Stand Out On LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn profile needs to stand out because there are over 500 million users worldwide, and with this kind of reach there are potential customers searching every day, looking to connect with people who have your skills, products or services.  The secret to being successful on LinkedIn is making your profile visible and having it show up consistently when users are searching for people with your skill set.  Furthermore, if there are many users in the same business as you, your profile needs to rank higher than the others, for you to catch the eyes of potential customers.

I offer a whole host of complimentary downloads that you can get here.  Alternatively, here’s some tips that you can use in order to achieve the success you long deserve:

Don’t be faceless…upload a professional-looking photo

Take the best photo you can but it should be appropriate to you and your industry and don’t take selfie!  Since LinkedIn is a professional business platform it is better to have an appropriate head and shoulder shot.  If you are camera shy or don’t feel confident, you can always outsource the task to a professional, we recommend Chris Foster. 

Professional Headline – by default it is always your current job role…

However, I advise you change it.  Stand out my being sparky, use words that prompt a response when someone is looking for your area of expertise.  Provide more detail than what is on your business card.  For example; “consultant specialising in town planning” is much clearer and concise than just “consultant”.  Describing what you do in a clear way will help people to source you as a potential supplier.  Consequently, people you want to connect with will find you more easily if they are drawn to your Headline!  In my training, I often refer to your professional headline as your elevator pitch.  Try making a change and ask your colleagues for feedback!

Customise your Public Profile URL

LinkedIn profiles have URLs that look like a whole load of numbers and characters.  Stand out by adding your name on the URL (linkedin.com/name) or if your name has been taken, also add your company name.  Remember, I’m looking for you to stand out.

To get a custom URL, go to your ‘Edit Profile’ screen:

Utilize LinkedIn SEO

Identify certain keywords and industry terms that you would want your profile to be associated with, and add these to your:

Job title

Specialties

Career experience

Personal interests

Key achievements

This will help when someone searches any of the words that you want to be associated with (i.e. your keywords above), and your profile will possibly appear in their search results.

Your LinkedIn Presence is Just as Important

How do you engage with your network, how do you become thought-leader in your industry, how does the right audience see your posts?

Write a post which is relevant to your industry and area of expertise and associate it with a hashtag, ideas include:

Share your expert opinion on topics that you feel passionately about

Share quick tips for your audience

Offer some free and valuable advice by asking your network to ask questions and tag other people in

Share something you’ve experienced, relating it to business; “has anyone experienced……”

In Summary

Time to spring clean your LinkedIn profile? Remember:

Don’t be faceless – upload a professional-looking photo

Use relevant keywords in your profile summary and headline

Utilize LinkedIn’s SEO capability

Connect with the right people to grow your network and engage with them

Show authority within your industry with published content

Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for your team, a face to face or a remote-based one to one workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing support, we’ll help ensure that your brand stays on top in 2019.

By Ann Davies, Director

Mistakes to avoid on LinkedIn

When it comes to LinkedIn, there’s etiquette and best practices involved which makes this professional networking platform stand out from others. Avoid these mistakes and make those small changes, that will really make all the difference.

Overusing hashtags looks spammy

Overusing hashtags on LinkedIn looks very messy, makes your post difficult to read and only drowns your message in unnecessary noise.   You might use lots of hashtags on Instagram, but LinkedIn is not Instagram!  If you’re hash-tagging every possible keyword in the hope of being found in every possible search, you’ll put a lot of people off.

I would recommend that you use hashtags strategically, here’s some great resource on LinkedIn tips and tricks.

Tag people only when it’s relevant to them

I am sometimes tagged in LinkedIn posts that have nothing to do with me – and I believe that this strategy can backfire. I believe LinkedIn’s algorithm is getting smarter and apparently it now de-emphasizes posts in the news feed if those people tagged within it don’t engage with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to tag someone when the post is relevant to them.

I wouldn’t generally recommend this action but if you want to stop connections from tagging you in their posts*:

• Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
• Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
• Click the Privacy tab at the top of the page.
• Under the How others see your LinkedIn activity section, click Change next to Mention or tags by others.
• Switch the toggle to No.

*Source LinkedIn.com Help Centre.

However, for best practice when someone tags you for the right reasons or shares your content please make a point to like their post and leave a ‘thank-you for sharing’ comment.

Posting the wrong types of content

Most importantly, LinkedIn is a business networking platform, yet many people confuse it with Facebook. Mindless and irrelevant posts have become all too familiar with its members.  None of these are appropriate for LinkedIn, so ask yourself:

• Is it relevant?
• Does it provide value?
• Does it solve a problem or challenge for my ideal client?
• Will it help my ideal clients to know, like and trust me more than they did before?

Think of LinkedIn as an extension of your workplace; it’s a professional environment where people do business.  If I were you, if you wouldn’t say or share it in the workplace, don’t share it on LinkedIn!

Here’s a great article on things you should avoid posting on LinkedIn.

Posting too frequently

You don’t need to provide your connections with a running commentary of your day or even broadcast every thought that pops into your head. This will only create noise and will annoy your connections, which in turn will result in them removing you as a connection or at least unfollowing you.

I recommend that you post only when you’re inspired to share something that’s more relevant even if that means you only post once or twice a week or even less.  Personally, I believe that less is more.

