10 Easy Ways to Optimize LinkedIn for Your Small Business
Optimizing your profile and presence on LinkedIn is easy once you understand how people really use the platform. I teach my clients that LinkedIn is today’s version of a Whitepages or Yellow Pages database, which means there are over 10 million searches a day on LinkedIn and they’re not all performed by recruiters. Passed out some business cards at a networking event last night? You can bet that someone might be looking at your profile today.
These ten “To Do’s” will help you be found more easily and enable you to leverage LinkedIn as the marketing tool that it is for your personal brand/side hustle and small business. (Not the DIY-type? Get personalized help here: https://www.belladomain.com/biz-launch-jump-starter-program/)
1) Craft a Headline that tells people what you do or the results you deliver NOT what your title is, especially if your title is CEO of your one or 2-person company. And use all 120 characters so you can include some keywords as well. Here’s my current headline (I tweak this fairly regularly):
Helping you build and expand your brand online ✳ Speaker ✳ Trainer ✳ Author ✳ Networking Sherpa ✳ Biz Dev Pro
2) Make sure your first name appears as people know you. Does everyone know you as Beth but your given name is Elizabeth? Use Beth, not your legal name on your profile. Make it easy for prospective clients to find you! (Stop thinking like a corporate employee hiding from vendors.)
3) Be sure you include a link to your website in the website links section within Contact Info. LinkedIn drives 4x the amount of traffic to websites than Twitter or Facebook. If you have an online portfolio somewhere you can include a link to that as well. You can include up to 3 links as I have in the example. 
4) Include Contact Info so people can reach you should they be interested in what you offer. Phone numbers are all too frequently missing from most of the profiles I audit.
5) Is your Twitter account connected to your personal life more so than your professional one? Don’t include it on your profile or link it to your presence on LinkedIn. ‘Nuff said?
6) Write a Summary that sounds as if you’re speaking directly to a prospect that is viewing your profile. Tell your story and why you do what you and what makes you special or unique as a tax accountant or marketing consultant. Be sure you include a CTA (call to action) too! For example, “To learn more about how I can help you get more speaking gigs, email me at [email protected] today!”
7) Add things like photos of you speaking on a panel at an industry conference, or cutting a ribbon at a ground-breaking ceremony for a new park you helped design or a video of your appearance on a local TV show for job seekers or a PDF of a press release you wrote for a client. For more ideas, visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyjk
8) Within the Experience section, describe each position you’ve held in a 2-paragraph format. The first paragraph should describe what the company does (unless it’s a company we all know like Walmart or Google) and then in the 2nd explain what your role is/was and then list in bullet form your significant accomplishments for that position. (Whatever you do, don’t leave the description blank for your current position! LinkedIn will read your profile as incomplete and you’ll then show up lower in search results.)
9) Check your notifications and the home page regularly (5x each week) to see what’s going on with the people in your network of Connections or those you’re just Following. Engage where it feels right — don’t be fake and stop lurking.
10) Post/share infographics or articles relevant to your industry/business as Status Updates or on your own Company Page, if you’ve created one. Wait, you haven’t? Here’s how. Not sure where/how to find good content? Create Google alerts and let content be found for you as I do in the example below for networking events:
If you have questions about anything above, please feel free to register to get my free monthly newsletter because when you do you’ll get a download of my infographic Personal Branding Basics on LinkedIn which includes more tips and ideas! Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/LIMaket
Want personalized help getting your side hustle or small biz launched? Check out my 3-part jumpstart program here.
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