How much weekly effort do you give towards building your personal brand? If you’re like many business professionals, personal branding takes a backseat to other things in life. LinkedIn is one such place where you’re either killing it—or not.
The most successful professionals on LinkedIn have an optimized profile and countless connections that have provided them with great resources and opportunities over the years.
Read on to learn more about the steps that you can take towards optimizing your LinkedIn profile for a chance at meeting and making business connections that will serve you well in the years to come.
Background Photo
The background photo resides at the very top of your LinkedIn page. Its purpose is to grab the attention of people and show them what you’re all about. Think twice about uploading a generic image just for the sake of having a background photo.
If you’re not handy with Photoshop, you can always hop on a site like Fiverr and find someone who can create a professional-looking background photo that will make your profile look more professional.
Avoid Buzzwords
A buzzword is an adjective that’s been over-used and is essentially meaningless. Such words as:
- Leadership
- Viral
- Team player
- Focused
- Specialized
- Strategic
- Innovative
- Passionate
While it’s important to accurately describe yourself, keep in mind that these words won’t help convince people to hire you or that you’re the expert on something. While it’s important to talk the talk, it’s even more important to walk the walk. This is where adding value becomes so essential.
Add Value
The days of blatant self-promotion on LinkedIn are long gone. Consider how many connection requests you get that do nothing but pitch a product or service. Nowadays, it’s all about adding value.
What exactly is “value?” It can be anything from making a post that provides valuable tips, tricks, and hints to start a discussion that will allow your connections to participate and learn.
At Witmer Group, we’ve helped many of our clients develop a comprehensive LinkedIn posting strategy that allows them to create and make valuable posts for their audience. This results in higher engagement rates and new connections that might not have formed otherwise.
Connections, Connections, Connections
It’s vital to grow your connections on LinkedIn, but far too many people focus on creating content. Create a schedule for yourself that allows you 2-4 hours per month to researching and building new connections. Over time, you’ll find that as your network grows, so will your opportunities.
You can also connect your email address book to LinkedIn. The algorithm will then suggest connections that you can pre-vet before reaching out with a connection request. It may take some time, but you’ll eventually have a valuable network that will engage with your posted content.
Comment Intelligently and Participate
When one of your connections makes a post, try to respond with an intelligent answer that is not self-promotional. Take time to create an in-depth response versus responding with a boilerplate “I totally agree!” or “Great post,”—which adds zero value to the conversation.
If you disagree with a piece of content that one of your connections has posted, feel free to say so in a professional way that’s backed up by reason, logic, or facts. This can help establish you as a thought leader amongst your connections.
Share Industry Case Studies
Sharing industry case studies are a great way of getting a conversation going on LinkedIn. It shows your connections precisely what you’re passionate about and provides you with a springboard to showcase your expertise on a subject—especially if you break it down and discuss why you agree or disagree.
Skills and Assessments
If you haven’t done so already, go down the list of skills and select those most relevant. Keep in mind that you should only choose your core skills. For example, if you managed a project once (and only once), you probably shouldn’t include “project management” as one experience doesn’t necessarily make you an expert.
Consider taking the skill assessment tests as well. It will allow you to demonstrate your talents and skills through a “Verified Skills” badge prominently located on your profile. It’s been said that people who display their verified skills have a 30% increased chance of getting hired!
LinkedIn and Social Media Consulting in Dallas
LinkedIn is a treasure trove of business connections that can boost your career while significantly improving the quality of your network. However, it takes time, patience, and a little bit of skill to properly optimize your profile for the best chances of success.
The Witmer Group has been helping Dallas businesses for well over ten years. We offer a wide range of SEO and digital marketing solutions and can create a customized marketing strategy that will help your business remain competitive.
Give us a call today at (214) 865-9484, or contact us via our website to learn more about the various marketing and data analytics services we offer our Dallas clients.
