LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media platforms for professionals, with over 700 million users worldwide. But LinkedIn is more than just a an online networking site – it’s also a powerful tool for lead generation!
In this blog, we’ll explore how to use LinkedIn to generate leads for your business.
Optimize Your Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is your digital business card, and it’s often the first thing people see when they search for you on the platform. That’s why it’s crucial to optimize your profile to make a great first impression.
Here are some tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile:
• Use a professional profile picture
• Write a compelling professional headline that includes your industry and expertise
• Write a summary that highlights your skills and experience
• Add your work experience, education, and certifications and also include these in your featured section
• Include relevant keywords in your profile to make it easier for people to find you
Connect with the Right People
Once you’ve optimised your profile, it’s time to start connecting with people. But don’t just connect with anyone – be strategic about who you connect with.
Here are some tips for connecting with the right people on LinkedIn:
• Connect with people in your industry or niche
• Connect with people who work for companies you’re interested in working with
• Connect with people who may be interested in your products or services
When you send a connection request, make sure to personalise your message and explain why you want to connect. This will increase your chances of getting accepted.
Engage with Your Network
Once you’ve built up your network, it’s important to engage with your connections. This means liking, and commenting on their posts, as well as posting your own content.
Here are some tips for engaging with your network on LinkedIn:
• Share relevant industry news and insights
• Share your own blog posts, articles or newsletters
• Ask questions and start conversations – join in other discussions too
• Offer advice and support to others in your network
By engaging with your network, you’ll stay top-of-mind and build relationships with potential leads.
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool that allows you to find and connect with potential leads on LinkedIn. With Sales Navigator, you can search for leads based on industry, job title, company size, and more.
Here are some tips for using LinkedIn Sales Navigator:
• Use advanced search to find the right leads
• Save leads and accounts to keep track of them
• Use the lead recommendations feature to find similar leads
• Use the InMail feature to send personalised messages to potential leads
By using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can target your lead generation efforts and find high-quality leads for your business, but this does come at a premium financial cost.
In summary, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for lead generation. By optimising your profile, connecting with the right people, engaging with your network, and using LinkedIn Sales Navigator (if you have the budget), you can generate leads and grow your business on the platform.
Need training for you and your team or are you looking for a longer-term outsourced solution? Call Ann Davies on 07752 539719 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.
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
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*:
*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:
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
Have you taken advantage of the new LinkedIn Open for Business feature yet? They say that this feature allows small and medium business owners and professionals to network and connect with others who are looking for the services that you might offer. Here’s a short video to explain in more detail.
So, what does this really mean for you? When a LinkedIn member searches for a service provider with your area of expertise, your profile will appear in that search. It is then up to your potential clients to get in touch if they are interested in your services. However, you must remember to tick the box that allows LinkedIn members whom you’re not connected with to message you for free!
💡 If you haven’t downloaded the LinkedIn app, you’re missing a trick. The app is free and connects you effortlessly to your account from your phone. I think it is very easy to use, with features constantly being updated. It lets you check your enquiries and messages, invite people to connect, and review updates.
Of course, if you haven’t updated your profile in a while then I recommend you do the following; Choose a profile picture of yourself, not your company logo, add your work experience, include relevant work experience, add a summary – use this space to explain things such as why you started your business or role, experience and more. For more information about updating your profile click here.
Summary
Your LinkedIn connections are one of the best ways to help source experts who you trust, as well as building relationships with those key prospects. By opting in to Open for Business, (which is free of charge), you will show up on any relevant search results (see video link above).
Help encourage new prospects to come to you, give Open for Business a try!
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
Photo credit: LinkedIn.com
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….
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…
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)
LinkedIn is a great professional networking tool to communicate with existing and potential franchisees, connect to peers, monitor competitors, and find new talent for your franchise.
Many franchisors don’t realise the true power of LinkedIn and this is great news for those who do, as they can easily fill that void with a lesser amount of effort than on more crowded social channels. Many have started leveraging LinkedIn to different ends – from monitoring their online reputation to developing and nurturing a loyal community and attracting franchisees. Your franchise should be listening to your audience, responding and opening conversation, encouraging them to engage with your brand.
How are businesses using LinkedIn?