Vanity metrics

It’s easy to be fooled by vanity metrics, large social media numbers can be tempting however, when reviewing your analytics pay attention to those posts which get the most visibility and engagement, and also pay attention to competitors in your sector, especially those who get good engagement.  A good rule of thumb is that if a post gets a lot of engagement and views or call to actions clicks (CTA) increase, try to recreate similar posts, where possible.

Summary

If you’ve made the mistake of doing any of the above, then I hope this has inspired you to use LinkedIn more professionally than you may have in the past. I’m confident that if you make a few small changes now, LinkedIn will be more rewarding for you.

My LinkedIn in-house workshops are tailored specifically to your company’s aims and objectives, offering real, practical, intensive and hands-on training that works.

Whether you’re looking for a one to one or group workshop I can help. Prior to your workshop, we’ll discuss your objectives and your workshop will be tailored accordingly. All workshops include 8 weeks’ follow-up, mentoring and support to ensure you succeed as a result.

Get in touch with me at info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call me on 07752 539719 or via our contact page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Create a Great LinkedIn Headline!

Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most visible sections of your LinkedIn profile.

Is it boring or does it tell your audience who you help, and what you can do for them?  Think about it in the concept of your elevator pitch; describe what you do and how you help others in the shortest time as possible.

What is a LinkedIn headline?

A LinkedIn headline is the section at the top of your profile where you can describe what you do in 120 characters or less. This appears next to your name in search results. LinkedIn will automatically choose your headline but if you customise yours, you’ll instantly differentiate yourself, giving prospects an interest in your products and services.

Ask yourself….

1. Which specific prospect do you help, what is their job title and are they based in a specific geographical location?
2. How do you help your prospect achieve their desired result?
3. What is the benefit/s as a result?
4. Add keywords that relate exactly to your industry and areas of expertise.  Using ‘strategic’ keywords will help you appear in more searches.  If you want your LinkedIn account to be a way that people discover you… place an emphasis on keywords¹.

Top tip….

Don’t have enough character space?  If you have an iPhone, edit your headline via your LinkedIn app as it gives you more character space than the normal 120 characters!  As I understand it, this is not available to other android phone users.

Once you have identified the above, it’s time to put that all together to create your perfect LinkedIn headline.

Let me summarise…

• Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most visible sections of your LinkedIn profile so make the most of it. 

• Who are your prospects?  How do you help them to achieve their desired results?

• What are the benefits as a result? 

• By using ‘strategic’ keywords, you’ll appear in more searches.

Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for you, your team either face to face or remote-based.  We also offer an outsourced social media marketing support service, helping you to get on with what you do best.

By Ann Davies, Director

¹ LinkedIn Help Centre (2017)

Deleting my LinkedIn account!

Someone recently said to me “I’m deleting my LinkedIn account”, when I asked why they said, “because I think it’s a waste of time”.  This is what people generally say who aren’t active on LinkedIn.  If you haven’t updated your personal profile in a very long time and don’t want to leverage LinkedIn to help grow your business then yes, delete your account – go straight to your settings and click “close account”.

So, lets’ turn this question on its head.  Think, “what’s in it for me – how can I use LinkedIn in a proactive way?”

Here’s my top tips for starters:

• Upload a professional-looking profile picture

• Add a background image (normally in relation to your company’s brand)

• Make your professional headline more than just a job title – think of your 30-second elevator pitch!

• Turn your summary into your story – who, why, where, when and goals for the future

• Grow your network – connect with people you know and those you meet out networking

• List all your skills

Here’s my top tips that you may not know:

• Edit your public profile URL – if it’s currently your name and a long set of numbers then you can change this which also makes it easier for people to find you.  I use my URL on my business cards, email footers and any other marketing material.

• Showcase your expertise by attaching copies of any certificates to your profile, we should shout about our expertise, it might be the difference between winning that new contract or winning your new job!

• Ask for recommendations (testimonials) from people you have worked with, such as clients, contractors and members of your team – ask others to tell the world how good you are at your job!

• Writing articles to Publisher is a great way to improve your thought leadership position, establishing yourself as the expert in your field, which and will increase your credibility and visibility.  As with any content marketing plan, consistently write a new article, say, one per month (to start with).  However, if something in your industry suddenly became a hot topic of conversation, writing an article will help you position yourself in that topic.

• Use LinkedIn to generate leads through LinkedIn Lead Generation forms.  Companies looking to advertise on LinkedIn can collect quality leads using forms that are pre-filled with LinkedIn profile data and when a member clicks on the call-to-action button on a LinkedIn ad with an attached Lead Gen Form, the form is automatically filled with their contact and profile information.  For more information click here

• Use LinkedIn Search to search as part of your lead generation strategy.  Look for those who are in your target audience.  For example, if I wanted to run a search for an ideal client, the search would look a little like: “Facilities Manager” > “Education” > “Manchester”, you can specify these search terms in the fields provided.  Remember to always tailor your reason as to why you want to connect.  Download one of my free fact sheets here.

Summary

Still want to consider deleting your account?  Think again!  There’s so much to LinkedIn and I hope this blog has been useful, given you a great insight and opportunity to consider some of the less obvious features of LinkedIn, which when understood can take your efforts to a whole different level, including the search capability, which is a free resource within LinkedIn.

Should you need any further assistance please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing support, to help ensure that your brand stays on top in 2019.

By Ann Davies, Director