Making the most of LinkedIn

First off, apologies for the length of this post. This actually started out as a whole lot of bullet points, which I would then use to present training about LinkedIn. So, this is my half hour presentation fleshed out into a comprehensive guide of how to use LinkedIn. There are basic tips as well as more advanced. I hope you like it, I hope it helps. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section at the end. Many thanks.

LinkedIn is all about visibility

In order to stay relevant and to improve its user's engagement with the platform, LinkedIn has evolved into the social network of choice for the professional.

From the outset, LinkedIn has always differentiated itself as the place to go to build your credibility and to document your experience and knowledge. In the early days it was the online portfolio, your digital CV of the future. For a long time, it was considered a platform you would visit the once to set up and then leave to do its job. Sadly for some, this is still the case. But, for those willing to invest the time, LinkedIn has become an extremely powerful tool.

LinkedIn, like any other social platform now, is all about visibility. The audience has partly been segmented for you already so targeting is easier, but we will discuss segmentation in a little more detail later.

For me, there are three main areas where LinkedIn can really help you. These are:

1. Networking
2. Marketing
3. Brand promotion

I'll touch on all of these aspects below in some way or another, but first...

The basics

In order to effectively build on the first two points above, there are some basic criteria which need to be completed before progressing further. Just like anything else in life, which we set out to master, LinkedIn requires a little effort.

"You get out what you put in!"

Add a Photo!

I shouldn't need to say anymore. If you expect to connect and engage with people, upload a mugshot. Simple.

Customise your profile URL

If you haven't done this already, I would highly recommend that you do. How do you know if you haven't? Navigate to your profile and check out the URL which is under your profile pic. If it displays your profile username, plus a whole load of random numbers after it, then you need to customise!

Why do this? Like I said, LinkedIn is all about visibility. You want to be found easily and to stand out from the crowd. If you have a customised URL, you can direct people straight to your profile with little fuss.

Make sure your headline is working

Have you ever used Google to find someone or anything? My guess is you probably have. You can boost your visibility in LinkedIn by using a simple Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) technique by including popular terms for your profession in the headline. Doing this will improve the chance of your profile being found. For instance, I have Digital Strategy & Digital Marketing in my headline as I'm aware people may search for both to find people like me.

Your summary should evoke emotion

Put simply, this is your elevator pitch in written form. Your summary is the first impression people have when visiting your profile so make it count. Like my Mum always says:

"Always make a good first impression!"

So when thinking about writing your summary, break it down. Who do you want to reach? What do you want them to learn about you? How do you want them to feel? A summary written with passion and feeling will improve your ability to connect.

Edit your sections

Drag and drop sections you want to prioritise. Make the most of your new qualification or piece of volunteering work you've just completed.

The importance of recommendations and how to get them

You ask for them, politely of course. Reaching out and writing a personal, customised message asking for a recommendation from someone you know is likely to return your request, is the best way to obtain them. Recommendations from past or current colleagues and peers is a powerful way to build credibility.

Get endorsed for your skills

As well as recommendations, endorsements are another way to boost your credibility and also verify you can actually do the things you say you can do.

As receiving endorsements is quicker and easier than writing a full recommendation, it is vital the skills you're being endorsed for are correct and add value to your profile. If customised skills haven't been included, you may find yourself being endorsed for random low level skills which LinkedIn is promoting for you and these may not be ideal.

Now to network

So who should I connect with and how do I connect with them? LinkedIn will either recommend people for you to connect with or you can invite someone to connect. LinkedIn uses an extremely accurate and sometimes scary algorithm to help you connect with people you either know or have known in the past and lost contact with.

When considering who to 'connect' with, the question you need to ask yourself is, are they interesting/helpful/entertaining/relevant to you? Does the person you're connecting with add value to your network? Will this person open other opportunities too or are they simply a good connection to have because they are a nice person. The choice to connect with these people is yours.

Finding the right (relevant) people

Make use of the powerful advanced search functionality of the platform. Search for people by job title, location or interests. Again, this provides you a great tool for finding the relevant audience to connect and engage with.

LinkedIn also offers you the choice to 'Follow' people of influence. This is useful for keeping up to date with great content. By re-sharing useful content, written by people of influence to your followers, individuals or groups, can be a great way to add value to people. More about groups in a moment.

Using LinkedIn as a marketing tool

Content, content, content. This is how social marketing and digital marketing in general is being powered at the moment. If you can bring up to date, consistent value to people, then you will be well on your way to improving your network and influence online.

By using LinkedIn, you can target specific groups of people who your content may be relevant to. If you're struggling with where to start with content to produce, you might want to check out my previous post - 'Ways to improve social engagement'.

As you're connecting and engaging with people who are equally as valuable as you, sharing other people's content as well as your own, will help build trust with your audience. Being the curator of content alternatively to creating content can be equally as powerful, as long as you're using that content to fuel conversation and engagement.

If you are creating content, use the publishing platform which I'm using now. These posts are linked to your profile, making it easier for people to find. LinkedIn is also giving these posts more prominence in the home feed = more visibility for you. The publishing platform also offers fantastic analytics, which give great insight into the people viewing your posts and taking action.

If you have yet to create a post, LinkedIn still offers you the ability to see who has viewed your profile. Are you attracting the right type of audience to your page? If not, you might want to try changing your headline or summary text.

Keep your LinkedIn profile open. This is my opinion anyway. This is a social network, used for being just that, social. Keeping your profile open makes you more approachable and therefore more willing to connect and engage with people. Remember, you can still control the amount of information new viewers to your profile see by using the Privacy settings.

Using LinkedIn as a CRM system

LinkedIn is an extremely powerful Client Relationship Management tool. By connecting with existing clients, LinkedIn offers you a simple but effective way of keeping up to date. Birthdays, work anniversary's, career moves and more are at your disposal to acknowledge with a personal message.

By 'tagging' key contacts you can easily filter your connections to better target them with content you've created or news you'd like to share. You could categorise people by industry, role or location, whatever you feel relevant. Once filtered, you can then export these contacts to an excel spreadsheet. Ready made data you could use on other campaigns such as email or paid social advertising. A completely under utilised tool in my opinion, built right into LinkedIn.

Making posts work for you

LinkedIn makes it easy to target people individually or by using groups, in their thousands with your content, so it seems silly not to go to the extra effort to do this.

LinkedIn generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate (Hubspot)

It's important to mention that content should always be linked back to goals and objectives of your team or business, so it's vital that all members re-share content that's being created. By ensuring content has a call to action, or next step for the reader to take will help deliver better results.

Company pages

I thought I would include company pages as these offer a great way for businesses to engage and share firm wide content. These pages allow you to connect with not only potential prospects and clients, but also current employees and potential future employees. Company pages provide you with a chance to build brand loyalty and trust by promoting brand values and company culture in order to attract top new talent.

Featured pages allow for more focussed, niche areas of the business to promote content about a specific area of expertise.

The end

I think I'll leave it there. I hope this helps shed some light on how you can possibly use LinkedIn in the future to better promote yourself and/or your brand. If there is anything you would like to add, then please do in the comments below.