48 Advanced Tricks to Skyrocket Your Business Using LinkedIn (Part Two-Your LinkedIn Profile)

Imagine a marketplace packed by 450 million potential buyers of almost any product and instead of selling them what they are ready to buy what you have to offer. Instead of helping them, you exchange puzzle and riddle or even worse try to get laid some of them!

This is unfortunately the case with a lot of you in LinkedIn. Just feel the pain of letting go such a great opportunity to change your life using a platform gifted to humanity by some beautiful minds. If you own a business and LinkedIn has not enriched your bank account you need to stop and rethink your strategy. If you do not have a business but use LinkedIn to find a job or meet “cute” people you might as well rocket your income and launch your business.

The previous part of this article emphasized on how to program your mind and alter your perception in order to connect with your potential customers read it here

 This part, as promised, will be more technical as it teaches you to speak the language spoken by robots also known as search engines.

Here are 12 tricks for a LinkedIn profile that will attract the people your love most, your customers:

13. Completeness

Fill up every section of your LinkedIn profile and get “all-stars” status on LinkedIn. Generally, the most important sections are: Summary, Education, Experience, Projects and Recommendations.  I personally do not connect or accept connection requests from people with profiles missing any of the aforementioned sections. Other sections such as Skills, Volunteer, Publications, Interests, Course, Endorsements and Additional Information are also important but make sure you prioritize what is relevant and what is important for your business.

14. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you are expecting me to explain or define SEO to you, you are definitely not meant to do business in today’s world. Be nice to your boss and keep up the good work. If you, on the other hand, are familiar with SEO you should also know by now that the best place to hide the body of a person you just killed is on the 2nd page of Google search result. Optimize your LinkedIn profile so search engine place it on the 1st page for relevant keywords. The simplest way is to run a search on people like yourself and see what keywords those on the first page-that includes both Google and LinkedIn- have used.

15. Link your Website

If you have a business but you do not have a website associated with that business yet you will have two options: a) be nice to your boss and rationalize while spending your paycheck and b) build a website which should, mostly, cost you no more than $100 (read my book “48 Business Ideas that Require Less than $1,000 to Start” to find out how). Listing your website on LinkedIn raises its value and importance in the eye of major search engines.

16. Your Profile Picture

Nowadays it does not really matter how you dress to be perceived as a trustworthy businessperson. I recently came across a cliché which says “Men in suits look really successful until you find out they work for the men in T-shirt and jeans. Nevertheless, never make fun of yourself by dressing inappropriately or having your photo cuddling with a sheep you met during your last trip to Faroes Islands. The technical part here is the file in which you saved your photo. Search engines recognize image names and list them in search results. Suppose you are in the business of renting chalets in Mallorca in Spain use keywords like “rent chalets Mallorca” or Mallorca chalets. Just make sure that your profile is also captured in image search.

17. Consider Video Marketing

When you move your cursor over Profile at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and select Edit you will discover that you can add video to your work experience. Include a video about yourself or your business in your profile and you will be surprised with the results. Here are some amazing infographic on video marketing.

If you are worried that you do not look or sound good on TV do not worry, people are not expecting to see Kim Kardashian when they click to see your video. The video may be about yourself or your business. You may post more than one video that tell the world about you and your business.

18. Customize Your Public Profile

Did you know that you can create your LinkedIn profile with the URL of your choice? Mine is https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/jobsinoman?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile.   This URL is far friendlier from an SEO point of view and is a vital opportunity to have your profile rank higher in Google and to make it easier for customers to find you. If your business involves giving private math tutoring in Beirut you can use something link “Beirutmathtuter”.   Go here and click “customize your public profile URL” on the right-hand side. 

19. Create a Company Page

This is very easy yet essential. Click here and start creating your company page. Complete as much information about your business and make it sound and look it is really fun to do business with. Invite people-LinkedIn members- to follow your company and engage them into stimulating conversation. 

20. Smart Keywords in Your Headline

Your headline is the information presented right below your name. The LinkedIn algorithm places higher emphasis on the words used in the headline when showing search results. The results basically show how LinkedIn rank people based on their profiles. Include your experience, expertise, attributes, unique services or produces you offer, your geographic location and the type of customers you are happy to service.

21. List Projects

Tell your future customers about your past and present customers. When listing your project you need to focus on what your potential customers want. So avoid boring people about what you think was your greatest achievement. Use this section as a brochure that contains your portfolio. LinkedIn made a separate section that allows you to include your projects, never leave it empty even if you are a startup. Use your work experience or college students till you build a portfolio through your business.

22. Get Recommendations

Ask your existing clients to write recommendations on your service. This is one of the most effective marketing method used to assure your future customers that you never betrayed or disappointed your old customers. Your happy customers are more than happy to rate you positively. You may also offer to write a recommendation for others while asking them to recommend you.

23. Be Smart

Connect your LinkedIn profile with your profiles on other social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, etc. Also establish a similar connection with your website. Connecting your LinkedIn simply means that whatever you post on LinkedIn gets posted on other social media and your website and vice versa. This might sound hard and require the expertise of a nerd technican. However, this has become easily doable using social plugins that you can install on your website. Furthermore, major social platforms allow you to connect your accounts in other platforms. Just make an effort to learn these techniques. And, as somebody’s late grandmother used to say “when in doubt, consult Youtube”.

24. Maintain

Search engines are like antitheft laserbeam used to secure valuable items. They trace changes with alarms set to go off when there is a movement.  To apply this concept to your LinkedIn profile, you have to change and update your profile regularly. This will entice search engines to treat your profile as a new piece of information that internet users ought to know about. Also, exprement with your profile to see how you rank on LinkedIn search for specific keywords. Check Google Adwords to keep up to date with what users are looking for around the globe. If you manage to place your business where search engines can see it an project it you will be sitting in the middle of an ocean filled with money.

Part Three of this article will reveal some easy tricks that will get your business noticed by larger customers. Part Four will teach you how to capitalize on your competitors' mistakes to absorb part of their market share. To read the next two parts of this article and to receive free tips and advice on how to establish and run your small business you can subscribe to my newsletter here.

Get a copy of my book “48 Business Ideas that Require Less than $1,000 to Start” at www.hotbusinessidea.com or wirte to [email protected] to buy the book offline.