Let’s talk about LinkedIn. Do you have a blog? Then yes or yes you should have a presence in this social network with more than 500 million users.
But why is it important to have a presence on LinkedIn?
It is very important to have a presence on this social network for the following reasons:
Because LinkedIn is the social network that will help you boost all the effort you are already making to turn your digital business and your blog into a reference.
Because more than 9 million professionals in Spain use LinkedIn, which means that more than half of the working population in Spain is a user of this social network.
Because more than 200 different industries from more than 200 territories and countries are represented on LinkedIn.
Because LinkedIn is the perfect tool to manage a relevant professional brand and differentiate yourself from other digital businesses. Plus, you can use the free version until you decide if it’s right for you to use a Premium account on LinkedIn.
Because it is the place to fall in love with your texts, with your profile, with your business, with the way you perform your services and reach an audience that does not yet follow other social media such as Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. They’re not even blog readers… yet.
Because LinkedIn is like having a storefront on Gran Via in a big city, where you can and should impact your audience with your message so that they visit “your store”, that is, your blog.
Before I continue, I would like to give you real data of my personal case with the use of LinkedIn, so you can see that it is not only possible but that the advantages of using LinkedIn exceed what you are thinking right now.
Let’s go there with a little motivation.
Everything that I have achieved through LinkedIn and you can also achieve… and overcome.
- LinkedIn and the visibility of your blog
Currently, 90% of the visits to my blog El blog de Inge Sáez from social networks come from LinkedIn.
I have a company page on Facebook where I advertise, an active Twitter profile with more than 5,000 followers. But none brings as much traffic to my website as LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn and the offer of your services and/or products
Through LinkedIn’s inmail inbox I get weekly leads that ask me for my services or products, without proactive selling on my part, without cold selling.
They are professionals or companies that, through the articles or updates published on LinkedIn, already know what I do, who I help and how I do it. They are leads that only need a direct communication with me to see how I can help them in particular. The sales job is almost done before this one-on-one communication.
- LinkedIn and your professional brand
With just a small action I have managed to get media such as Cadena Ser, Onda Vasca or El Correo to contact me to interview me or offer me some collaboration. Appearances in Óscar Feito’s podcast (number one in Itunes) or in magazines like Vice, have also come up through messages on LinkedIn.
Not only this, but I have been invited to give lectures, talks and training workshops on what I specialize in. The journalists or companies that have invited me, got to know my blog through LinkedIn.
It was through LinkedIn that I was able to reach them and create a beneficial relationship.
- LinkedIn and attracting subscribers to your blog
If you have a blog, you will know that attracting subscribers is one of the fundamental strategies of any digital business.
Well, through LinkedIn and the creation of a specific page to share on this network, I get the highest degree of subscribers of all the strategies I have implemented.
Almost a 50% conversion rate. Throughout this post I will tell you what this strategy is so you can implement it too.
Before you start working on LinkedIn
Before you even start to complete your profile, share content or add new people, you must meet three essential requirements.
These aspects are:
- What do you want to get out of LinkedIn?
In other words, what are your objectives for this social network?
They don’t necessarily have to be the same objectives of your business, or even of your blog, although they should help you achieve those objectives you set when you started your adventure.
You can, for example, define as an objective to make yourself known among a specific target audience, get talks in a place of your interest or contact with referents in your market. If you don’t know what you want to get out of LinkedIn, you won’t be able to develop a strategy for it.
- How are you different from your competitors?
These should be tangible and intangible aspects: the way you work, your beliefs, the way you see your industry… LinkedIn will allow you to communicate your value proposition in different ways that we will see later on.
It is not the same to give on-line training as off-line, it is not the same to give mentoring as to give lectures… even if all these “trainings” deal with the same subject matter.
- Who do you want to impact with your message?
LinkedIn is a mega-search engine for professionals, about whom it knows almost everything. LinkedIn knows the sector we work in, the industry we belong to, the groups we are interested in, the companies and jobs we have held, our location, telephone numbers, email address ….. And you must take advantage of all this data to segment the audience you want to impact.
Once we have defined our objectives, value proposition and target audience, we can start working on this social network.
The basics of LinkedIn. The three areas of work
Imagine LinkedIn as a three-legged table. Each leg is an area you need to work on in LinkedIn. If one of them is not developed, the table falls down.
You can have the best profile in the world on LinkedIn, which if you don’t share content won’t do you much good. Or you can share a lot of good content, but if you don’t reach the right audience, this network won’t help you.
The fundamental areas of work are: your profile, your content and your contacts.
Do you want to know what is fundamental in each of them?
First fundamental area: your high-impact profile
In 2017 LinkedIn has presented its new design that it will implement throughout this year to all users of the network. So, if you are reading this post, you might be using the new or the old design.
Although the important thing is to know what to write in your profile and how to write it. So let’s talk about copywriting.
Imagine that your profile is the “about me” page of your website. Normally, what is recommended to write in these pages is not your whole biography, but what you and your blog can help a certain audience with. And my recommendation is that you write your profile as if it were this section of your blog. You should orient your profile to your ideal client or reader.
Here is an example of my profile, so you can copy it or adapt it to your particular case.
In it the important thing is to say who you are, who you help, how you help and how you help. We must keep in mind that when someone visits our profile they are asking themselves: what is here that can help me? How can this person help me?
But, although copywriting is very important, we must not forget that LinkedIn is a search engine, it is a machine and when returning search results, it will scan your profile where it must find those keywords for which your target audience is looking for you. So keep in mind SEO on LinkedIn, because it is key when it comes to being “found”.
If you are in restaurant marketing, you should include those terms throughout your profile, in your headline, in your excerpt and experiences. You should also include them as skills, every word written in your profile; it will position you.
If instead of restaurant marketing you define yourself throughout your profile as “I create unique experiences for restaurateurs who want to attract more customers”, you may not appear in the searches of those who need a “restaurant marketing specialist”.
At the top of your profile, use the background profile photo to ask a question that directly impacts the benefit of your services, something that defines you or makes your ideal client think.
Your professional headline is one of the most important aspects of your profile because when someone does a search, the only thing LinkedIn shows in these searches is your name, your picture and your professional headline. If you notice, my headline says who I help, what I help with and how. Try the same and try to make your headline reflect that value or help you provide.
In the excerpt you have 2000 characters at your disposal. Use them to your advantage, include the keywords for which you would like to be found, tell in a visual way (through differentiated paragraphs) what you do, who you serve and how you offer your services or products. Above all, include your contact details again to make it even easier for your reader.
If you want to read the entire text directly on LinkedIn click here.
In the new 2017 profiles, LinkedIn will only fully display your latest experience. Don’t confuse experiences with “jobs”. Again, it gives you 2,000 characters to tell your audience what you bring to the table through your experience. What they can get from you.
Another aspect quite neglected by LinkedIn users is recommendations. We must take special care of what others say about their experience working with us.
Through the recommendations section, your clients can talk about what you have brought to their life or business. It’s the best social proof you could get, the word of mouth of a lifetime.
If you haven’t received any recommendations yet, all you have to do is ask for them. Ask those people you have worked with to tell on LinkedIn what value you have brought them, what benefit they have obtained through your content, your services, your work.
To request a recommendation all you have to do is go to the recommendations section (under your skills) and click on the “request recommendation” pencil. If you do not have any recommendations yet, this section will not appear on your profile. All you have to do is go to the profile of the person you want to be recommended, click on the three little dots next to their photo, expand that section, and scroll down to “request recommendation”.
