The Social Media Butterfly Newsletter Issue 1

How LinkedIn’s High Domain Authority Affects Anyone With a LinkedIn Profile

If you want a compelling reason about why you should start using LinkedIn today – here it is.

LinkedIn has high domain authority so you WILL be found in all online searches of your name (your profile is either the number one or number two Google result when people search for you online) whether you use LinkedIn once a day or once a year.

Think about that for a minute.

But first let’s back up for a minute and let me explain a bit more about domain authority.

Domain authority is a ranking score that tells how likely a website is to rank in search result pages.

The higher the score, the greater the likelihood that a site will rank on Google.

LinkedIn has a lot of domain authority. It is among the top five Google-indexed sites along with Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Its domain authority score is 98/100.

If you are recommened by someone for a piece of work, a speaking opportunity or a job, they will immediately go on Google and look you up.

Sometimes they will go right to your biography (if you have one) on your company’s web site. But other times they skip that and go directly to LinkedIn instead.

Here’s why – LinkedIn tells a much more robust story about your professional background than your web site bio.

And potential clients and employees want to learn all they can about you.

They also want to know who you know who they know and what you have in common. It makes them feel more comfortable about doing business with you.

Don’t be limited by a one-dimensional view of what LinkedIn used to be – a place where people went to find jobs.

Today LinkedIn is the most trusted social media platform for business professionals. It’s where people go to network, build relationships, learn and vet referrals.

I see people make the same LinkedIn mistakes all the time – like having multiple profiles, outdated contact information, not optimizing the headline, boastful/formal language in their about section, missing past jobs, no cover image or cover story, no recommendations, less than 500 connections – I could go on and on.

One important thing is to make sure that your public profile does not have high privacy settings on or Google may not be able to index it.

Confirm that your profile allows each section to be discovered by Google.

This is an easy change to make on your profile – just go to “Edit Public Profile Settings” and then toggle the button to the right to ensure it’s green for most of the sections.

This helps immensely with your discoverability and searchability on major search engines. There’s no reason to hide sections of your profile anymore.

How to edit your visibility on your LinkedIn public profile

If you want Google to find more about your LinkedIn presence, here’s another tip.

Right now, Google doesn’t index your individual posts but will index your articles. This is why publishing keyword-rich articles on LinkedIn’s Publisher platform is a valuable way to move toward a stronger Google ranking.

When you write these LinkedIn articles, insert keywords in the title, body, subheadings as well as images. In addition, include backlinks, which will help with SEO rankings.

If you are looking for content ideas for LinkedIn Publisher articles, consider repurposing content from your website or blog, and always include a call to action at the end of your articles.

You do need to manage your LinkedIn presence more effectively– it’s a major part of your professional brand today. Your clients go right to Google to learn about you.

It costs nothing to optimize your profile, build your network and start posting on LinkedIn – this is a big part of managing your personal brand in today’s digital world.

Did you realize LinkedIn was at the top of the Google searches of your name?

Will you spend more time on your LinkedIn profile as a result?

Follow me on?LinkedIn, on my blog, on?YouTube to learn more about how to use LinkedIn to your advantage. You can also?sign up for my email list?to find out more about my upcoming free webinars. Register for my next LinkedIn webinar on February 25.

?Why Business Professionals Should Start Using LinkedIn Today

When is the right time to start using LinkedIn more? Or to start posting on LinkedIn?

Welll how about today or this week?

Don’t put it off any longer.?

Linkedin?is a platform you simply can’t ignore any longer to be successful on social media today.

It’s also one of the most efficient and effective way to connect and build relationships with your clients, VIP contacts, prospects, referrals and recruits.

Remember that whether or not you like it (or realize it), people are googling you every day in order to find out more about you.

Your LinkedIn profile is either the first or second search result that comes up about you in Google.

I hope that underscores the importance of spending time on your LinkedIn profile and building your brand on LinkedIn.

If you are in professional services, LinkedIn is especially important for you.

It can be hard to stand out in crowded fields such as accounting, financial services or law. LinkedIn helps you do that by adding much more dimension to your professional background than your web site bio can.

In addition, LinkedIn tells people much more about you, including the schools, groups and connections you have in common with them, which can help when it comes to making someone feel comfortable about you.

