Your Social Media Profile Is Your 1st Online Impression
If You Take it Lightly, You Are Unknowingly Creating Profesional Hurdles For Yourself
When someone Googles your name in the searches, your LinkedIn profile is amongst the first few links that appear against your name. This means that your LinkedIn Profile is the 1st impression you create online. Wouldn't it be nice that it looked impressive and meant business?
Your electronic profile is perceived as important because it impacts your reputation & visibility online. A value packed profile will impress your prospect when s/he finds you. If it's focused and reflects clarity, more people will reach out to you.
LinkedIn is SEO friendly. This means if your profile is optimized, it will enhance your chances of showing up when searches happen in your niche. In short, visibility of an optimized profile is better.
Hundreds of people talent-hunt on LinkedIn every day, in every possible slot. If we possess certain skills but can't be found for them in the searches, something is wrong with our profile.
LinkedIn is effective for both, B2B and B2C segment. But 90% of these people don't know how to use LinkedIn to their advantage. And those who do, are having a great run, visibility, foothold, and have found the right people to do business with.
Everyone can have an impressive profile on these social media networks. Provided we take time out to learn how to do it. Or hire a writer who will create one for you. You'll have to spend one of the two – time or money. Both are precious, choose one.
If you are doing it yourself, take the following steps:
Your name should be your real name, your genuine identity - no pen name, key phrase etc. Ditto with contact info; your photograph should be real and convey a professional image.
Limit your Headline/Description (appears below your name) to 4-5 words. Should sound attractive & include primary key phrase(s).
Previous and current employment details in bullet point format; short & clearly explained.
Build a relevant professional network, comprising minimum 500 connections. Take your time.
Optimize and customize your website as well as Profile URL
The activity field should be updated regularly. Write things of interest keeping your potential audience in mind.
While creating summary make sure it's optimized, is in first person, and active voice.
LinkedIn has an audio-visual feature now where you can upload videos and slide shows for your potential audience. Lead your visitor to it and optimize these videos too.
Skills and Expertise section should contain the keywords and phrases you would like to be found and endorsed for.
You can use the Project segment to showcase products & services you are promoting, or free booklets, or literature you are offering as free download for your target customers. Be focused and only highlight stuff that will impact your business.
The next section History and Experience should again be consumer-centric and optimized with phrases and terms you'd want to be found for.
Recommendations – There should be at least 8-10. If you have more pick the ones coming from people with an impressive LinkedIn Profile.
Awards & Honours add credibility to your profile. Mention special achievements and Build it slowly but never fake it.
If your Profile is ready, start marketing it. First rule, be proactive. It's not necessary to wait for people to connect with you. Choose the people you want to connect with. Personalise your request and connect, striking connections with people in same or related professions. Use advanced search to reach out to people in your niche to expand your network.
Read our next session to know more about how you can effectively market yourself on these social media platforms,
If you feel your profile needs a facelift, and have decided to give it a professional makeover, you can get in touch with me for a discussion.
