You’ve probably heard that LinkedIn is an incredible way to leverage your business. There are many opportunities to be had here if you know how to do it right. There are many different ways you can build your brand online. If you’re looking for a job, you can work to make yourself stand out so you can land that job you really want. Leaders in business can also create a strong personal brand that attracts new clients and potential partners. We already know that building your brand through social media is a major source of generating leads.
Marketers and business leaders are still not using LinkedIn as effectively as they could. This leaves a hole wide open for those who can do it right. The platform is growing. In fact, there are two people per second signing up to LinkedIn. There are currently over 500 million professionals using the platform. Within that number you have leaders, influencers, mass affluent members, and decision makers. Nearly 100% of Fortune 500 companies use LinkedIn. Also B2B businesses get half of their social traffic from LinkedIn. Needless to say, the opportunities here are incredible. So how can you maximize it? Here are some of the best ways to get in front of the pack.
Connect with the Right People
Just like with any networking site, you want to connect with relevant people. Know your audience first of all. Say you’re an SEO expert, you’ll want to connect with marketers and experts who do what you’re doing. You can use the search tool in LinkedIn to find the right people. Make sure to send them a personalized message and add the connections you believe are going to care about your posts. You can have up to 30,000 connects in one account. Reach out to people that are going to count in your connects. Make sure to comment on posts by others who are in your network.
Create a Great About Section
The About section in LinkedIn is where visitors read about what you want to say about yourself. You can write 2,000 words here, so make it count. We don’t actually suggest that you use all 2,000 words. Stick to a few hundred that are particularly interesting and compelling. The first sentence is a preview, so make sure that it pops and engages people into reading more. Use a good “hook” and if you’re not sure how to do that, search it as it’s truly essential and a powerful form of marketing. You can ask a question or share a personal story that leads back to your work or your product/service. Don’t forget about using keywords you’d like your profile to rank for.
To maximize your About section, end it with a call to action. Ask visitors to connect with you. Give them your website address, email address, Facebook, etc.
Make Sure Your Experience is Cohesive to Your Brand
When you’re talking about your experience, make it count. It should be cohesive to whatever you want to sell or whatever your brand is. You don’t want to force your current position into a role but really try to work your magic in this area. If you want your profile to rank for SEO services, you don’t need to mention your prior experience of working in retail. Add keywords and phrases naturally.
Profile building should be similar to SEO on your blog or site. You want to provide helpful, accurate information, make the content compelling, and use natural language.
Utilize SEO Practices on Linkedin
Just like search engine optimization (SEO), using keywords is essential if you want the right people to find you. Most people are doing very little to build their LinkedIn profile. They lack originality and creativity and don’t really inspire people. Most people aren’t really utilizing keywords either. You can boost your visibility by using the right keywords in your profile and posts. You could appear as the top person in your area for the kind of business you run. That packs a lot of credit with people.
But Write for Humans
Just as you’d write on your own website, Facebook, or a blog, you want to maintain the same content writing principles. Doing this will ensure that you engage your audience and be relatable to them. You want to write in a casual tone that readers respond to. If you have a conversational tone, you open people up to engaging with you. Put yourself in the mindset of writing to a friend. Make your content clear with a good flow that is organized and of course grammatically correct.
You want your content to be scannable for readers. Use short sentences and break up content into small paragraphs. This makes is easier to read and this is especially true for those using mobile devices. Use some emotions that people can get interested in. Build your brand by telling a story. Don’t try to sell yourself. Think about what your audience wants to know about. It should be helpful and offer some hidden tips that make their lives easier somehow.
Create Regular Posts
It’s important that you don’t drop the ball on creating posts. Link to all of the other places you are connecting with people. Create posts regularly. You can use their social media management tool to schedule posts easily. Create interesting tips. Share meaningful, authentic tips that coincide with your brand. End with a call to action and ask people to comment on your post. Use those hashtags as well. This will allow your post to appear when readers are looking for the topic you are writing about.
These tips are going to help you get the right kind of connects. You will be easily searchable for the kind of business you do. You should see a boost in your profile visits when you start using these practices. It isn’t going to take much to get the exposure you want and start connecting with the right people.
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