How often do we invest time and resources into building our own personal brands? We might even be trained at branding and good at it, but we don’t always apply those skills to our own lives.
We’ve been working on ways to make LinkedIn profile pages more effective for personal branding. If you haven’t looked at yours in a while, you may find some new ways to show off your skills and accomplishments.
Here are some things you should do to improve your profile for 2022. Some of them are easy to do, some may take a little longer – but all of them will likely be worth it.
1. Use A Professional Profile Photo
If you want your profile to be viewed more on LinkedIn, add a picture. It’s one of the easiest things you can do to customize your profile, and it makes a big difference.
Your photo should look professional but not too formal.
A good profile photo for your business profile should be current, high-resolution, and make the viewer feel confident in trusting you.
2. Add A Value Proposition To Your Headline
Let’s say you help busy entrepreneurs by taking care of their administrative tasks so they can focus on their business. Who do you help? You help busy entrepreneurs. How do you help them? You take care of their administrative tasks so they can focus on their business.
A suitable headline might be: “I’ve helped over 200 B2B companies save more than $2 million dollars by using outsourcing solutions.”
This person has saved companies a lot of money, which is something that interests a lot of business professionals. The headline is interesting and makes people want to know more, even if they don’t necessarily need the services offered.
3. Leverage Your Cover Photo
Did you know you can upload a custom cover photo on LinkedIn? Many people leave the generic blue cover photo on their profile, but you can make your profile stand out by adding a logo, project snippet, tagline, or even a family photo in some cases.
The cover photo’s purpose is to give the viewer a quick idea of who you are and to encourage them to scroll down and read your profile.
4. Be Strategic With Your LinkedIn Activity
If you were aware that your LinkedIn activity was visible to your connections, would you act differently on the platform? The Activity section of your LinkedIn profile includes your most recent comments, likes, and shared content, as well as a brief description of what you said.
Your LinkedIn activity is a great way to show potential employers what kind of sales professional you are. You can show that you offer advice or support to connections, recommend products to customers, or congratulate friends on promotions. All of this can help you stand out to potential employers.
5. Include Your Contact Information
You shouldn’t spend all day on LinkedIn waiting for InMail because there are other important ways to communicate with leads and prospects. You should list your email address, phone number, Twitter handle, and blog or company website.
A salesperson needs to be contactable in more than one place to make it easy for potential customers to get in touch.
6. Add Keywords To Your Summary
What makes humans unique? According to primatologist Frans de Waal, it’s our capacity for empathy. In his book The Bonobo and the Atheist, de Waal argues that scientists and atheists tend to view humans as selfish, violent, and ruled by self-interest. However, de Waal believes that empathy is what sets us apart from other animals. He argues that our capacity for empathy is what makes us moral creatures capable of altruism and cooperation. De Waal’s book offers a fresh perspective on what it means to be human. He argues that our capacity for empathy is what makes us unique and enables us to be moral creatures. This perspective challenges the view of humans as selfish and violent creatures ruled by self-interest. Here’s how to break down your summary:
- First paragraph: Reiterate your purpose from your headline
- Second paragraph: Get more specific about your work, the projects you’ve taken on, the results you’ve driven, and the companies you’ve worked with. Elaborate on how you’ve achieved the mission statement set out in your header.
- Third paragraph: Include a clear call-to-action that communicates why and how a buyer should get in touch with you.
7. Display Visual Content In Your Summary
To make your LinkedIn profile more engaging, add two to four pieces of visual content to your summary section. Helpful visuals for your potential buyers could include items such as tips sheets, infographics, or recent data. You can further increase engagement by including links to the visual content with UTM parameters, allowing you to track how many people are interacting with what you’re sharing.
You could add a blog post to your website announcing your company’s recent award for “Most Satisfied Customers” as well as a case study from a well-known client.
8. Provide Detail In Your Experience Section
This is the section where you list your professional positions and titles. You should include a few sentences to summarize your role at each job. Keep your prospects in mind as you’re filling it out.
Include three to five major job duties for each role in your resume, and focus on the results you helped clients achieve, including the methods and tactics you used. Also mention your quota attainment.
9. List Honors And Awards You’Ve Received
While bragging on social media might not be the most popular thing to do, it is still a good way to show your potential clients that you are good at your job and that you have received honors, accolades, and awards in the past. This is one of the best ways to market yourself and your business.
Use humble language that focuses on your achievements for the client rather than boasting about your skills.
10. Add Your Degrees, Online Courses And Certifications
LinkedIn also uses factors like where you work, the Groups you’re in, and your education and certificates to show who you share commonalities with and structure your network into first, second, and third-degree connections.
