5 mistakes to avoid with your LinkedIn profile!

Your LinkedIn Profile For 2014!

Your LinkedIn profile is your calling card, it is your opportunity to make a great first impression, it is the reason why people should want to connect with you and more importantly have a conversation with you.

During my workshops I am often surprised how many people who are exceptionally good at what they do in business underestimate the importance of a LinkedIn profile or have just misunderstood it.

Misunderstanding

When LinkedIn started all those years ago it was perceived to be a networking site for people to post their CV and to be found or look for new jobs, this has changed in such a huge way. LinkedIn is now a very powerful lead generation and sales tool. Your LinkedIn profile is all about you and your personal brand, whether you are looking to find a new job, using it for lead generation or to network professionally.

5 Tips To Improve Your Profile

When I coach clients on their LinkedIn profile I focus on 5 key areas which can drastically improve your ability to find job opportunities, connect with prospective clients or increase your connections to enable you to network more effectively.

1. Profile Picture

Mr/Mrs Anonymous

I was only speaking today with a client regarding his profile picture… well lack of one. Don’t worry about not being photogenic, I hate having my photo taken and I am sure there are many others have the same feelings. Having a profile picture makes you more likely to appear in LinkedIn searches (some suggest figures that you increase your chances by 70%). Check out my article on profile pictures for further advice and tips, but if you really feel that photos of you do you no justice (me too by the way), invest in having a professional shot taken. I have several connections in my network that specialise in LinkedIn profile pictures, invite me to connect and I can make an introduction for you.

2. Your Headline

There is no room for vanity on LinkedIn! Having a great job title is all well and good but if it doesn’t quickly tell people what you actually do and what is in it for them it is a waste of the 120 characters available. I have seen some fantastic titles on my clients profiles and think wow that’s great…. but what is it you actually do… or what is a “titanium gungenplate technician”? An article on making the use of your headline can be found by clicking here.

What was it you actually do?

3. Your Summary

What a great opportunity to tell the world what you do for them and their businesses. Several of my clients have not even used this section and have just listed their experience. If I come across a profile, with a picture, and read a really engaging headline I am going to want to know more about you. If you are going to take advantage of writing a compelling summary… please don’t use third person. There is nothing worse than reading a profile which is meant to be all about you and it looks like it has been written by someone else. Another good tip to remember when writing your summary is not to “we” on yourself! The “We” bit can come in under your position in the experience situation. I won’t post an example but if you feel you are making this mistake please let me know and I will have a look for you.

4. Recommendations

What I love about LinkedIn is the “Recommendations” feature and to some extent the “Endorsement” feature. Here you can provide the evidence you are as good as you say you are. I can stand up and say how great I am, you might believe it, (my wife doesn’t seem to agree) but having someone else endorse you and better still, take the time to write a recommendation for you, is such a powerful message when approaching new contacts. A the very least it may install confidence in a prospective client when they are looking to make a purchasing decision.

5. Contact Details

Great, I love your picture, I am engaged by your headline, your summary reads great and you have provided me with evidence that supports your position and I connect with you. Once I have connected I want to contact you, (your gmail or yahoo email address is ok but an @somecompany.com is better) but what if I want to pick up the phone! I am looking to take our connection off line and invite you to tell me more and begin building that all important business relationship, I am lazy… (I am sure some others are too) make it easy for us. Complete the fields in this section that gives your connection the option to connect with you in different ways. You be surprised how many people connected with me wanting a coaching call and don’t have a number in their profile for me to call them. If you have concerns who sees them, these details are only available to your first line network. Also worth noting is changing your personal LinkedIn URL, change it to something you would be happy to put on a business card, found out how to do it here.

So make sure you are not making these 5 mistakes with your profile and give your LinkedIn presence an revamp for 2014.This has other added advantages because LinkedIn likes regularly updated profiles and makes you more search friendly.