LinkedIn provides a treasure trove of useful information about your contacts, including job moves, work anniversaries and updates about their professional lives. If you weren’t on LinkedIn you would miss out on this information.

Let me tell you how LinkedIn has helped me.

I was using LinkedIn long before I really “needed” it – meaning I was occasionally posting, commenting on others’ posts and building my network while I was working full-time as a law firm marketing director.

It led to new jobs, industry opportunities, speaking engagements, guest lecturing at law schools and even this blog.

When I started my own business, I had a built-in audience to launch it through my LinkedIn platform. Clients came directly to me because I had credibility from my LinkedIn posts.

I never once sold my services on LinkedIn because I didn’t have to – I had been providing value. And also no one likes to be sold.

When you use LinkedIn right you never have to actually sell yourself. Read that again.

Even if you’re not thinking about starting a business or looking for a job, LinkedIn can help you amplify your personal brand efficiently and effectively, and build your network.

So how did I get to where I am on LinkedIn?

I showed up consistently, gave back to others, provided value and built relationships.

I freely gave away content and didn’t worry that I was giving away too much because there is no such thing. People worry about that a lot on LinkedIn.

To be successful on LinkedIn, you want to help others and showcase your expertise. They’ll still need you to implement what you suggest!

I also didn’t obsess about the number of likes I got on my early posts except to use that information to refine my future posts.

I didn’t post about my successes and brag about myself on LinkedIn.

I see many people post about the awards they win or their achievements on LinkedIn and while it’s okay to do that occasionally, it’s the way you craft those posts that matter so you don’t sound boastful.

People feel obligated to like posts, and I think it’s really a waste of a valuable touchpoint when you should really be providing value to your audience and making your posts client-centric.

When it comes to LinkedIn, I don’t know more than anyone else – I just put myself out there more than you. If I can do it, so can you!

So the time is now for you to start using LinkedIn to your advantage.

Follow me on?LinkedIn, on my blog and on?YouTube to learn more about how to use content marketing and LinkedIn to your advantage. You can also?sign up for my email list?to find out more about my upcoming free webinars. Register for my next LinkedIn webinar on February 25.

What strategies have worked for you in building your personal brand on LinkedIn? And how did you get started doing it?

How to Use LinkedIn Creator Mode to Build Your Brand and Business

If you haven’t turned on Creator Mode on LinkedIn, now is the time to do it.

Especially if you are a content creator and especially if you are trying to build your brand and business.

Creator Mode is a profile setting on your LinkedIn dashboard that can help you grow your reach and influence on LinkedIn.

Turning on Creator Mode is how you get access to the new content tools on LinkedIn such as LinkedIn Live and Newsletters (just like I'm doing here).

LinkedIn Live enables you to go live on LinkedIn in video format that appears in your cover image section. You can set it up as an event and it also is permanently housed on LinkedIn too.

LinkedIn newsletters are a great way to build your brand and engage with your followers.

You can essentially send the content from the newsletter to all your connections. My rule of thumb here is to just always make sure the content is about your readers and helpful.

I also believe that LinkedIn users who have Creator Mode turned on are getting more engagement on their posts and that the algorithm may favor their content.

Here’s why it’s time to switch your profile to Creator Mode:

• By activating LinkedIn Creator Mode, you’ll be able to organically get your content in front of people who are interested in the topic of your post, EVEN IF you have no audience, no connections, no followers or you’re starting from scratch.
• Creator mode allows you to focus and highlight your original content on your profile. It makes your Featured section more prominent, helping you grow your brand and influence on LinkedIn.
• You get access to new LinkedIn content tools – you can now create a LinkedIn Newsletter, which you can send to your network (this is HUGE and you should start doing this immediately – in fact, this is the top reason I am switching over to Creator Mode) and use LinkedIn Live to broadcast content.
• You share the topics (hashtags) you post about the most.?This makes it easier for other LinkedIn members to discover your content and follow you.

Also – drum roll – LinkedIn Newsletters are coming to LinkedIn Company Pages that have more than 500 followers SOON!

Do you have Creator Mode turned on? What do you think of it?

Here’s an article on how to turn on LinkedIn creator mode.

Follow me on?LinkedIn, on my blog and on?YouTube to learn more about how to use content marketing and LinkedIn to your advantage. You can also?sign up for my email list?to find out more about my upcoming free webinars. Register for my next LinkedIn webinar on February 25.