Polishing your profile

When someone is thinking about connecting with you, it’s likely they’ll take a look at your profile.

Is it doing you justice and making people feel happy to connect with you?

Your profile is your LinkedIn shop window, if the shop window isn’t tempting, who’s going to pop in and buy something?

Hardly anybody, and it’s the same when it comes to profiles.

Here we look at how you can make sure that your profile really sells you and helps you to grow your network.

Getting the picture

Does your account include a picture of yourself?  If it doesn’t, it puts a lot of people off connecting with you.

Literally, it looks like you have something to hide, it makes people suspicious of you.

The important thing with any picture is that you feel comfortable with it.

It needn’t be too formal, or indeed too bizarre, but a picture of you looking relaxed and happy is far more appealing than a blank silhouette.

Take the plunge and upload a pic!

Getting the picture seen

It’s one thing to have a picture, now you want to guarantee that people will see it!

To do this, simply click on the ‘Edit public profile and URL’ icon on your profile and scroll down to ‘Edit visibility’, click on ‘All Linked In Members’ and your picture will now be visible to the entire platform.

Say cheese!

A blindingly good banner

Your banner works together with your picture to draw people in to take a closer look at who you are and what you do.

Banners can be very creative, you can make one yourself using software such as Canva or use the services of a professional designer if needed.

Remember, above all, to make it crystal clear what it is that you do, and what products or services you provide.

Include a ‘call to action’ to encourage people to take that first step and connect with you!

If people aren’t sure what it exactly is that you do, they won’t know whether you can help them or not, so don’t leave them guessing!

Converting to creator

Sounds good, doesn’t it, describing yourself as a creator!

But by enabling creator mode, you’re opening features that enhance both your visibility and your reach, so it’s well worth doing.

You’ll find it on your dashboard, where you can switch it to ‘on’.

Honing those hashtags

You’re asked to pick 5 hashtags (#) that describe the subjects you’re going to be posting about.

Make sure you pick hashtags for areas you want to be seen, topics that you will be covering and also some of those with the highest following such as #Business or #Socialnetworking.

Your choice of hashtag is vital to success on the platform because your post will appear in the feeds of those who are following your chosen hashtags, so it’s a great way of ensuring that your posts are being seen by your target audience.

Have you picked appropriate ones for you and your brand?

Creating the cover story

Lights, camera, action!

Cover story is a 30 second promotional video that you can add to your profile.

Giving you the chance to explain who you are and what you do, in your own words.

Cover stories don’t have to be slick, professionally produced affairs, although you can get professional help to create them if you need it.

Just remember to include contact details to encourage people to get in touch with you!

Polishing the body copy

We’ve covered the introduction, now it’s time to check that the content on the remainder of your profile is also selling you effectively.

You’ve lured them in to take a closer look, they’ve enjoyed their starter, now it’s time to serve up a killer main course!

The ‘about’ section

Just scroll down on your profile until you come to it, click on the pen icon and you are go to go!

Pay particular attention to the first couple of lines, these are your hook to spark interest to read further.

Be sure to make clear what you do, what you like about your role, why your company is a great place to work, give people a reason to want to get to know you.

Make sure you space it with your reader in mind, don’t make it too chunky, short, sharp points are easy to read and so people are more likely to do so than paragraph after paragraph of text.

The ‘featured’ section

This shows all your activity on the platform, both your posts and the comments you make on others.

Add blogs and any other marketing material that showcases what you do to it to build a complete picture of what you do and what you stand for.

Relevant posts and comments really show people a true picture of what you and your business are like, so the more activity you produce, the more you’ll stand out from the crowd and your competitors.

The ‘experience’ section

Here your profile almost doubles as your CV and is a shop window for all the skills you have accumulated throughout your career.

Be as thorough as possible, put in as many roles as possible, with emphasis on the key words that people will use when searching, the more key words, the more searches you will show up in.

The more roles and sectors you can include the better, showcase your experience, knowledge and transferrable skills!

Recommendations

Recommendations in any context are marketing gold, on your profile they are incredibly useful because they are doing all the work for you!

It’s just like people giving you a reference for the quality of your work without even having to ask them!

But talking of asking, if you don’t have any recommendations as yet why not ask your clients/customers if they would be willing to provide you with one?

Recommendations are the best way of showing why people are happy to work with you, which gives confidence to people who are thinking about doing so.

Nothing builds trust like a good recommendation!

A profile that means business

If you follow all the tips above your profile will be much improved and you will get your reward through the increase in connections and enquiries that will follow.

If however, you lack the time or confidence to do it yourself, fear not, help is at hand, we can assist you with every aspect of your marketing on social media so if you feel stuck and need a hand, give us a shout!