LinkedIn can have a big impact on your capability to generate franchise leads and opportunities and convert prospective buyers into new owners. Here’s your snapshot of what you need to know:
Know Your Audience and Reach Out
Who are your prospective buyers on LinkedIn? The better you understand and can answer this question, the easier it will be to engage, connect and position your franchise. Search for people who fit your ideal franchisee or are based in areas where you’re recruiting. Reach out to them because even if they aren’t a good fit, they might know someone who is!
Competitors
Review your competitors’ LinkedIn company profiles, as well as a few personal profiles of employees. This will help you to better understand how they’re positioning themselves toward their (and your) target audience. Take notes on what their profile and company page tell you about them and the franchise. Can you do better, do prospective buyers really get what your franchise is all about?
Company Page
Post regular educational, informative and fun news about your franchise together with any team news and PR that your brand receives. Not only will this show the ‘human’ side of your brand but will increase the awareness of your brand, when people research their franchise opportunity. Examples of content to post could include: video, mentions in the media, any market expansion, new location openings (newly signed up franchisees), awards and recognition, franchisee testimonials or case studies about their investment, and charitable activities.
Showcase
Develop a showcase page that focuses on your franchise opportunity. Showcase Pages are extensions of your Company Page designed for highlighting a specific product or service. Create your Showcase Page for aspects of your franchise with its own content, to attract your target audience.
Share
Amplify your voice and encourage employees to share updates via their personal profiles, maximising your exposure and help keep your brand top of mind with employees’ friends, contacts and business connections: these types of connections are historically excellent at helping to make referrals and recommendations on your behalf.
Groups
Engage with any LinkedIn Groups relevant to your target audience. Share your content relevant to keep top of mind with those people who may be a potential franchisee in time.
Sponsored Updates
Use sponsored updates to cost-effectively maximise a post’s visibility; target people based on parameters such as location, work experience, current job title, age, skills and educational background.
Upgrade Your Membership
LinkedIn has different Premium account options for those who want to get more out of LinkedIn. If you have a free account and want to upgrade, you can compare account types described here.
LinkedIn is an excellent platform for supporting your franchise development efforts. If you’d like to chat about any LinkedIn training requirements, bespoke to your company either on a one to one or group basis, or ongoing management and support, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.
By Ann Davies, Director
** https://bebusinessed.com/linkedin/linkedin-statistics-figures/
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:
Here’s my top tips that you may not know:
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
LinkedIn Pages are often overlooked so let’s explore how your employees can be more engaged and help support your marketing team. LinkedIn Pages are a platform where employees have an opportunity to share the latest news and achievements of your company and to show how much they are engaged. Pages is also a place to highlight what day to day life is like at your company, whether you’re recruiting or offering potential clients a sense of what it’s like to do business. This will not only show what dedicated employees your company has but it will also support your culture at the same time. Use your Page to establish yourselves as leaders in your industry and build brand awareness.
There’s also LinkedIn Elevate, which is a paid-for product that helps companies find content for their employees to then share on the platform. Whatever your company’s aims, it’s important that everyone in your company helps to support the awareness of your brand on Pages by helping to share the news.
However, if you do not have a company Page, LinkedIn’s ‘how to’ instructions are here.
Here’s how you can support your company’s LinkedIn Page efforts from just 10 minutes a week:
Each month your marketing team will be looking at your LinkedIn Pages’ key metrics, and they’ll be looking for analytics such as:
Remember, from just 10 minutes a week your employees can support your Page and that’s great news for all involved!
I have a complimentary factsheet with lots of tips and ideas to support your LinkedIn marketing plan. If you’d like a copy, please contact me.
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
Image courtesy of LinkedIn
LinkedIn have recently launched their next generation of LinkedIn Company Pages which, they say, have been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier for companies like yours to adopt constructive conversations with LinkedIn’s community of more than 590 million members. Click here to find out why these changes should matter to you. Why should you encourage your employees to be brand advocates?
Your LinkedIn company page will often be among the first place where prospective clients will visit to learn more about your business. Content has 2 x higher engagement when shared by employees and on average, your employees have a network that is 10 times larger than your company’s follower base.*
My team and I support companies as an outsourced service managing their LinkedIn marketing strategy. If you manage your company’s LinkedIn company page strategy, here’s my top tips on how to encourage your LinkedIn employee brand advocates:
💡 Define your social media policy, explaining what is okay for your team to share and what is not okay. By offering some guidelines will help them feel more confident in sharing your aims and objectives.