I hope this article was of interest to you and that you enjoyed reading it. If you found it of some value please share it with others you may know who could benefit. I can’t thank people enough for their input, questions and feedback as you are the ones who are inspiring me to write these articles.

If you would like a question answered, or a complimentary assessment of your LinkedIn profile please drop me a line through my Contact Page or a message below.

Have a great 2014! – Stuart Carpenter

Use your LinkedIn headline to your advantage

Does your LinkedIn headline say what it needs to say?

Your LinkedIn headline is what is displayed under your name next to your professional profile picture. It is displayed along with your name every time you connect with someone, every time you post an update, comment in a group, in fact it follows you around LinkedIn like a bad smell.

It is your opportunity to grab peoples attention before they move on to the next profile.

What shouldn’t it say?

A lot of my clients are proud of what they have achieved in their career having attained promotions and more meaningful job titles, and so they should be. However there is little place for vanity on LinkedIn, their are thousands of Sales Directors at place of work (for example) on LinkedIn, I have 2071 in my 1st & 2nd line network.

When people are searching for a profession on LinkedIn they are looking for a solution to their problems, unfortunately in reality we are selfish in business. Yes, great relationships are built in business and friendships are made, but if you are not solving my problem I will not be buying from you.

Set yourself apart from the competition

Lets say I am looking for an accountant to help me with my tax returns. I search for accountant in the advanced search facility of LinkedIn and in my case I have 2,859 in my 1st and 2nd line network. Which one would you contact first?

What should I put in my headline?

If you use this simple rule you shouldn’t go far wrong.

Description ► Value ► Keywords

• Description – What is it you do? e.g. Social Media Mentor
• Value – What is it you do that helps your client? e.g. helping get more leads, sales and increase profits using LinkedIn
• Keywords – How you want to be found by LinkedIn search engine e.g. LinkedIn Coach

Your headline is your opportunity for people to make the right reason to connect and start a conversation with you, you only have 120 characters to sell that first impression.

What now?

Not sure how you go about changing your headline, why not connect with me on LinkedIn and I will happily work through it with you. You can also contact me through this blog or drop me an email, stuart.carpenter@thebizlinks.co.uk

If you have enjoyed what you have read please feel free to share it within your own network. Don’t be shy, leave your thoughts and comments below!

Thank you for reading and have a successful and productive week – Stuart Carpenter

5 Top Tips On How To Use LinkedIn For Business

5 Tips On How To Use LinkedIn For Business

It is not about how many connections you have, it is always quality over quantity but you do need to be constantly building your network with the right people in your market place. At around 200 – 250 connections if you are following these tips business will start coming to you. I can speak from experience as I have grown my business purely on following these 5 tips and all my business is now coming from LinkedIn. More and more people are also now using LinkedIn to find the services they need to solve their own problems, as I have in business, whether it is IT Support, Business Coaching or finding an Accountant.

1. Create a headline that solves your clients problems

Your headline is all you got to grab the interest of your reader and make them want to view your profile and turn that prospect into a potential client. Make sure you have got a photo on your profile, I will immediately skip past anyone I am looking for to help me in business if I can’t see a picture. (See my 3 Mistakes To Avoid With Your LinkedIn Profile Picture)

Create a headline with is engaging and tells me straight away what you do and what is in it for me, i.e. will you be solving my problem. I needed an accountant and searched LinkedIn, which one would you look at contacting?

2. Create an engaging summary

If you have successfully grabbed my attention with your headline and made me want to read your profile make sure your summary is engaging, remember what is it you can do for me. My advice here is to be humble and to keep it short and punchy. Focus on 5 areas, your opening, about you, what you can offer, what you are looking for and finally humanise it, for example what you do outside of work. I would seriously recommend you read Daniel Priestley – How to become a Key Person of Influence if you want ideas on how to write your summary. After all it is your pitch! (Daniel Priestley Blog)

3. Provide The Evidence

It is all very well you saying how great you are but I am far more inclined to believe what other people say about you. Make sure you are providing the viewer of your profile who has been hooked by your headline, fully engaged with your summary with the proof that you are as good as you say you are. Remember the Ronseal adverts… “Does what it says on the tin!” LinkedIn is great for displaying what others say about you through endorsements and recommendations. (Read my advice on endorsements Are your LinkedIn endorsements saying the right thing about you?)

