LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Small Business Professionals

LinkedIn for Small Business Professionals
Keeping Your Pipeline Full Using LinkedIn

©Marc W. Halpert | All rights reserved | www. connect2collaborate.com | www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert | Feb 2012

What’s going on with LinkedIn?
• >150MM professionals
• Adding >2 new members every second
• 11th most trafficked website
• Aggressively courting new submarkets
• Social news channels
• IPO
• Continual new investment in the product
• New smartphone apps: CardMunch, LunchMeet
• New verticals: Veterans, Grads, Nonprofits


Do you know?
 Does your LinkedIn profile reflect WHO you
really are?


Your LinkedIn
profile should tell others

W HY
Y OU

©Marc W. Halpert | All rights reserved W. Halpert connect2collaborate.com | www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert | Feb 2012
©Marc | www. www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert May2010

Great LinkedIn profiles
always contain:
 Profile Functional Headline
 Short, concise, meaningful (120 characters including spaces!)
 Who you really are, not what role you play in an organization


always contain:
 short, concise, meaningful (120 characters including spaces!)
 who you really are, not what role you play in an organization
 Update frequently
 Your activity, articles, commentary, information you find worthy to give
back to your communities


always contain:
 Summary, Experience and Specialties
 SEO keywords; written with much thought and conviction
 Why would the reader be attracted to you?
 Your past experience makes you who you are today


always contain:
 Summary, Experience and Specialties
 SEO keywords; written with much thought and conviction
 Why would the reader be attracted to you?
 Your past experience makes you who you are today
 Appropriate photo


Why this is important:


Certifications, Patents,
Languages & Publications
• Further
differentiates
you
• You worked for
it, show it!
• Keep it current
as you morph


Skills

 Choose LinkedIn’s suggested skills or self assess
 Choose your level of proficiency, honestly
 Identify # years experience


Volunteer Experience
& Causes


Repairing a profile
BEFORE


AFTER


AFTER

©Marc W. Halpert | All rights reserved | www. connect2collaborate.com | www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert | January2011


BEFORE


Repeating:
Your LinkedIn profile
MUST tell others

W HY
Y OU

©Marc W. Halpert | All rights reserved W. Halpert connect2collaborate.com | www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert | Feb 2012
©Marc | www. www.linkedin.com/in/marchalpert May2010

Do you know?
really are?

 How does using LinkedIn highlight and
demonstrate your brand?


Recommendations: Ask

• Who/when do you ask?
• Manage the attributes you are recommended for
• Hide some recs if inappropriate at a certain
time
• You can review it before it is posted
• Don’t be afraid to ask them to improve it
• Post it to your profile when you are satisfied


Recommendations: Give
• Be specific and clear
• Use anecdotes
• How you have experienced the person’s
• skills
• abilities
• strengths
• character (!)
• Give recommendations when deserved
• Give unexpected recommendations


Ask and answer questions


Company profile page


Your company profile page
is different from
your personal profile page


Do you know?
really are?

 How does using LinkedIn highlight and
demonstrate your personal brand?

 Are you gaining business traction from being
on LinkedIn?


Get more connections
Deepen existing connections
 Cull from your personal connections’ lists
 Identify someone you want to reach to and
research how you are connected
 If a second level connection, ask to connect
directly
 If more distant, ask a friend to connect you
indirectly


Direct: Ask to connect


Indirect: Ask for an intro

Read
from
the
bottom
up

Groups

The power of new, meaningful
connections with like-minded
individuals!


Join Groups
 Apply to join groups  Choose frequency of
that interest you
group contact:
 Join and contribute to:
 daily feed
 nonprofit groups
 alumni groups  weekly digest
 special interest groups  Actively participate,
 locally based groups don’t grandstand
 business chambers  A great easy
 industry associations
communication tool
 networking groups, etc.


LinkedIn Groups cont’d.
 Apply to join as many groups that interest you
that you can contribute to:
 Limit 50
 Create a group:
 group of your clients or
 advisors or
 confidantes

 Think about creating subgroups, task forces, etc.
 Post really useful materials regularly for their
benefit


Tap into expertise
 Ask questions that elicit responses:
 How have you tackled a { }?
 How have you been successful at [ ]?

 Ask a question for which you need
opinions-check to be sure no one has
asked recently
 Contact the person posing the question
or answer to expand your reach

Optimize the Free LinkedIn Apps


Search for business contacts
 Look for people you know and that others
know, that you think will be helpful
 Ask them to join your network if you know
them
 Ask others you know to introduce you
 Search by name, by title, by company,
by keyword, zip, or any combination
 Find common threads to partner
 But don’t be a “promiscuous linker”


TIP 1. Make a great impression

 DO NOT BE LAZY; DO NOT USE the default greeting:
I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
Marc W.



Marc W.
 Ask people to join your LinkedIn connections like
you mean it; use a personalized note such as:
Bob, thank you for the great conversation after today’s AFP CT luncheon
about ways we could work with each other. Later this week I will follow up
on the areas we discussed. So please join my network as we increase each
other’s networking connections. Best regards and speak to you soon, Marc



Marc W.
 Ask people to join your LinkedIn connections like you
mean it; use a personalized note such as:
Bob, thank you for the great conversation after today’s AFP CT luncheon about
ways we could work with each other. Later this week I will follow up on the
areas we discussed. So please join my network as we increase each other’s
networking connections. Best regards and speak to you soon, Marc
 Remind them where you met them or worked with them
 Then follow up on your promised items
 Reinforce your reliability; increase the branding of “why you”

TIP 2. Update your community
 Frequency is up to you; regular meaningful additions
 Blogs
 LinkedIn Today
 Websites
 News items
 Add to the global
conversation


TIP 3. Get and use your profile URL
https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/87

Business card

Email signature line

Marketing materials


TIP
4. Make your smartphone
a “genius phone”

 Download email
addresses to your
smartphone
 Get LinkedIn app for smartphone
 Now you have access to the IMPORTANT
people from anywhere!
 Be a “go-to” person

TIP
5. Use video to make your point

 Download YouTube
videos into your own
profile or the
organization’s LinkedIn
page
 Now you further make impressions
 For instructions, see http://tinyurl.com/y4yrcvj


What can
you do next?


First, do not panic

/

TIP
Invest your time wisely

 Set aside a certain amount of time each
day to “work” LinkedIn
 Be consistent in doing this
 Manage the time you spend doing this
 Keep tightening your profile
 Contribute!
 Seek help
 Keep looking for connections

Build community around you
• Help others
• It will be repaid forward…
• Keep polishing your profile/brand
• Keep working your Personal Learning Network
• The deeper your list of trusted contacts, the
more business connections you can facilitate
• Use Linkedin as one
more tool in your
branding toolbox
• Connect2Collaborate

Need more help with LinkedIn?
virtual courses, webinars, presentations,
1-on-1 coaching, corporate staff training


LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Small Business Professionals

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