Be Effective on LinkedIn by "The Numbers"

#TheLinkedInGuru Gazette LinkedIn Tip of the Week: Be Effective on LinkedIn by "The Numbers"

Hello again everyone and welcome to the 20th edition of #TheLinkedInGuru Gazette! I never thought I would be doing this for over a year and a half!

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Introduction

You might think by the title of this edition that I am going to be talking about numbers of views, reactions and comments, but that is not what I want to concentrate on here.

What I would like to do is give you a "number" of areas on LinkedIn where you should concentrate that will help you get found and help you build that ever important brand.

If you do things "by the numbers" in this edition, it will go a long way to helping you build your brand and (perhaps more importantly) help get you found and help your brand shine so you can accomplish your goals on LinkedIn.

So let's get started... away we go... one, two, three, four, five!

Number One

The number one thing to remember on LinkedIn is that your Profile is where everything starts. Your profile needs to be "complete". In LinkedIn terms that means that you have to have "filled in the blanks" to become what LinkedIn used to call an "All Star".

There are seven things LinkedIn wants you to fill in to be what they call "complete" or "All Star". Last I checked these seven things are:

1. Industry and Location
2. Current Position
3. Education Section
4. Profile Photo
5. At least 50 connections
6. A minimum of 5 skills
7. About (Summary) Section

If you see a "progress bar" when you edit your profile, you do not have a "complete" profile. It is important that you follow LinkedIn's suggestions in this area.

I firmly believe that your Profile is never "complete" (I've been doing this for 14 years and I am always enhancing my Profile), but it should be "complete" by LinkedIn's definition. That's because folks with a "complete" profile are 40 times more likely to be found on a search on LinkedIn.

Number Two

The second thing to remember after you have a "complete" Profile is that it needs to be optimized. That takes much more than just filling in the blanks. Here are some things to concentrate on to optimize your Profile:

1. Make your profile conversational and tell a story. Your profile shouldn't be just a boring list of bullet points. It has to be a conversation and tell your story to everyone who comes to visit.
2. It's not all about YOU. Your profile should speak to your customer, audience, prospect or (dare I say it) TRIBE!
3. Your profile is your story and your story is your brand. It is NOT your resume. Make it personal. Make it personable (human). Be proud of who you are and at the same time make your profile humble enough that you can say "No brag, just fact" about everything you include. Bonus points if you can tell me in the comments who the person is below and where the quote comes from! No fair Googling it!

Number Three

The old story goes that there are three things that are important in Real Estate - Location, Location, Location!

In the same way there are three things that are important in the text you include on your LinkedIn Profile - Keywords, Keywords, Keywords.

If you want to be found you have to include the right keywords in the right places on your Profile. The "art and the science" of this is:

1. You can't just list a bunch of keywords (that would look like you are "keyword stuffing").
2. You have to do it in a conversational way and tell your story.
3. You have to decide for yourself what the most important keywords are and then include them on your profile as many times as possible (it WILL make a difference in your search rank). For example, "trainer" is a keyword that is important to help get me found. If you look at my Profile, the word "trainer" can be found 30 times!
4. Your keywords should be focused on the future NOT the past so you can be found for what you are looking for going forward.

Number Four

Now that we have talked about keywords, let's talk about the four areas of your profile where it is the most important for those textual keywords to show up.

Other folks have taught me that when a search is done on LinkedIn these four areas are where the search concentrates to find the terms that have been used in the search box. These four areas (sections) of your LinkedIn Profile are:

1. Your Professional Headline (really important to focus here because you currently only get 220 characters).
2. Your About Section (there are more characters available here, but as I mentioned it is important to weave your keywords into a compelling story).
3. Your Experience Section (the titles and text here must contain the proper keywords that will get you found).
4. Your Skills Section (this is perhaps one of the most important sections because when someone does a search they are probably looking for someone with specific skills).

It is perhaps important to mention here the fact that there are many OTHER sections that are NOT included in the search. For example, your Recommendation section while important, will not necessary help you get found. It WILL however help prove your worth once you ARE found.

Number Five

For number five let's switch gears from the textual to the visual aspects of your profile. While the five areas listed below will not necessarily help get you found, they may be the most important areas that impress people that come to your profile because you were found. These five areas are:

1. Your Banner/Background Photo (very important because it can be used to represent your brand at the top of your Profile).
2. Your Profile Photo (very important because it is one of the first things that people will look at and it follows you everywhere on LinkedIn). It can also be enhanced via the use of the Cover Story feature to make a great visual first impression).
3. Your Name (another item that follows you everywhere along with your Gender pronoun). Often your name is what is used to find you in the first place especially if someone else has given you a referral.
4. Your Professional Headline (the third item that follows you everywhere). Keep in mind that visually this gets abbreviated on comments so you might want to consider what is important to "front load" when it comes to this one.
5. Your About Section (aside from being a major factor in getting found, LinkedIn will only display the first four lines of this). Therefore, it is important to put what you think is most important that people see in this "prime real estate" (back to that reference one more time) to entice folks to click the "see more" to learn more about you. In addition, the first four lines of your About Section is a good place to consider including a "Call To Action" that will help continue the "conversation" with the person who visits your Profile.

Summary

So there you have it. We've talked about Five things:

1. First, your Profile needs to be complete.
2. Second, your Profile needs to be optimized.
3. The three most important things that will help you get found are keywords, keywords, keywords.
4. There are four areas that are the most important to include textual keywords to show up in a search.
5. There are five major areas where visually your Profile needs to display your brand and be as impressive as it can be.

I hope this was helpful. Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions and what you have found that works best for you when it comes to "the numbers" we have talked about here.

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