Do you have a LinkedIn account?
Do you use it for business?
Whether you use LinkedIn for business or for personal use, you need to have a first-rate profile to entice people into your world. LinkedIn is a professional networking site, so share your knowledge, your experience, be approachable and don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see.
Before we look at how to make your profile fabulous, let’s look at what LinkedIn is NOT!
- It’s not a CV – which tend to focus on career history and is factual.
- Although sometimes described as such, LinkedIn is not a social media platform. It’s a professional networking site, helping you to build your brand in a professional manner
- Don’t put posts about your cat, what you had for dinner last night, quotes…you get the picture!
OK, now that’s out of the way, what will make your profile stand out and convey the business professional that you are…
Photo – First of all, make sure you upload a good photo of yourself – preferably a professional one. Don’t just go with the grey Avatar.
Smile…this will be the first time many people get to see you.
Headline – Your profile has your name, then a space to write something else. It automatically defaults to your job title and the company you currently work for, but you can edit this… and make it more personal. For example, mine says ‘Singing Freelance Writer’. It’s different and hopefully will make people want to read more.
Contact Info – Make sure people know how to get in touch…give your email address, website address, Twitter account… and if it’s already in the public domain, your phone number and business address.
Experience – with LinkedIn, you can really expand on what you do – make this count. Include things like a success story, a case study, how you can help people and why. Show your potential customers how your services make you stand out from the crowd or why your products are so good – what problem do they solve.
Summary – don’t forget the summary. This is where you can really pitch about who you are, what you’re about, what makes you tick. And don’t forget to add a Call to Action at the end.
Network – join groups that are in your niche and make comments and join discussion threads. This is a great way to get to know people – answer questions as these groups are a great source of information. Someone always knows the answer to your problem and may even have experienced something similar that they can share.
Posts – If you’re a blogger or if you have an article you’ve written that will be of interest to other people on LinkedIn, you can share these posts on your profile page too. There is also space to add documents, portfolio items, photos … everything that can help your profile stand out, so take advantage of all you can.
Endorsements and recommendations – give endorsements and recommendations to those you know on LinkedIn. This will most likely result in you getting the same in return. If your customers are on LinkedIn, ask them to recommend your products or services.
As well as all of the above, there is also space for
- Volunteer experiences and causes, so if you have volunteered for charity, make sure this is completed.
- There’s also space to write about your standard of education and any certificates or qualifications you might have.
- Do you belong to any organisations? Add those too!
Finally, there are also boxes for you to complete detailing any Honours or Awards you have, any languages you speak, projects, publications, patents, and any interests you might have. It’s worth trying to add as much information as you can about everything you do or have done, especially if you’re looking for work.
Good luck – let me know how you get on with re-vamping your profile…and if you have any other fabulous ideas, please let me know!
Images courtesy of 1)Stuart Miles 2)tiniroma 3)Stuart Miles 4)David Castillo Domenici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
One of the first things I did when I started my own business, after building a website, was to set up a business Facebook page. However, like many people, I then didn’t do much with it as I was busy concentrating on getting my business up and running….not realising that I was actually missing a trick! With an estimated 42 million active accounts on Facebook, there is plenty of competition, so how can you make your Facebook page stand out and get you more ‘likes’?
Linking to your Facebook page gets your business in front of potential customers. If you have a website or blog, put a link to your Facebook page, with a ‘like’ button.
Some say you should post once a day and others say three times a week is enough. Whatever you decide to do, be consistent…this is easy to say and I know I’ve fallen by the wayside a few times, so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t manage it, however the more times you post, the more engagement you will get. Images seem to help with engagement, so always use a quality image – if you can, use your own from photos etc. If you use images from the internet, make sure you don’t breach copyright.
Do you run events? Whether you do them regularly or as a one-off, make sure you take plenty of photos of the people attending and enjoying themselves. After the event, post the photos on your FB page and tag as many people as you know in the photos. Then post, inviting others to tag themselves in your photos …and to post photos of the event that they’ve taken themselves. This will not only upload to your page, but will also upload to their wall and their friends will see it.