You can add a course certificate to your LinkedIn profile from the Learning History section of your LinkedIn Learning account. You can also send updates about your learning to your network if choose.
You should add any formal degrees you have, like an associate’s, bachelor’s or higher degrees, to the Education section of your LinkedIn profile. In the Licenses & Certifications section, you should add any certificates you have from accredited schools or reputable companies. These additions to your LinkedIn profile can help you start conversations with potential customers and make your experience as a sales professional seem more credible.
11. Take A Skills Assessment
A skills assessment test is an online test that allows you to show your level of skills and get a Verified Skills badge for your profile. According to data, candidates who have verified skills are 30% more likely to be hired for the roles they apply for. Also, having proof of your abilities strengthens your personal brand.
You can display the results of your skills assessment tests if you want to, and you can retake the tests as many times as you want before you show that you’ve passed.
12. Request Recommendations
The Recommendations section of your profile allows you to request recommendations from any of your current and former colleagues, bosses, and clients. Profile endorsements and recommendations are a way for others to get a quick sense of what you’re valued for. Recommendations are personal testimonials written to illustrate the experience of working with you. You can request recommendations from any of your current and former colleagues, bosses, and clients from the Recommendations section on your profile.
You can increase the value of your profile by adding a recommendations section and specifying who you would most like a recommendation from. Personalizing your request makes it more likely that you will receive a useful response.
13. Share Media And Marketing Collateral
Sharing the marketing content you produce for your business can also add an extra dimension to your own profile. By sharing case studies, white papers, and other brand content, you can help show what your business is all about and what makes you tick. This demonstrates your passion and commitment to your work.
14. Get Credit For Your Thought-Leadership With Publications
The “Publications” section on LinkedIn is an underused feature that can help you make your profile stand out. If you have written any eBooks, white papers, or blog posts, you can link to them in this section, which will help to show off your thought leadership.
15. Share Relevant Content From Your LinkedIn Feed
It’s more beneficial to be actively involved in your LinkedIn connections rather than just having a lot of them. A way to add value for them is by sharing relevant content.
A good way to start promoting your content on LinkedIn is by looking at your feed and sharing anything you find interesting that also fits with your perspective.
16. Add Comments
When you share something and add a comment to it, you make yourself more noticeable on the feed and start to explain why you think that piece of content is important. If you express your comments well, it allows you to share a greater variety of content. For example, you might not agree with a certain point of view but still find it fascinating.
Having a strong opinion that is expressed in your comments on LinkedIn can help make you seem like a thought leader to others. It can also help encourage more comments, which in turn will make your profile more popular. Keep this in mind when writing your comments, and make sure you are happy with what you are saying representing you.
17. Follow Relevant Influencers For Your Industry
Sharing interesting content from relevant LinkedIn influencers helps you connect with others around shared interests and gives your profile context, demonstrating your passion.
18. Become An Employee Advocate
LinkedIn Elevate is a platform that helps businesses launch and manage employee advocacy programs. 86% of employees who have used the platform to share content for their business say that it has had a positive effect on their careers.
If your business is using Elevate, then it’s a great way to take a more active role in getting your brand content out there. However, even if your business isn’t using Elevate, it’s still worth reaching out to colleagues and asking who’s producing content that would be worth sharing on LinkedIn.
19. Write Articles On Other Sites
By having thoughtful, well-written pieces published on other sites, you can start discussions and get people interested in what you have to say. Publishing long-form content is a great way to get your name out there as an expert in your field.
The more you share and comment on content, the more you show you’re an expert and a thought leader on LinkedIn. Writing long posts is the next step to take.
A good way to start is to keep track of the reaction you get to your comments and shares. Are there any specific topics and perspectives that really seem to resonate with your network? Are there any comments you’ve shared that you feel you could elaborate on in a post?
Thought-leadership should be something that evolves over time and is based on real issues. This way, you will be able to start new conversations by being plugged into the issues that your connections are talking about. Be ready to monitor the comments and respond accordingly.
20. Follow People In Your Industry
Do you keep up with the leaders in your industry? If not, you should start. Keeping up with relevant individuals can help you stay on top of industry trends.
Following industry trends and knowing what to say to prospects in your InMail messages will help you be successful on LinkedIn. The people, companies, and topics you follow can be added to your profile’s interest section.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to make your LinkedIn profile work harder for you, there are a few things you can do that don’t require a lot of time. By working through these ideas one by one, you can make progress quickly, even if you can only spare a few minutes each day.
Once you’re using your LinkedIn profile to its full potential, you’ll be amazed at the difference it can make for both you and your business. Make 2022 the year you make it happen!
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