. I know someone who added about 300 people to his email list with this method. Include a direct link for the email signup in your email. It is imperative that you have reciprocity in the message: Tell them what they will receive by signing up for the email list, and offer to look at something of theirs, which is a fairly noncommittal method to goodwill.
13. Use sponsored updates
Otherwise, some people may just tune out you information. LinkedIn offers a feature called sponsored updates, where businesses can pay to have their post appear on an individual’s LinkedIn feed. This feature allows businesses to target a specific audience based on factors such as location, gender, age, company name, job title, job function, skills, schools, and groups. The sponsored update can be an excellent way to promote content that would be useful to the target audience, with a strong call to action.
14. Post high-quality content
High-quality content that is targeted to the right audience can help achieve two goals. The first is teaching others how to do their job better or how to solve a problem. The second goal is establishing you as an expert or thought leader in that area. Both of these can lead to increased business opportunities if the content is truly valuable.
15. … and go viral
Writing directly on LinkedIn is the most influential thing you can do on the site today. If one of your posts starts to take off and gets a lot of engagement, LinkedIn will feature it more prominently in one of their sections, and it could end up being seen by tens of thousands of people. This is a great way to increase your visibility and reach an audience that would be difficult to reach through your own website or blog, or even by sharing a link to an article you wrote elsewhere.
16. Give a face to your employees
Tam Frager, marketing and communications consultant, said that it is beneficial to have as many employees as possible create and complete profiles on LinkedIn. She noted that these profiles should include an appropriate photo, relevant job history that describes how the employee has helped the company, and professional connections. Frager said that her current company is putting together a LinkedIn Day during which a photographer will take profile pictures and employees will receive help setting up their accounts.”
17. Join groups – and stay active
I always tell small business owners to join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to their target audiences. Not only does it allow you to keep tabs on what your audience is talking about, but there are also opportunities for small business owners to interact or offer their advice. You can message members of groups you’re in even if you’re not connected, which saves money when building relationships with potential clients.
18. Make your company page matter
Carrie Booher, digital content editor at WWOZ 90.7 FM, believes it’s important for companies to have an updated and consistent presence for their brand on LinkedIn. She advises that the imagery, colors, and content on the company profile page should be consistent with the company’s website and other social media profiles. The page should also be updated regularly to appear current. Booher cautions that creating a LinkedIn presence and then not maintaining it will be worse than not having one at all.
19. Claim your custom URL
According to David Erickson, everyone should claim their custom URL on LinkedIn to ensure it includes their name. This is especially important for people who have a lot of contact with potential clients, because when meeting someone they have not yet met, many people will search Google for the name of the person with whom they’re meeting. Claiming your custom URL makes it more likely your LinkedIn profile will rank at the top of those search results.
20. Avoid hard sells
Treat LinkedIn like any other marketing platform by staying up-to-date on the latest trends. Don’t interrupt people; try to be ‘discovered’ instead. Content marketing and inbound marketing are good strategies to use on LinkedIn. There are a lot of people on LinkedIn who use hard-sell tactics from the 1980s; don’t be one of them.
Conclusion
To market your business on LinkedIn, you should create a profile for your brand and build connections. LinkedIn users will be able to learn about your business and what it does if you provide detailed information in your profile.
In order to be an effective LinkedIn user, it is important to be an active participant in the community by joining groups, posting quality content, and engaging with your connections.