Get More Leads and Sales with LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the top 30 sites in the world, which means when used right you can be certain of visibility.Â
Using LinkedIn affords you the opportunity to reach more prospects which leads to the possibility of making more sales.
There are multiple ways to stand out on LinkedIn. Once you start to apply the suggested methods and strategies below You will be on your way to LinkedIn success.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a social media site designed to help professional people, and businesses, connect with each other. Create your personal profile. Include your education, current and previous employment, interests and skills, as well as other info. LinkedIn will start connecting you with people you are likely to know. It is a great way to connect with long-lost friends and colleagues, as well as discover new friends, potential business associates, and prospects.
Through your initial connections, you can get to know other people in their circle, who may be working in the same niche or industry. Beyond your immediate connections, you can also connect with people the site suggests. These are often the movers and shakers.
Follow prominent people in your niche. The content you see on your home page will be from them, and/or chosen by the network, as something that might be of interest to you given your background and current job. In this same way, you can also get followers who are interested in the content you post.
Why use LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is the most trusted social media site on the Internet. The reason is that you have to be honest about who you are and what you do to be able to make connections on the site. There is no way to hide behind a cloak of anonymity or pretend to be someone you are not. It is very difficult to create fake profiles on LinkedIn because they restrict your contacts to people you might already know.
It also gives you a great opportunity to showcase who you are and what you know, positioning yourself as an expert worth working with. Around 80% of job recruiters and Human Resources professionals use LinkedIn to find people to fill the posts they are hiring for, and to learn more about you. The last thing you want people to see are your Facebook photos of wild parties. LinkedIn helps you establish a professional profile online and link with like-minded people.
Make the Most of LinkedIn
In order to start marketing yourself successfully on LinkedIn, you will need to put a few things in place to build your LinkedIn foundation. Once your profile is complete, there are additional things you can do to increase your success and your authority level.
Building Robust Profile Pages
Building a robust profile page for LinkedIn can take many hours, but the effort will be worth it. It also starts with a great headshot photo of yourself and a custom header image that captures who you are or what your industry is.
The summary section is like an executive summary of who you are and what you do. Try to create one that speaks to the needs of your target audience. Why would they want to hire you or do business with you? Think of some of the most common problems people have in relation to your niche. You have 2,000 characters to sell yourself well, so make the most of them.
Listing Employment and Schools
Note that as you list these, the top part of your profile will be populated with the data. You can manually edit some of it, such as your current title, by clicking on the little pencil icon to the right of the date field. In other cases, however, the information from the employment and colleges section can’t be edited. Whatever you list first in that section is what will appear.
Having said that, you can drag and drop the content up or down, so while it might be out-of-order chronologically, it might mean listing a more prestigious school first, for example. Note that as with a résumé, you should list all of your employment starting with your current job, and work your way back in reverse chronological order.
Listing Your Skills
This can be one of the most convincing sections of your profile, where you list what you are able to do. It is important not just to show what you can do. It is also a chance to get endorsements from people who know you.
Getting Recommendations
You can also get recommendations from others to boost your authority and provide social proof. These can be turned on or off, if you don’t want the information to show.
The easiest way to get skill endorsements and recommendations is to give them yourself. Once you have filled in your profile as much as possible, take a few moments each day to visit profiles of the people you know best. Go down to the skills section and click the plus button (+) next to the skills you wish to endorse.
To give a recommendation, look at the top area of their profile. Click on the three dots (the more button) and toggle down. Choose to recommend the person. Note that you can also request a recommendation on that same menu.
Endorsements and recommendations, like customer testimonials, provide proof that you have the skills and knowledge that you have mentioned on your profile. If you’ve worked with or for leaders in your niche, having your name linked to theirs will help to build trust with others. Make it a priority to give and ask for endorsements and recommendations.