Endorsements are not the same as recommendations on LinkedIn. Recommendations are where someone has taken the time to write about your product or service and is a hugely powerful message.

4. Contact Information

Great, I have been hooked by your headline, engaged with your summary, been provided all the proof I need and now I want to speak to you. Please make sure your contact info is up to date, fill in all the available fields and customise your URL (see my Personalise your LinkedIn URL!) There is nothing worse than finding someone you want to do business with and can’t find an easy method to get in contact with them, e.g no telephone number!

5. Build A Relationship And Take It Offline

Please don’t sell directly on LinkedIn, it is poor etiquette and it is most likely going to turn off your potential client if you fire a direct sales message at them. When you have found a prospect on LinkedIn and successfully connected with them, start to build a relationship. Relationships are the key to success in business, you don’t have to sell to good relationships, you only have to help to solve their problems. The hardest thing I found in sales was to find the excuse to why I was calling a potential client, i.e. the cold call and how to begin building a relationship. Use LinkedIn to warm that call up for you but remember LinkedIn does not and never will replace human real time interaction, send your new contact a message to arrange a phone call or a one-2-one meeting and take the relationship offline!

Social media for business is not a magic pill and should be integrated into your overall marketing strategy. It is not a get rich quick scheme and takes time and effort. Most of all, it does not replace the need to be a great communicator in business. If you can effectively communicate your message to your potential client in the right way, LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for sourcing new leads.

If you have any comments please post them below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this article. If you have liked what you have read, please feel free to share it with others.

I am always happy to address any questions you may have. You can post them on my “Contact Me Page” It is normally your questions which provides the inspiration to write my articles.

You are more than welcome to invite me to connect with you on LinkedIn

Thanks for reading – Stuart Carpenter

Have you had experience of using LinkedIn profile writers?

What are your thoughts on using a specialist LinkedIn profile writer?

I am sometimes asked by clients to write the “killer” profile for them, a profile which will get them noticed, make them stand out from the crowd of what is approaching 250 million profiles on LinkedIn. I always politely decline.

My main concern is that I don’t feel qualified to write someone else’s personal profile for these 3 reasons

• I am not my client
• I don’t understand what their business is really about
• Who are they reaching out to

I know I could spend a chargeable consultation session with my clients and ask all the right questions, acquire from them all the information I need to know about their company and understand who they are trying to reach out to on LinkedIn. However, wouldn’t I better serve my clients by giving them the tools, tips and consultation on how to do it themselves?

I am not my client!

Every one of my clients is unique in their position, it comes across in the way they speak, the words they use and more importantly what drags them out of bed in the morning and work tirelessly for the good of their business. I can’t honestly say that I can be “authentic” in my approach to their own personal profile. Prospective clients aren’t stupid… the moment they hear from my client and listen to them and then compare it to how they read their profile, they have already been lied to. I would much rather connect and do business with someone who is honest in their approach.

I don’t understand what their business is really about!

If I had the knowledge of my clients business to the same level as they do, would I not be doing it for myself? I can’t profess to know what my client’s business is really about, I don’t know what jargon or industry phrases they would need to include in their profile which would be recognised by their target market. What three things could I say in their profile which would help or be of service to their prospective clients?

Who are they reaching out to?

My advice when writing your LinkedIn profile is to make it engaging to your target audience, sorry I don’t really know who your target audience is. For the many years my client’s have been building their businesses they know what type of client they are helping, selling to or marketing to. Who am I to presume I could write a better profile that will appeal to your ideal client better than you can!

