Being an entrepreneur your presence on Linkedin is a must; it’s not just about networking with the like-minded people, but also to generate solid leads from the biggest B2B network online. Whether you want to brand yourself as a successful entrepreneur or want to showcase your business to a broader audience at Linkedin, you must start with optimizing your profile first because, this a documented detail about yourself that anyone reads first.
By optimizing your Linkedin business profile means letting people find you easily. If you do not appear at the top pages when people are searching for the product or service you offer, you will definitely not get any business from Linkedin. This article will discuss tips and ideas to improve the quality of your Linkedin profile so it can serve as a passive lead generation medium for your business.
Let’s consider a few points to have an optimized Linkedin profile page.
1- Know the Right Keywords:
This is not like keyword research you do to optimize your website for search engines, rather it’s more about what you do or what you offer. ‘Content Strategist’, ‘Online Marketer’, ‘Motivational Speaker’, ‘Social Entrepreneur’, ‘F&B Investor’ and so on are some of the examples. Make sure to have your core expertise/services/products highlighted in your profile, preferably in the title section. These are the keywords people use when searching for experts on Linkedin, so do a thorough research within your industry to find the best keywords and add them in the profile.
2- Highlight Your Company:
Highlight it only; do not market your company profile in your personal profile; that just confuses the readers if you stuff your profile page with “about the company”. Yes, you must write a few lines about your role and contribution to the growth/development the company. And, for marketing your company correctly, you have Linkedin company pages.
3- Make Best Use of Headline:
Do not use words like “Owner” or “Founder” in your profile headline, use keywords instead as discussed in step 1. The Founder/Owner details should particularly go to the Experience section.
4- Summarize Your Expertise:
You have a lot of keywords to explain your expertise and you cannot use all of them in the headline. Only the top keywords go in headline, like ‘Online Marketer’. Now the rest of the keywords must also be used and the profile summary is the best place to do so. Social Media Management, PPC, SEO Strategy and so on etc. will be part of your Linkedin profile summary.
5- Job Description & Experience Should Go in the Relevant Sections:
Do not mention your job description at previous workplaces in the summary section. Focus on summarizing things there only; job descriptions should go in the relevant section with experience at previous jobs.
6- Adding Skills is a Must:
Your skills-set will allow people to endorse you for, so you must add at least five skills. Endorsements are the one-click acknowledgments from your network and it’s a great way to get recognized for a certain skill.
7- Get Recommended:
There’s no harm in asking present and past co-workers, supervisors and employers to write a brief recommendation for you.
8- Must Add a Professional Profile Picture:
A professional profile picture is the one which is not taken at a beach or any fun place, so make sure to add a picture that looks trendy yet professional, because this is critical for your LinkedIn success! According to stats, a profile with a photo could result in 14 times more profile views.
9- Join Linkedin Groups:
Linkedin allows you to be a member of up to 50 groups and being a member of relevant and active groups you can multiply leads and sales. Find groups related to your industry or niche, join them and don’t panic to spam all the groups on daily basis, rather be active in three to four groups ever day.
Being active member of groups, you do not just promote your brand one time in the group, but you can use the groups in a lot of ways, i.e. you can grow your linked network in the right direction and to create and promote high quality content using LinkedIn groups.
10- Showcase Awards, Volunteer Experience, Organizations and Causes You Care About:
You may be surprised to know that volunteer experience is generally considered equal to formal work experience, so if you have some volunteer records why not to use them for the good!
11- Showcase Your Expertise with Linkedin Articles:
Publishing your articles using Linked article tool is a great way to showcase your expertise and skills. All your latest article show up on your profile and it gives a very good impression to potential clients. Moreover, these articles also help you reach a broader audience and so you can find more prospects.
12- Proofread it:
Make sure that every section of your profile has been completed and that there are no blank spaces or obvious gaps. Your LinkedIn profile is your online resume/portfolio, so treat it with the same level of seriousness you would your normal resume or portfolio.
The Bottom Line:
Optimizing your Linkedin profile is not a science, neither it’s an art. It’s a simple use of common sense. Linkedin itself has built the data entry fields, keeping optimization as a priority. The only thing you need to do is to enter the right information in right field!
