Just because you set up your LinkedIn profile does not mean that you are done. Far from it! You need to optimize your LinkedIn page to represent your skills, accomplishments, and business to your customers and prospects. If you don’t, you can be sure your competitors will.
Don’t panic, though! We can get you started with our fast, five-minute, five-step review of your profile.
This is your big first impression. The people you are trying to connect with (and maybe later sell to) will be seeing you and judging you on your profile.
This is your chance to sell yourself! Your job title probably doesn’t say what you actually do, and your statement shouldn’t read like your CV.
Rewrite your headline and statement to clearly and succinctly tell prospects what you do and how you can help them.
EG. Headline: Sales Rep for an accounting Software Company > Provide Software Solutions for Accounting Departments
Just like a simple website name or email address, a chosen LinkedIn address link will show that you are professional. You can also add this to your email signature and business cards to increase your reach. Not confident with reworking your email signature? Try any email signature generator tool. It’s a really easy tool to use to take your emails to the next level! Oh, and it’s free.
Your LinkedIn profile offers another avenue to link to your company’s website. Your profile could add many inbound links and result in additional leads just by drawing people’s attention whilst on a different platform.
You are selling yourself (including your skills and achievements) and showing the value of connecting with you. As such, you need to start positioning your LinkedIn profile as your prospecting CV. You need to say why you are the best person to solve their problems, give advice on your industry specialty, and give examples of your successes.
It may seem an obvious step to take but a surprising amount of profiles contain grammatical errors, incorrect links, and out-of-date information. This is your big first impression – make sure you make the right one.
Congratulations! You now have a public LinkedIn profile that you can be proud of. Of course, there is a lot more you can do with your profile to build connections and start social selling.
If you enjoyed this blog and want to go further into social selling using your new and improved LinkedIn profile, you can download our free eBook on Social Selling - A Manager's Guide.