Leveraging LinkedIn for Business – Optimising Your Profile

 

What Is Linked-In?

Officially launched in 2004, Linked-In is the world’s largest professional network with over 300 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn is such a great platform and a wonderful tool for business, but it sometimes gets drowned out in the roar of the Twitter and Facebook frenzy. A fully completed LinkedIn account can open doors for your business, or even for you as a business professional, that other social media platforms can’t reach.

Optimise to Maximise

Not sure where to begin? Here are some tips that will help you optimise your LinkedIn profile to maximise its potential:

Your Headline. The title that appears under your name automatically defaults to your current job role. If you are not working, it defaults to whatever the last job role you had. What many people don’t know is that this is an editable field that you should take advantage of changing, but keep in mind, you only have 120 characters next to your name-make it count. Your headline is searchable, so use keywords that describe what you do in your headline. For example, mine says, ‘social media trainer, social media manager, MS Office trainer’, rather than ‘Director of The Social Matrix Limited’. This way when someone uses a search engine looking for a social media trainer, they’re more likely to find me.

Summary: Your Summary is great place to let your skills or services shine. Creating a robust and thorough summary section will help potential clients & connections know who you are and what you have done. I recommend you write this summary in the first person, as it’s more approachable and write your summary as you would any document or blog post by breaking it down into easy to read, digestible paragraphs. Don’t forget to use your keywords here too.

Current Work Experience Title & Description: Again, my title reads social media manager, social media trainer, so that anyone searching for these skills can find me more easily with their search engines. Do the same with your previous work experience description if possible.

Your Website.: In the section that says “website”, often people have “Company Website” or “Personal Website” or “Blog” which quite honestly doesn’t tell the reader anything. It would be much better if these options actually said the name of your company or the name of your blog or personal website.

Your LinkedIn profile can have it’s own custom url, which is more friendly and tidier to look at on your email signature. Mine is www.linkedin.com/in/lorrainewindsor. Feel free to connect with me.

Here’s how you can create your own custom url:

1. Sign in to www.linkedin.com
2. On the menu bar, click ‘profile’ and select ‘edit profile’ from the drop down box.
3. Under your photo you will see your current url – click ‘edit’ (next to your url).
4. On the right hand side, further down the page, you’ll see the option to customize your public profile url.
5. Click on the link and type your preferred url (usually your name) into the pop up box.
6. Click ‘set custom url’ to activate it.
7. Obviously is your name is a popular one, you may need to try different variations before you hit on one that is available.

Your Profile Picture: Your LinkedIn profile picture should be something professional that represents you and your brand well. First impressions are everything and potential connections will decide within seconds based on your picture and profile if you are someone they want to connect with.

As a leading social networking site for professionals, LinkedIn is perfect for B2B organizations, as the focus is on education, work history, companies and professional interests. Get started creating your presence on LinkedIn today!