In today’s world of Social Business, the dynamics of sales have altered dramatically. We know that consumers turn to social media platforms for endorsements and advice, which means that your online profile is paramount.
For many organisations in the business-to-business space, LinkedIn is an essential platform to be visible on, to develop strong relationships with prospects. But it’s not enough to simply “be” on LinkedIn. A standout social seller needs to have a strong and content rich profile, actively share posts with connections and ultimately fully exploit all its capabilities.
To get you started, here are 10 top tips for building the perfect LinkedIn profile:
1. Choose a professional profile image – ensure it’s a professional, good quality colour headshot. Some profile image dos and don’ts are:
- Do use a recent photo – people need to recognise you if you ever meet in person!
- Don’t include your friends, pets or children (save that for your personal social media profiles)
- Do look approachable; people will be more likely to get in touch if you seem friendly
2. Write a professional headline that stands out – This should show who you are, what you do, what motivates you and what you are looking for. Use the vertical bar (|) symbol to differentiate different titles.
3. Select the appropriate industry – Ensure that you select the industry that matches your role, for example, ‘Public relations and communications’ as this will help LinkedIn users find you easily and set you off on your networking journey.
4. Compose an engaging executive summary – This should combine your corporate summary, your personal summary and your professional summary. Here are a few hints to keep in mind when writing yours:
- Use bullet point or sub headings
- Keep sentences short – don’t ramble
- Include your contact information
- Read through after writing for spelling or grammar errors
5. List all your relevant career experience – Your LinkedIn profile is an online resume. Like your CV, it should include your current and previous job roles and key achievements within each.
6. Highlight your skills and get endorsements – Here you should include a summary of your key professional skills. Endorsements are acknowledgements from a LinkedIn peer agreeing that you have a certain skill. The more endorsements you have, the more interest you will receive.
7. Request recommendations – Don’t be shy in asking for these, as they can be very powerful if seen by a new lead who is considering working with you. Recommendations from clients or colleagues, current or past, are always valuable on your profile.
8. Incorporate any publications – Have you had anything published? Then add the URL to it here. This is also a good section to add any online content or coverage from any projects you have worked on.
9. Highlight organisations you belong to – Use this section to highlight any professional bodies that you belong to.
10. List contact and personal info – Your work email, phone number and links to other professional social media profiles should go here. This will make you appear more accessible to potential prospects.