How to get more from LinkedIn
My thanks go to Tim Bond from Network Sunday for the tips he shared at a workshop I attended in April. He started by asking all of us the following questions:
- Do you have a LinkedIn profile?
- Does your profile have your photo on it?
- Do you have more than 100 connections?
- Do you have a summary on your profile?
- Do you have a personalised headline?
- Do you have more than 5 recommendations?
- Do you have a company page?
- How many groups have you joined?
- Have you crafted a specific message for LinkedIn?
- Have you hired someone to help you with LinkedIn?
- How do you score from these questions?
In case you didn?t score very high, here are Tim?s tips on how to improve your score and the results you can achieve with LinkedIn.
1. Do you have a LinkedIn profile?
I?m assuming here that you are on LinkedIn! If you?re not and you run a B2B business, then you really should be, because LinkedIn is a great way to promote your business.
2. Does your profile have your photo on it?
LinkedIn is about getting to know people, so include your photo, to allow people to put a face to your name. Ideally, you should have your photo taken professionally, because holiday snaps or photos taken by your kids won?t give the same impression as a professional photo. And make sure that we can see your smile!
3. Do you have more than 100 connections?
There?s a balance here between quantity and quality. While you need a good number of connections, you need to make sure they are good quality. Don?t connect with people you don?t know; and don?t connect with someone you wouldn?t recommend to someone else.
4. Do you have a summary on your profile?
When you create your LinkedIn profile, you can add a summary of who you are and what you do. The needs to be a balance of information about you the person, along with your business proposition ? what you do and who you do it for. This is where you can include details of your USP, a description of your ideal clients and how much experience you have.
Having listened to what Tim said, I went back to the office and updated my LinkedIn summary; I also checked my connections to make sure I know them all. A couple had to go, because I really didn?t know who they were. I also wrote a more personalised headline ? but more of that in the next blog of this mini series, when I?ll cover the next three questions.
