LinkedIn has grown in popularity as a way to interact with coworkers, acquaintances, and possible job candidates. While you may be accustomed to reading articles and posting jobs on the site, you may be overlooking one of the platform's most important features: cultivating new leads.
For small business owners, LinkedIn offers an accessible, easy-to-use tool to highlight your background, acquire referrals, secure testimonials, and more, but it all boils down to one thing: creating a good personal profile page. With LinkedIn accounting for 80% of all social media leads for B2B organisations (compared to 13% on Twitter and 7% on Facebook), you should invest time in optimising your profile.
Breaking down your whole career history into a single profile while delivering value and giving users a reason to trust your experience and brand can seem intimidating. So, to help you succeed, we've broken down the LinkedIn profile basics.
When creating material for your profile, keep Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and keyword density in mind. The more relevant keywords you include in your profile, the more probable it is that it will be viewed.
You've defined your target audience, researched them, and established what sets your products and/or services apart from those offered by competitors if you've done any work on your business marketing campaign. You'll have discovered the best keywords to employ on LinkedIn as a result of your research.
Keep in mind that, while LinkedIn is a powerful search engine, search bots aren't the only ones looking at your profile. It's also being read by real people. Your profile's content should be optimised for search engines while also appealing to your target audience.
10 Crucial LinkedIn Tasks for Small Business Owners
The following checklist highlights some of the most crucial tasks for your LinkedIn personal account to complete. Because so many small business owners aren't doing these things, you'll be significantly ahead of the pack if you do at least some of them.
1. Include an eye-catching billboard.
The billboard is the large banner at the top of your profile that spans a column. If your firm has a website, upload the header or banner from it, or an image with material that illustrates the value your products/services give potential clients. When people land on your profile, this is where you want to grab their attention right away.
2. Boost the impact of your professional headline
Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most significant SEO areas on your profile because it sits just below your name. If you don't change your headline, it will default to the most recent job title you've contributed to the Experience area (in chronological order).
Your present work title, in most situations, isn't the greatest information to provide in your headline. It should include your most critical keywords. People on LinkedIn are looking for businesses like yours, thus these are the ones they're looking for.
3. Fill out the "Contact information" section.
Make it simple for people to contact you, connect with you on social media, and visit your website. A tip: you can insert any page on your website (sales/landing pages, about pages, etc.) into the three websites allowed. Make sure the names of the websites you're directing folks to reflect where you're sending them.
4. List the services you provide.
You should notice a block below your headline that allows you to select and display the numerous services you provide. Choose the services that best suit your needs. Because this block is high on the web page for your profile, it has very good Google juice, or SEO-building power, similar to your title.
5. Include a professional headshot.
According to LinkedIn, people who have profile images get up to 21 times more views than those who don't. If it isn't enough, your photo can also assist you communicate your personality. When your profile content is complemented by a photo of yourself, people will be more likely to engage with it.
Use the same professional-looking image you've been using on other social media platforms, as well as your company's website. You don't need to hire a professional photographer if you don't have a good headshot. As long as the selfie is clear and well-composed, it can work. Make sure you're wearing a kind, welcome expression. Don't use a photo of you with other people.
6. In the About section, tell your brand's story.
This is the section of LinkedIn where you may connect your personal brand to your company's brand and demonstrate its value to potential consumers. Don't be frightened to express yourself. Consider this area to be your bio, as it provides more opportunities for storytelling than the Experience and other resume-like elements. With the 2,000 characters and spaces you have in this section, you can do a lot.
You can mention why you began your business and what you enjoy about the business and your work right at the start of the About section to zero in on your personal brand.
7. Fill out the Experience Section with all of your previous positions.
Keep in mind that you want a lot of content on your LinkedIn profile, so write as much as you can about your present position and previous jobs. Include your relevant keywords, of course. You'll have 2,000 characters and spaces to work with on each task in this area. You can add a "Project" section if you have more than that for any one task and the content is really good.
If you're concerned that your early jobs may betray your age, a simple Google search of your name will show it. It's becoming increasingly difficult to remain anonymous. The idea is that people who look up the companies you've worked for (for various reasons) will find you.
8. Fill up the Skills & Endorsements area with up to 50 skills.
In most cases, the relevant keywords you employ in marketing yourself and your business are your skills. As a result, the skills section is a good place to increase keyword density and improve SEO. The first three skills you list are highlighted in this section, so make sure those are the most important ones.
9. Complete every section of the profile that applies.
The more material you have on your profile, the more relevant keywords you're likely to have, which will drive more traffic to it. Fortunately, LinkedIn has a plethora of content-building categories.
Along with the most-used categories, such as About and Experience, don't overlook the following less-used profile sections if they relate to you: Languages, Volunteering Experience, Organizations, Honors & Awards, Courses, Patents, Publications, Projects, and Certifications.
10. Arrange the material for maximum aesthetic appeal and readability.
Throughout your profile's narrative sections, use a lot of white space. People can be turned off by too much densely packed stuff. People are more likely to read your complete profile if there are breaks in the text. You want people to read your profile after you've spent all that time filling it up, right?
Bullet points are a great way to break up material and add visual appeal while highlighting key accomplishments and contributions. To distinguish exceptional information, use other special characters. You can also use a few sub-headers to divide up the About section.
Still having trouble deciding what information to include in your LinkedInaccount? Maybe your LinkedIN profile is configured, but no matter how much you fiddle with it, you can't seem to get the hang of using it?
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