After several months of locking ourselves in our homes and suspiciously eyeing anyone who comes close to us, it seems that we’ll need to adjust to what is now “the new normal.” And that new reality applies to how we network. It’s been almost six months since I handed someone my business card, but it’s probably been 6 minutes since someone saw my LinkedIn profile.
There are over 675 million people on LinkedIn. That’s more than twice the U.S. population! If you’re not taking advantage of this platform to grow your business, then you’re missing out.
Let’s start with your personal profile since that’s likely the first place you’ll be found. It might be helpful to look at your own while we review this list. Here are the key things to check.
Your profile photo
First of all, yes, you should have one or chance are whatever you have written will be ignored. And no, it shouldn’t be one of you cropped out of your wedding photo, or one of you on the boat during your last vacation. Unless, of course, you happen to sell boats, in which case that’s probably fine. Do not include your kids, your significant other, or your pets. And while we’re very proud of you for running a marathon, unless you work for a sports company, save that one for your Instagram. What we’re looking for here is a standard headshot of you wearing something appropriate for business. Don’t give us that pensive, off-camera gaze, don’t crack up laughing, don’t use an illustration, and for goodness sake, don’t crop the picture so close around your head that we feel we can see your pores. Just an ordinary headshot, people! Look straight at the camera as though you were at a networking event about to give us a socially distanced nod or elbow bump, and smile naturally.
Your banner image
Do you still have that default boring blue background behind your smiling face? You can seriously do better! If you’re not graphically inclined, this is the perfect spot for a photo that depicts what you do. Some ideas you might want to consider include; a picture of you speaking at an event, a nice photo of your company’s building, a landscape of your city, a nice photo of you with clients, a photo of the tools you use at work, or a photo that shows the products or services you offer. If none of that works, you can download a royalty-free abstract image from websites like pixabay.com or pexels.com that will at least show you tried. Ideally, if you or someone you know has graphic art skills, then create a banner that includes a collage representing you, or a more meaningful graphic that includes quick text with your specialty and contact info to save visitors to your page the trouble of clicking around to connect.
Your headline
When you show up in someone’s search results, they’ll see your name, headline, location, and current position, as well as your headshot. That’s all they’ll have to go on to decide whether or not to click, so it needs to look good. Your headline is the essential part of your profile to use keywords to increase your likelihood of being found. Start by identifying 2 or 3 keywords that people might use to find you. Think about different ways to express what you do. For example, if you’re an investor, you may want to use both “venture capital” and “private equity.” You can also include your areas of specialty. You have 120 characters to work with, and I suggest using all of them. When adding multiple keywords, it’s helpful to break them up with vertical lines or stars. Here is my headline, as an example: “Fractional CMO ★ Fractional CEO ★ Startup and Small Business Marketing & Strategy.”
Your “About” section
Here you have 2000 characters to work with, but remember that real humans will be reading this, so if you include a massive block of text, they may not bother. Just like writing an article, you’ll want to make your point within the first couple of lines and break up the text with line breaks and bullet points as appropriate. Try not to make your keywords too obvious, but you want to include them here as well. This section should focus on describing your skills and accomplishments. You’re not rewriting your resume here, but you are hitting the highlights of what makes you stand out so someone will want to connect. Think of it a bit like your personal 30-second commercial. One common mistake many people make is writing their about section in the third person, something along the lines of, “Bob has a 20-year history of corporate turnarounds.” You wouldn’t refer to yourself in the third person when networking, so don’t do it on LinkedIn either. Remember that this is your personal introduction.
Start your About section off with something punchy that describes why you’re special because I know you are. You might say something like, “Cross-border investments are my forte! With an MBA from the University of Miami, I offer foreign investors access to venture capital and private equity deals that lead to profitable exits.” Like website SEO, your keywords count more when placed at the beginning of your About section.
Within your about section, be sure to include strong messages that highlight results you’ve achieved. Use percentages, dollar values, team sizes, and whatever other stats help to emphasize your accomplishments. Describe the business problems you solve and how you’re unique. Tell potential contacts how you can help meet their needs.
Your “Featured” section
This is a critical profile section that many people miss. It provides an opportunity to upload examples of your work. Now please don’t upload a copy of a legal brief of which you’re particularly proud. But this is a great place to add a video of you at a speaking event, a picture of you with a known political figure, a copy of a press release or media mention, or you can feature one of your previous LinkedIn articles.
Your “Skills & Endorsements” section
You can add up to 50 skills to your profile. Your connections will be prompted to click a few of your skills that they endorse. Your goal is to reach 99 or more endorsements per skill. This social proof shows people who visit your page that you’re the real deal. Start by listing your top 3 skills first, and keep your starting list to a couple of dozen. It’s easier to get endorsements for your core skills since that’s how people typically think of you. If you don’t like which of your skills have the most endorsements, you can move a lighter one into your top 3 for greater promotion. Don’t forget to endorse others. Just like giver’s gain, they’ll often endorse you back. Oh, and remember that only 1st-degree connections can endorse you, so be sure to connect with them first.
Your “Experience” section
This section should include a summary of your current and past positions. Keep each of these concise with only two or three sentences, and use your keywords. Link to the company’s page, and be sure to highlight your achievements. Rather than telling people what you were responsible for, use action words to describe what you did. An example might be “increased sales by 25% in the first six months.” Oh and this may seem obvious, but use present tense for your current job and past tense for your past jobs.
Your profile URL
When you create your profile on LinkedIn, it will often include a combination of your name and a string of numbers. The cool kids know that it looks much better to have a custom URL along the lines of your first name – last name. You can update this in the upper-right hand corner of your profile by clicking on “Edit public profile and URL.”
Other Sections
You’ll want to include your education, licenses & certifications, and any meaty volunteer roles, including your BNI officer role and any non-profits on which you serve. Your accomplishments section can include languages and any special projects you may want to highlight.
Recommendations
Last but not least is the recommendations section. The law of reciprocity applies here too, but you also need to ask.
Now that you have created a beautiful profile, I’ll share some tips on what to do with it next time. I’ll also talk about things you can do to improve your business page. LinkedIn is still one of the best opportunities for free marketing, so you don’t want to miss out.
Let me leave you with a couple of quotes about using LinkedIn. The first is from writer Melanie Pinola:
“One of the great things about LinkedIn is that it isn’t the same kind of networking that happens at conventions, where you’re wearing a name tag, trying to meet strangers, and awkwardly attempting to make small talk. LinkedIn is networking without the pressure.”
I also liked this one from social selling evangelist Jill Rowley:
“Before LinkedIn and other social networks, in the sales world, ABC stood for Always Be Closing. Now ABC means Always Be Connecting, because your connections lead to your next hire, your next job, your next lead, and your next close.”
With that, my friends, always be connecting.