LinkedIn is the most powerful online networking tool for working professionals. Whether you're a business owner, entrepreneur or marketing professional, starting a LinkedIn profile is one of the smartest things you can do to further your professional career and grow your business. Of course, it's not enough to simply have a LinkedIn profile; it has to be good. Knowing what to do, how to build your profile, how to connect with others and how to foster online relationships can help you make the most of your LinkedIn profile.
Write a Summary: A Good Summary
LinkedIn allows users to write a 320-word summary that sums up their character, background, and personal experiences. Good summaries typically have the following qualities:
- Written in first-person: First-person writing is personal and engaging.
- Entertaining: A good summary reads like a letter to a friend or a story told to a stranger, including ups and downs, funny quirks and story twists.
- Informative: Summaries aren't just entertaining; they reveal to the audience the career goals, aspirations, and history of the person in the profile.
If you're not a writer and don’t trust yourself to create a compelling summary on your own, talk to a friend who has marketing instincts and good writing skills. If you feel you must pay a professional to write a summary for you.
Use a Professional Photo
Don’t confuse your LinkedIn profile with a Facebook page. The people on LinkedIn are primarily business professionals, and LinkedIn is a serious platform for making business connections. Choose a photo that matches your business personality, not your outside-the-office personality.
Don’t Just Tell; Show!
If you’ve got online evidence or examples of projects, products, and successful events, LinkedIn is your platform for showing off your work and sharing your expertise with others. Write updates, post pictures and discuss your successes freely online. This allows people who visit your page form a better understanding of who you are and what you do.
Be Kind To Others
Publicly congratulating and thanking colleagues for their actions gives your friends and peers a boost while also touting your own connections. Be generous and professional with your compliments.
Connect With Everyone You Can
LinkedIn is a giant database of working professionals. The more you grow your sphere within the LinkedIn world, the greater your potential grows in the world of business.
To maximize your potential with this free service, send out all the LinkedIn invitations you possibly can to everyone you meet professionally.
Once you’ve made a connection, make a point to interact with them online. Sending updates that call out your connections will help you maintain a larger, more powerful presence online. The more active you are, the more visible you become to the world at large.
Connect Your LinkedIn Profile To Your Website
Take advantage of LinkedIn's popularity by inserting a link to your business website on your profile page. If people like what they see, they’ll surely visit your website. And from there, you could make a new client, customer or associate.
Contact ProFromGo
At ProFromGo, we help business professionals grow their website and manage their online marketing. To find out more about how you can use your LinkedIn profile to your advantage, or to develop your online marketing strategy, contact us today at (412) 530-5027.
