With over 200 million users and counting, the professional networking/social media giant, LinkedIn, has become more of an everyday tool than simply a profile. Here are a few tips that will distinguish your presence from the masses and let you use your profile to your advantage.
1. On photos:
Make your profile photo reflect who you are professionally. We’ve found that people have greater success using recent, professional pictures, rather than photos with friends or of an activity.
2. On personal information:
Keep your personal information concise and relevant. It is absolutely necessary to inject your profile with your personality, but a profile filled with a hundred or so hobbies and favorite movies isn’t the way to do it. Keep a short list of the things that you most enjoy and consider the rest a surprise.
3. On headlines:
Optimize your profile by adding key words to your headline in addition to your formal title. (For example: “John Doe, Vice President of Marketing for ABC Company – Connecting Businesses to Consumers through Technology”) Adding a few key words displays your passion and expertise in your field; it also helps to affirm your credibility at a glance.
4. On links and videos:
Include links/videos to your personal portfolio and blog, as well as links to your company website and blog. If you have company videos or articles that you’d like your prospects to see, be sure to embed them in your profile. That content will appear as icons and will have a better chance of getting clicks.
5. On groups:
Join the conversation by adding industry-related groups. You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn and participate in group discussions and forums. Groups are a great way to learn new trends in your industry and connect with other leaders in the field. Being active in a group discussion also allows others to come to you for help with certain challenges and to identify new business needs and opportunities.
And if you need tips for using LinkedIn once your profile is optimized, you can always check out our recent post: “5 Tips to Leverage LinkedIn for Sales.”
Karley – good post! These are steps every salesperson should be taking online. A good LinkedIn presence is key – Our CEO just wrote a blog post on how to share useful, effective articles on LinkedIn if you’re interested – http://buff.ly/1mqeiqy
Hi Jen- Thanks for the comment and for sharing your CEO’s post! The article is definitely useful in my day-to-day social networking. Every salesperson should take this approach to content sharing. It’s agree that it’s all about trust and building strong relationships the right way- without sales pitches and product descriptions.