How much thought do you put into your LinkedIn profile?
LinkedIn is a great way to gain a professional edge as a business owner. It allows you not only to connect with potential clients by expanding your reach within the industry; it’s also an excellent platform for making powerful connections and partnerships in one’s own field of work, which can help grow their client list significantly through referrals from these newfound friendships/partnerships over time! LinkedIn has helped me forge strong relationships that have led directly into new opportunities — all because we utilized this networked-based social media site properly.
With all the different ways you can use social media, it’s hard to know what will work best for your brand.
It might seem like a daunting task but with some research and trial-and-error we think our strategies could really resonate with customers who share this same interest as us!
It’s a well-known fact that all social media platforms have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, Twitter is great if you want to share your thoughts quickly with the world at large because of its short character limit but it can be difficult when communicating information in lists or much more textually oriented posts due to how quick readers scroll over them — which means people might miss what was said altogether!
The key takeaway: Be mindful about who (and where) YOU’RE sharing YOUR content?
1. Stop accepting every LinkedIn invitation.
You should be picky with those you choose to connect with. You can’t let everyone who sends an invitation into your network, because not every connection will make sense in the grand scheme of things and waste valuable time for yourself! So before connecting any invites from strangers on social media or elsewhere – take some extra steps by reviewing their profile first just so that all connections stay relevant and helpful throughout this journey called life together
2. Don’t invite everyone!
The concept works both ways, as you should not accept every invitation. In turn, make sure to only invite people who are compatible with your vision and goals for the future of LinkedIn!
This is a great idea for those who want to grow their professional networks and extend themselves. If you’re not sure which invitations are worth accepting, don’t take them! It’s better than inviting too many people – work on your vision instead of lost opportunities.
3. Anonymous viewing is creepy; make yourself identifiable.
Anonymous viewing has its pros, but it doesn’t change the fact that for those who check to see who has viewed them, it looks creepy. There are many who use LinkedIn to take a look at the clients that their competitors have, which is another reason to be picky about who you choose to invite and the invitations that you accept.
Thanks to technology, there are always little ways to get around roadblocks, and there are those who find a way to find out who are visiting their profile anonymously. Tread lightly when choosing to browse anonymously.
- Click on your thumbnail image on the right-hand side, choose privacy and settings.
- Select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile.
- Click the option: Your name and headline.
4. Be involved.
Stay in touch with your connections by checking their status updates. Whether you are building a new network or simply staying current on what’s going around, follow these people and stay involved through commenting–they will know how much they mean to not only themselves but also others!
5. Hide your connections from creeps.
Protect your connections, LinkedIn Creeps by editing your settings. The benefits of protecting your connections is not just for your benefit, but for their benefit as well. Your competitors and recruiters can access your connections in order to contact them, keeping your connections private will protect their identities as well.
- Scroll to the upper-right hand corner of your LinkedIn profile, in the drop down menu select: Privacy & Settings.
- Then click on the link “Select Who Can See Your Connections” and from there choose the option: “Only Me” When this is done, save your changes.Managing Your Endorsements
6. Customize your public profile URL.
Customizing your URL makes it easy to find, remember and share. You can create a custom web address by going into Public Profile on the right-hand side of any screen where it says Create Custom URL – choose whether you want numbers or letters for category ID in this menu too!
7. Create a profile badge for your website or blog.
Create a profile badge that you can easily add to your website or blog, in order to promote your profile, and help to grow your network by making it easier for your followers to find you.
8. Get rid of generic anchor text links.
Gone are the boring days of generic anchor text links for your websites, whether business or personal. You can add custom text links to your blogs, and websites, by following some simple steps.
Increase your website clicks by adding some interesting text links that will draw page visitors and connections to your websites.
- Simply click on edit profile, and the contact info, link, a box similar to the one below should pop up.
- Under the websites option, choose another, and add your custom text link.
9. Optimize your profile, and get found.
Simply having a LinkedIn profile page does not guarantee that the right people will find you. Optimizing your profile, however, will certainly help to increase the chances that you will be found through searches. Add keywords that are relevant to you, to your headline and summary.
10. Complete your profile.
This goes without saying, and yet, so many choose to leave their profiles incomplete. On a platform built for professionals, an incomplete profile makes you look like anything but that.
- Make the time to make sure that your history (summary, education, and work) is complete.
- Give those who would like to connect with you the ability to connect with you on multiple platforms, and add your websites and contact information as well.
- Remember to add samples of your work as well.
11. Build a kick-ass digital resume.
One of the many benefits of using Linkedin for job seeking is the ability to transform your profile into a kick ass resume. Make sure that you have a complete profile and use the Resume Builder Tool to choose a template, edit, and transform it into a PDF that you can print or share!
12. Know who has viewed you.
Keep up with those who view your profile, not simply to keep up with potential stalkers, but in order to understand how you stack up against those that view you and to connect with those that may have been viewing you. You do have to make yourself identifiable in order to use this feature, no anonymous creepers need to attempt.
13. Join LinkedIn groups.
Like Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups are a great way to expand your network and to connect with like minded professionals. You are able to gain access into industry circles and networks by simply joining groups and remaining active within the groups.
It also makes connecting easier, because you can message group members directly, by passing first-degree connections.
14. Share updates on Twitter.
Although automatic syncing your tweets to publish on LinkedIn is no longer an option, you can still post your LinkedIn updates to Twitter by simply selecting the Everyone + Twitter option in Share With dropdown while adding updates.
15. Link your blog to LinkedIn
In order to make it easier for potential employers and connections to read about you, make it easy on them by linking your blog from within your LinkedIn profile. Add the blog link under your website listing in your profile.
16. Use a custom URL.
Getting a custom URL is a great way to market yourself through social media channels. The benefit of having a vanity URL is that this will be found easily when shared online, whereas the standard format has been seen less frequently over time through changes in privacy settings among other issues.
17. Optimize keywords in the bio section under contact information section at top of page (under edit profile).
Using keywords relevant to you or industry can also help you be found by those who are looking to connect with you. You can also cross promote your social networks within your contact information, so that visitors will be more likely to follow you elsewhere as well.
18. Linkedin Ads
LinkedIn ads are a way for you to target specific groups of people through certain keywords in the headline, body text, and links/URLs in the article. The benefit about this platform is that when users click on an ad they will be brought directly to your profile page rather than any other page within LinkedIn where it could have been easy for them to simply skip over you in their feed or search results. If they perform a search while at your profile page, there is a greater chance that they’ll come across one of your updates and actually interact with you.
19. Sponsor a group post
Sponsoring a group post enables you to share an announcement, job opportunity, or industry update within a particular LinkedIn group without having to be added as an administrator of that specific group. It is similar to the company page option, but it tends to reach more people than just those who are already following your company page. You also have the benefit of analytics tracking these sponsored posts for future reference and strategy building.
20. Endorsements
When someone views your profile and sees relevant Skills in the right column next to their name they can click on them and endorse you for that skill (keyword). Endorsements in this capacity allow you to gain new endorsements from people who don’t know you, but may see you as an industry professional leader. It’s also a great way to give exposure to other professionals in your field because by endorsing them it could bring their name and Skills listing into the view of someone you know.
There are many ways to market yourself on LinkedIn and we’ve covered a few of them here. But there is still more you can do, like optimizing your profile with keywords or creating an effective headline for your summary section. If you want help marketing yourself or your brand online, contact us today! We’ll gladly provide the advice and expertise needed to make sure that all of your digital marketing efforts have been successful.