💡 Do not assume your employees know how to use LinkedIn. Offer training as some will be more active and knowledgeable than others.
💡 Get everyone engaged by setting set up a LinkedIn engagement pod or a WhatsApp group. We use WhatsApp and have seen this work extremely well.
💡 Encourage everyone by asking for news such as birthdays, work anniversaries, team news, projects they are working on, in fact anything which is relevant, including videos for those confident in doing so. Featuring employees giving an insight into your culture offers a look into the brand’s people and personality and LinkedIn pages are a great way to reflect this, especially if you are recruiting.
💡 Celebrate new business wins, client reviews, together with any PR coverage, any good news story alongside nicely designed, branded imagery. Striking visuals are key to separating your page from your competitors.
💡 Position yourselves as a thought leader by posting useful content that positions your brand as an authority in its industry.
💡 Consistently monitor employee engagement for maximum effect. Ways you can do this are by identifying Company Page metrics, measuring success such as the number of employees participating, the reach of your messaging; shares, likes, comments, new followers and click-through-rates (CTR).
💡 I would also add that you may want to consider an incentive by offering a prize for team member of the month/quarter in terms of how much they have engaged.
💡 Evaluate what is working, what isn’t and make the necessary changes to improve. Any form of marketing should be treated with a ‘test and measure’ approach and feedback from your employees will also play a crucial role in your plan.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my tips for encouraging LinkedIn Employee Brand Advocates in your organisation. If you would like to discuss your future social media requirements, bespoke to your company, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.
By Ann Davies, Director
* https://www.LinkedIn.com
I had the pleasure of presenting to graduates at the Etihad Graduate Fair today. Open to 2nd, 3rd and Postgraduate students with the opportunity to hear from a wide range of guest speakers, have 1-2-1 Careers guidance interviews with our highly qualified Career coaches and meet with a variety of employers offering Graduate schemes and full time employment. My workshop focused on how to show delegates how to use LinkedIn more proactive in their search for their next job.
There are more than 500 million users on LinkedIn* and 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to check candidates**. LinkedIn is the leading professional networking platform and a powerful job search engine to boot!
Grow your network, raise your profile, and increase your chances of being hired through referrals and recommendations. LinkedIn can help you to get that all-important new job and here’s my steps to help you leverage LinkedIn for success.
1.The Basics – one chance, first impression!
Invest in your profile picture, it is one of the most important aspects of your profile.
Your picture should show others that you are friendly, approachable, and personable attributes to getting others to engage with you.
Write a convincing summary, this section has a limit of 2,000 characters but if people are viewing your profile via mobile *** and will need to scroll down, your first 92 characters will be essential. Because viewers will need to take an extra step to see more content, each of those first 220 and 92 characters must pull their weight: 58 percent of LinkedIn’s users are viewing it via mobile so maximising the impact of those first 92 characters will be especially important.
Keywords are king, research the keywords that you should include for each role, highlighting your past achievements. Research your current actual role and the essential and desirable skills for your current job and review the profiles of your colleagues and peers for ideas.
Add your skills to the featured skills & endorsements section, and add a maximum of 50 skills to your profile. Ensure that you list the key words that you want to be found for. This also gives you control over what you are more likely to be endorsed for.
2.Search and Connect
Having more LinkedIn connections increases your chances of showing up as one of a user’s “most viewed connections. Enter your keyword into the search bar. Select the member from the suggestions in drop-down or click the search icon ?. For example, you can search for the ”HR Manager” at ”Your Ideal Company” and they’ll appear in your search.
3.Set up job alerts
To access your alerts click the jobs icon at the top of your homepage. Click manage alerts under the search box at the top of the page where you are able to edit or delete the results relevant to you.
4.LinkedIn pages
Don’t hold back on the research! Get information on past operations, current news, products, services, culture and employees and check out their “careers” pages too.
5.LinkedIn groups
Get in on the conversation and share your expertise. Others can learn from you too while allowing you to build mutually beneficial business relationships. Find new connections and tap into the goldmine of knowledge to enhance your career.
Need help for free of charge?
In collaboration with Google Digital Garage Manchester I’ll be sharing my tips in a workshop on 12th April. You’ll be able to get the full rundown with free advice thrown in. Book your free place here.
*Omnicore, January 2018
**Jobvite Recruiter National Report 2016
*** LinkedIn 2016 Q1 quarterly results