If you send out a regular newsletter about your business, talk about the fact that you have a business FB page and include a link so recipients of your newsletter can go and like your page.
Facebook – The top of the pile with an estimated 1.1 billion unique monthly visitors. Facebook is a social networking site that enables people to connect with friends and family, sharing photos, videos and status updates/messages. It can be used for fun or for business. It is estimated that over 1 million small businesses use Facebook and is very popular with small business owners in France.
YouTube – After Google, YouTube is the largest search engine with an estimated 1 billion unique monthly visitors. It’s where most people go to watch or share video content. It covers every single subject you can think of from popular music videos and films to Joe Bloggs down the street falling off his skateboard! Anyone can post personal videos or share content.
LinkedIn – This is a social networking site for professionals. With 255 million unique monthly visitors, LinkedIn members post a profile of themselves, very much like an extended CV. Users can promote themselves and their businesses, connect with other businesses and even apply for jobs or ask for work.
Pinterest – This is a fairly new concept, but with 250 million unique monthly visitors, it is fast becoming popular. It’s an image-based visual platform that allows its visitors to create digital bulletin boards where businesses can pin their content. As more than half of its members are women, it’s a great place for businesses whose target audience is largely female should think about being a part of.
Google Plus + – Google Plus or Google+ is an interest based social media platform with 120 million unique monthly visitors. You can post photos and status updates on your profile or you can post to specific communities or groups. Specific communities are set up for different subjects so you can post blogs to specific themes. There’s multi-person messaging, text and video chat called Hangouts and you can run events. It’s a very versatile platform.
Reddit – This is a little different to the other sites – it is still popular, with an estimated 85 million unique monthly visitors, but the content is voted on by the visitors to the site. It is still a social media site, more of a community where posts are identified by topics, such as technology, music, etc. Users submit links and posts that are of value are ‘upvoted’ and those that aren’t are ‘downvoted’. The voting determines where the post sits on the site – however if your post/link hits the front page, it is seen by hundreds of thousands of people – sending a huge percentage of them to the linked website!
VK – I have to admit to not having heard of this one! VK is short for VKontakte – a social media networking site where members can add friends, gain followers and post photos. However it is a largely aimed at Eastern European visitors, particularly Russian. In fact it is the most popular site in Russia.
Flickr – This is an imaging and video hosting platform. It is very popular for those wanting to share and embed photographs. With an estimated 65 million users, it is still up there with the best!
Having an online presence not only puts your business in front of a huge, global audience, it can help you get more sales and enable you to become more ‘real’ to your customers. The internet never takes a nap, gets distracted or falls asleep, so once you have your online presence, your business has the potential to be working for you 24/7. Customers can see your products and services in their own time, whenever they feel like it, so whether they work 9-5 and go online in the evening or whether they are night-shift workers and search for what they want during their break (at three in the morning), they can find you. More importantly, if you sell products and have an online store, a customer can order from you as soon as they feel the urge…they don’t have to wait for a shop to open at 9am, by which time they might have changed their mind. And they don’t have to travel to get what they want – whether you live in their neighbourhood or whether you lives hundreds of miles away, they can still buy from you.
Using Social Media is the most common way to let people know your business exists and to build your brand. Social Media networks have millions of customers passing through them every single day – some of them will be your new customers. If you run a social media campaign for your business, or publish useful and high quality content on a regular basis, you can slowly, but surely build your online reputation. I don’t mean constantly bombarding people with images of your products with the hard sell, but taking the time to tell your audience what your product or service can do for them. Solve a problem, answer a question, show them that your products or services are worth buying or using and why.
