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You’re on LinkedIn to do business. If that means you want to generate more leads, are you doing these three things to generate leads?
Your LinkedIn Profile Should be a Sales Asset
In my experience, most people – in sales or not – have written their LinkedIn profile as a resume. Does your LinkedIn headline list your current job title? Or, does it serve as an attention getter using action words like “improving,” or “driving” or “transforming.”
If you think using action words in your headline isn’t necessary consider that if you’re in sales and a potential buyer reviews your LinkedIn profile as well as the profile of three of your competitors, are you confident your headline communicates your ability to meet your customer’s needs? I challenge you to do this exercise. I’m being literal. Review three of your top competitor’s LinkedIn profiles and compare their headlines to yours. What is your confidence level that a buyer would contact you over them?
Your Summary is the Bridge to Conversation
Next, look at your summary. First of all, do you have a summary? If you don’t, you’re missing a BIG opportunity to deliver a narrative about how you can help your customers. The summary should be your story. It should show some of your personality, while painting a picture of your capabilities and achievements. Your summary is different than your experience section. The experience section is where you can deliver your online resume – so to speak. But, your summary is an opportunity to set yourself apart. If you are not skilled at creative writing, get someone to help you. Draft your summary offline and ask someone in your trusted network with creative writing skills to help you shape your story, provided that the end result is genuinely a representation of the real you.
There is no one formula for your LinkedIn summary that fits everyone. Consider writing your story as a chronological narrative without necessarily listing dates. For example: “When I began my career fifteen years ago, I relied on my passion for ____ to launch my career. Today, my passion for _____ is stronger than ever with _____ results in the _____ industry.”
Feel free to show a little of your personality. After all, you’re human and people buy from people. For example: “Anyone that has worked with me knows that I always start my day with a strong cup of black coffee and a blueberry scone. Then, I’m ready to solve ____ problems for my customers in the _____ industry.”
These are just examples to inspire your thinking. Be you…
Engage with Profile Visitors
LinkedIn tells you about the people who visit your profile. This is one of the most valuable data insights provided to you. I encourage you to engage with some of those visitors. LinkedIn also tells you how many people have visited your profile from specific companies. This can be an opportunity to engage with people at a company that you want to do business with.
So, what do you with this information? Start with common sense LinkedIn etiquette. Generally, unless the situation warrants it, I DON’T recommend you contact someone and say “I saw that you visited my profile today, and I’m contacting you to set up a time to talk.” First, visit their profile to learn something about the person. Look for common connections or a recent accomplishment. Consider something like this in your invitation in your message if you’re already connected in the first degree:
“We share several common connections in our professional network on LinkedIn. I would enjoy connecting with you for mutual professional networking.” Replace “connecting” with another action that is more appropriate in your situation.
I always avoid the words “add you to my network” because it comes across as self serving. I prefer to engage in a way that implies mutual benefit. If/when the person accepts your connection request, DO NOT follow up with a pitch or request to talk (unless your situation truly warrants it). Rather, look for ways to build a relationship with this person over a period of time. Be patient and persistent, but not over bearing. Send him or her links to articles that will be helpful to their job and/or career. When the timing feels right, usually weeks down the road after at least three to five value-add touchpoints, either ask for a meeting directly, or seek assistance from a common connection. Don’t be surprised if you hear from him or her.
Be a Publisher
This article could have been titled 20 ways to make your LinkedIn profile a lead generation machine. I chose to focus on just three ways because most of us can remember and act on three suggestions.
If I could only add one more suggestion, it is to publish articles on LinkedIn. Click the “write an article” link on the home page and publish your article. When you publish an article on LinkedIn, a notification will be sent to all people in your network as well as anyone who follows you. Well written, relevant articles will keep you on their radar.
Your article should be informational, educational or inspirational. It’s okay to have a call to action. Just don’t make the entire article a sales pitch. That defeats the purpose of the article and can damage your personal brand.
Publishing on LinkedIn is a great way to have your LinkedIn profile represent your brand 24/7.
These practices alone can increase your chance of being engaged by your prospective buyers during their research and evaluation phase, as well as people in your network who have potential to refer you to a prospective buyer.
Learn more about how you can optimize your social profile for sales success.
10 thoughts on “15 LinkedIn Profile Optimization Tips to Get Found This 2023”
My LinkedIn account was ranking on the first page for best mommys blog keyword quite a few years back and I didn’t have any idea. While working, I stumbled upon the Analytic section of LinkedIn and saw that most of the visitors are coming from search engine later on I realized that in my profile I’ve used “Mommy’s blog” word a lot of time and that is the reason why it was ranking well on SERP. This is how I came to know about SEO and I was also amazed by the fact that how easy it was to rank for competitive keywords back then. Anyways loved your article and please share more tips on SEO.
Thanks for sharing. The number of times you mention a word or phrase is still a factor for sure.
We love hearing tips as well as questions our reader, so keep them coming!
Should I change keywords overtime based on what’s popular on the internet?
There is a lot of value in this article, especially for those looking to improve their visibility on LinkedIn. My favorite of the fifteen tips shared in this article is number nine. I’ve observed that people with custom profile links, seem to get more attention than those who haven’t customized their LinkedIn profile URL. Interesting article, thank you for taking the time to put it together.
Customizing LinkedIn URLs create more visibility for sure! Thank you, Bret.
I agree with the recommendations, they are a very important part of our strategy on LinkedIn, it can give confidence to potential customers (or leaders when someone is looking for a job).
People shouldn’t underestimate keywords on their LinkedIn profile! This helped potential buyers to find me on LinkedIn more easily when they searched for certain products and/or services. Thanks Viveka!
Thank you for another great blog post. For the alt text and/or naming images, do you mean two to three different keyword phrases as a maximum, like this?
B2B cybersecurity content marketing writer , technical writing cybersecurity content , cybersecurity technical writer , David Geer
Or can you add more keyword phrases than this?
Hey David – I honestly don’t know the efficacy of adding more keywords than that. I would stick with what you have above.
All the information is very helpful which can help us to increase our Profile ranking on LinkedIn. Another big interesting article, this blog is very useful for the Optimization of my LinkedIn profile.
I also get much knowledge from this blog.
thank you keep sharing.