Your LinkedIn Account is a crucial part of building your company’s brand. You are able to generate leads and tap into a sea of market research to understand your target audience. Unlike other online platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook, LinkedIn is a professional profile that recruiters or other businesses use to find people. In your LinkedIn strategy, your personal profile is more important than your company page. People want to engage with people and not a soul-less brand. So, here are 3 critical changes you can make to your LinkedIn account to improve your performance.
Optimise Your Headline And Profile
The first change to your LinkedIn account to improve your performance is at the very start of your profile. Your name and profile picture are on your LinkedIn account are important, but your headline makes your profile. Think about it, you are a business owner looking to recruit a web designer for a new site. The search reveals hundreds of people with the headline in the form of [Person’s Name] Web Designer at [company name]. Let’s be honest, this headline structure does not convince anyone that you are any better than the others. Why should they contact you?
Also, when you see a headline that says: [Person’s name] CEO at [company name], it looks professional, but it also gives an intimidating vibe. Yes, LinkedIn is professional and you want to create an air of authority in your industry, but it all comes down to this truth: people work with people. So, think about the value you add to a new client instead of the company that you work for. Your headline should spark curiosity in your reader. Ask yourself these questions:
- What can you do for your client?
- Does your headline include the keywords that your audience is searching for?
- Does it include keywords for both your industry expectations and your target audience?
Your headline is a vital part of your profile because your headline will appear whenever you comment on other people’s posts or post content yourself. What client need are you fulfilling in your service or product? This should be something you should know and are easily feeding to new viewers of your profile through your headline and bio.
Be Strategic In Your Connections
Getting your LinkedIn account active is more than just randomly adding people to your network. You need to think about your target audience. Who will benefit from your services? Connect with people who could be future clients. Additionally, you should look to connect with people in your industry who are doing the same thing as you. You can learn about how you should target your services or product by talking to other businesses. This is where becoming a part of a LinkedIn group can also be useful because you can discuss relevant problems and solutions that are going on in your field. Engage with other people’s posts and send people unique connection requests. Another benefit of connecting with people in the same industry and similar companies means that you can get extra work. A lot of freelancers or small businesses have a small number of people to get the work done. If they don’t have the human resources, they will outsource to people like you or even recommend you to their clients if you have built up a rapport with your engagement. Working together with like-minded professionals can help you get seen on social media and help you understand your industry better. Use your account to (politely) ask them for advice and engage with them like people and not just another brand.
Stay Up To Date On Your Industry
LinkedIn gives you free access to a vault of knowledge about your industry. Why aren’t you using it? When you are following relevant hashtags and trends on your company page, LinkedIn will actually send you a notification of trending hashtags and encourage you to be a part of the discussion. This method will help you see what people are talking about and also help you become more visible to wider connections.
You can also leverage your LinkedIn account by following influencers in your field. By following them, you can get a better understanding of what your leads are looking for and how their needs are changing. Keywords are significant here as you need to know how the trends are changing in your industry. Follow significant keywords and look for the new keywords that are popping up. By utilizing your ability to search for industry hashtags and knowing what people are talking about, you are able to be better seen by your audience. If you know what keywords people are looking for and using, you are able to then add these to your headline.
Whether you are a freelancer, individual or a business, your profile is the forerunner for your brand. By implementing these changes to your LinkedIn account to improve your performance, you will be able to start creating leads and visibility for your brand.
