A good Linkedin profile is one of the most important things in personal branding and a strong tool for business development. Best sales linkedin profiles bring huge benefits to its owners and companies they work for. How to make a good Linkedin Summary and other tips and tricks which will help you to optimize your Linkedin profile that will well serve your business?
1. Be open to connect with people
The very first thing you should do to grow your Linkedin network is to connect with people from business fields you are interested in. You may spend too much time looking for the right person to connect directly, try to grow network instead. Even if someone used to work in the company you are interested in, connect, it will bring results in future anyways. Remember the idea of six degrees of separation, where everybody in the world is six or even fewer steps away from each other.
2. Mind your target audience
Whenever you start to connect with people, Linkedin is automatically choosing people that may be potentially interesting for you. Algorithm is creating suggestions based on your previous connections, location, companies you worked in and searched. So, if living in London you want to expand network in Spain, don’t add your friends and colleagues first, connecting with someone from Barcelona would bring you much better results.
3. Keep your profile vivid
Remind network about your existence, perfectly at least 3 times a week. What you can do? Update status with:
- asking questions and suggestions
- sharing articles or cases from your website
- sharing captive images
- tag people or companies in your posts by using @-sign.
Very important note: an ideal number of characters in a Linkedin status update is 50-100 characters, all other symbols will be hidden under «...see more» button (that is really rarely clicked).
4. Don’t go incognito
Linkedin is constantly promoting Premium with great possibility to connect with people and view profiles anonymously. I don’t mind Premium at all, it offers you good things. But don’t hide your profile if you want to grow your network. When you visit someone’s page, let them see you were there. Stay noticed.
5. Express your interest
When you already have connections needed, let’s say, your potential customer, investor, impressive solution maker etc, staying connected isn’t enough. Show your interest by interacting with his/her profile updates, comment and leave answers. Important(!): don’t spam with texts like «We have solution specially for you and with special price!», be smarter, stay different, personalize communication without using cliches.
6. Have your experience completed
Experience section is very important, people tend to view it most. Try to keep it complete and up-to-date, with media attached if possible. Imagine it is presentation of yourself, make sure it looks attractive.
7. Make your headline not like most
Think, why you should be noticed among 100+ invitations or friends in list? CREATE, not copy paste buzzwords. Try using an easy 4-step formula of what-who-how-proof instead. Don’t: «Social Media Superstar» or «Strategic Visionary» or «Magical Marketer» Do: Executive Recruiter/Speaker/Author/who helps you create a better career. Featured on Fox/CBS/CNN
8. Summary is not a place for advertisement
As soon as you add some short business offer or description starting with such words as «We offer, we make life easier...» to your summary, forget about high interest to your profile. LinkedIn is fulfilled with «great» business offers and solutions, you will be just one of those thousands of thousands. Write real description, explain why you are special simply, and don’t embarrass people by being too much official. P.S. Please don’t use in your profiles buzzwords like:
- Motivated
- Creative
- Enthusiastic
- Track Record
- Passionate
- Successful
- Driven
- Leadership
- Strategic
- Extensive experience
They are already too much over-used, try to google synonyms instead.
9. Skills is something you would like to emphasize
Are you sure that mentioning Microsoft Word is something you want to show off with? Go more specialized, try to write up to 10 skills that show your competency in business area, be trendy and think what you can impress people with. It wouldn’t be typing skills, huh? Moreover, feel free to share one and say thanks if you consider it valuable, be sure that update like «Thank you, @Richard Branson, for endorsing my entrepreneur skills!» will impress.
10. Contacts matter
Make sure you have contacting information, and if possible, your own, so that when someone calls you, no auto-reply like «Welcome to the ABC company, please hold (1 hour) on line, you will be connected with our assistant (when destination was Head of Sales)». This irritates. Don’t be afraid to leave your private phone number or email there, not that much people would bother you either.
We constantly update our company’s profile on Linkedin with interesting stuff, don’t miss it! In case you have any idea to discuss over your project, do contact our Head of Sales Department, Olga, she can give really useful advice. And of course feel free to contact our CEO Stepanfor any questions regarding business development, he is always there to cooperate. Good luck :)