Once you have decided to go the social media route, you just need to decide which one or two to go for. There are loads to choose from, but here are the top 15 sites, compiled in September 2016 by eBizMBA Rank – a US company. 
customers about a new product. However it is effective for small businesses to use this method to send out a monthly or quarterly newsletter. This can be written in a friendly, chatty way and is a great way to stay connected to your customers. You just need to collect email addresses of new and existing customers and, most importantly, ask them if they would like to receive your newsletter. You MUST have their permission to do this, so good to have a form they can complete online on your website to ask to subscribe. You can then use it to let them know about any special offers or discounts, inform them about new products and generally tell them a bit about your business and how it works. It’s a great way to stay in touch with customers and build customer loyalty.
Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google + are all social media sites that can help you market your business for free. Set up an account and get going. Not only can you share details of your products and services, but you can also personalise to show your human self…what you like, what your interests are. Share articles of interest and inspirational quotes, pictures…anything that you think people will like to see.
Survey your customers – Send your existing customers a survey. Ask them about the products or services they have bought from you. Ask them what they like best about your products/services and use the information you gain to improve your offering or to promote your business. At the end of the survey, ask if it is ok for you to publish any of their comments….if they say ‘yes’ you have more recommendations and possible stories. And report your survey results in a blog or an article.
Enter a business award competition – There’s nothing better than being able to say that you’ve won an award in a specific competition. Even if you don’t win, but are shortlisted in the top ten, it’s still something to shout about. If you do happen to win, you can advertise the fact on your social media pages, on your website, in your newsletter etc. You could also put it in your signature.
Of course, when you achieve any of your goals, you should feel proud of yourself and it’s always good to celebrate the wins, whether they are big or small. I find that celebrating the little things is highly motivational and spurs me on to want to achieve more.
Sometimes a goal can’t be achieved because of other influences. For example, if you decide you’d like to learn more about a particular subject, your goal might be to go on a specific course. But if your business is very busy and other family commitments get in the way of actually getting on the course, it won’t be achieved. This doesn’t mean you’ve failed, it just means you may have to postpone that particular goal…maybe for a few months, maybe for a year. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
As the title suggests, having an online presence means that your business is ‘open’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week….even when you are asleep. Information about your business, your services, what you sell, are there at your customers’ and potential customers’ fingertips. People are always looking online – they research products before they buy and if you have an online presence, and you happen to sell what they want, you could make a sale. If you don’t have a website, you are invisible….and in this day and age, you can’t afford to be.
Through your website, you can be seen as an expert in your field, and through the recommendations and comments from satisfied customers, you can be seen to be reliable, trustworthy and that your products are top notch.
Not only does having a website make you more credible, it also shows that your business is established and that you are experienced at what you do. Even if your competitors are stronger than you, a well-built, mobile friendly website can entice customers to choose you instead. You might operate your business from the tiniest desk space in the corner of your dining room, or make your products in your tiny spare bedroom, but when you have a website, your customers don’t see this. All they see is the power of your brand – size doesn’t matter!
products – you just add them online at the click of a button. You can include tons more information and images than you could afford to put into a brochure.
website, you may spend endless wasted time on the telephone or email giving people directions to where you are, giving details of the products you sell or the services you offer. Your website gives all these details in one, easy to access space, available 24/7. Not only does it give these basic details, it also gives more detailed information about your products. Then, when people do contact you, it’s generally about something more specific or to actually buy from you or use your services.
Advertising in your local paper, putting out your business cards and attending markets, conventions and networking events, are all brilliant ways of getting your products and brand out to a wider audience. However, with a website you literally have a worldwide audience. Business often comes from word of mouth and this is a great way to get local business, but in order to expand and reach customers that don’t know you, the internet is the way forward.
website, then why shouldn’t you have one? The joy of having a website is that it doesn’t matter how big or how small your business is, it will help you reach more people and increase your sales. Through your website, you can gather information about your customers. You can use your website to host an online survey to find out what your customers want and online forms can be used to easily contact you to request a quote or ask for further information. When you know what your customers want, you can develop products or services to solve their problems or meet their needs.
customers email addresses, and with their permission, can send them regular updates about new products. This makes them feel valued and valued customers will come back to you time after time.
The Write Way 