Josh Cornett

Linkedin has quickly become “the” business to business social network.  AS of 2013, Linkedin announced that is has over 200 million members in 200 different countries.

I personally use Linkedin everyday to network, research customers, leads, make recommendations, & share content.  Linkedin is the forum where you can share your assets, market realities, & values & aspirations.  Here are three critical tips to optimize your profile that could make you your next deal.

Profile Picture

The profile picture is the first thing people see when they view your profile.  So, if anyone is going to look you up, it is most likely a  colleague, competitor, customer, someone wanting to give you a job or referral.  In short, Linkedin, unlike most other social networks, is the professional marketplace & you want to look like a legit human being.

Make your profile picture legit (ie. professional).  Don’t be creepy, take down that grainy, self portrait party photo.  Shit, maybe even invest in some nice professional head shots   You’ve got to know at least one aspiring photographer that has a camera, a background, lighting system and a little bit of experience.

Investing in yourself in general might be a good idea anyways.   Even Mr. Warren Buffet says it is the best investment you can make.

I got my profile picture taken for free at a trade show.  A company set-up a photo booth & was taking free professional pictures.  Umm hello, yes please!  You gotta have continuity between all of your social networks.  Remember this is your brand — people buy you.

Profile Picture Don’ts: Avoid grainy, pixilated, or poorly lit photos.  The self portraits and party pictures have expired, time to step your game up!  Also, your photo must be appropriate for your industry.  And, most importantly have a picture — not having a picture gives the impression that you don’t care.

Profile Headline & Summary

After your profile picture, this is the next thing a viewer will see on your profile.  Tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them.  Make sure your profile headline is congruent with your summary. I Like To Capitalize The First Letter In Each Word.  This makes the headline look more compelling, more of a statement.  Also, if you show up in search results, it helps you stand out from all the other profiles.

Secondly, adding keywords to your headline that you want to be associated with can improve your searchability within LinkedIn and on the internet in general (this is a good thing, anonymity is overrated) .  Avoid adding extra filler words because it can overwhelm a viewer and it can actually hurt your key phrase search results.  Here are two best practices for updating your headline for maximum impact:

Multiple Titles: your headline should include the different titles that someone who is looking for you services might search.

Descriptive: Write a descriptive headline that illustrates what you do with keywords filtered in.

Contact Info

This final suggestion is often overlooked by even the most savvy Linkedin users, so it helps you stand out even more.  If you are anything like me, you search for people on Linkedin.  Perhaps you look for new clients, leads, prospects, competitors, vendors, attorneys, CPA’s, whatever.  If you are Linkedin then you are searching for people & viewing profiles.

Now, once you find who you are looking for, it needs to be easy to contact them.  Viewers have such a short attention span.  If they have to search for contact information, they WILL move on to another profile & find somebody easier to contact.

For example, If someone is searching for printing services & they come across my profile, I want them to be able to contact me as easily & quickly as possible.  So here is what you do:

Update all of your contact information: make sure your e-mail is up to date.  If you don’t have your phone number on your profile, put it up.

Twitter, Websites, & Blogs: first link your twitter accounts, website, blogs, & personal websites.  If you haven’t done this, do it now. And here is the key component.   When you add a website or blog it gives you an option to classify what type of site it is. Personal website, company website, blog, etc.  DON”T choose any of these.  Choose ‘Other’.  Linkedin will then give you the option to type in an exact description of website or blog URL.  The more specific you can be the better.  This helps viewers navigate your online assets & helps them find what they are looking for.

As you continue to improve & optimize your Linkedin profile, it will improve your ranking & serachability.  You will notice that you have more profile views, better search results in google, more connections.  More connections = more referrals & more $$$.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, please comment below.  Happy selling!