I am not anti copywriters!

I love copywriters, they are gifted in the command of the English language, of choosing the right words for the right message. I know of several who work really, really hard to be able to come up with the best content for their clients, content writing I could only dream of. In fact I am in the process of using one for some of my own marketing material. If you have followed my previous blogs you will see why I am seeking help from a professional. However, I would never let someone put their stamp on my own personal LinkedIn profile. My profile is me…. warts and all. Some people won’t like my profile, some people will say they can do better, but it is me, it’s what I am about and it’s what I can say with my hand on heart. It’s not perfect, but it is authentic and honest and integrity is important to me.

Have I got it wrong?

Can anyone tell me that I have got it all wrong. I would love to be corrected in this area because it is something I feel so strongly about, if it is an outdated thought process, I am happy to be told I am wrong or should consider looking at it from another viewpoint. Anyone had experience in this area? How much did it cost you? Do you feel it was of value to you and your profile?

In Conclusion

This is all in my own opinion but if you do feel you need help then get advice on how to write your profile, I happily give this advice away for free, but I wouldn’t recommend someone else to write it for you. I am seriously thinking about releasing a product on just how to write your profile purely because I am asked on countless occasions. Do you think a product like this could prove to be useful to people? Please comment and let me know your thoughts and please share this with people you feel may benefit. If you want advice on your own LinkedIn profile, connect with me and I will happily give you a free critique.

 

Are your LinkedIn endorsements saying the right thing about you?

 

In the last few weeks the one question which keeps popping up during my free Friday Surgery sessions on LinkedIn is how to deal with endorsements.  Thank you to everyone which has prompted me to write this article.

Are LinkedIn endorsements of value?

Well in my opinion… they are of value. I appreciate that your friends on LinkedIn can endorse your skills in an effort of being nice and helpful, likewise clients can endorse you without consideration of what skills you have actually demonstrated.

However… I am a strong believer that there is no smoke without fire, although there will be a proportion of endorsements which have been clicked without much consideration, not everyone who has endorsed you for a skill can be wrong. The “Skills & Expertise” section of your profile provides evidence of what you have already stated in your summary, there is no better evidence that what other people think. With this point in mind it is crucial that your skills actually reflect what you want to be recognised for.

Managing your endorsements!

During the free coaching calls I often see on peoples profiles endorsements for skills which don’t provide any value to an excellent profile summary, which in turn can devalue your position. This is where most of the objections about LinkedIn’s “Skill & Expertise” arise and feedback to me is that it is a pointless section and makes a mockery of what I do. Well, if you don’t like a suggested endorsement, don’t use it… manage your endorsements.

Get endorsements that add value to your profile.

Linked allows you to add up to 50 skills.

I advise the majority of my clients to be specific when adding skills and expertise to their profile and focus on around 15 key skills YOU want to be endorsed for. For example, if you are working in Business Development you may want your skills to reflect, sales, training, account management, marketing etc. However, what value to Business Development would, IT support, HTML5, ISO 9000 add. You may of had theses skills in the past and been very good at them, but it isn’t what you do now. Also, you have to be rather super special to be great at 50 skills, I always feel this makes you look like a jack of all trades… master of none!

How to manage endorsements.

Whenever you get endorsed for a new skill you get the option to add it to your profile. Don’t let LinkedIn be clever!

You will get a notification message showing on your “Flag” on the top right of your LinkedIn page. Move your pointer over the flag.

This will bring down a menu where you can see “Mark” has endorsed me for “Time Management”.

 

Thank you Mark, unfortunately it is not a skill I can honestly say I possess, also it is not a skill I feel can provide value/evidence to my summary outlining me being a LinkedIn coach. In this instance I will manage that endorsement and there are a few steps I would recommend you follow.

 

 

Step 1

In this example I am being endorsed for “Direct Sales” it is another skill I don’t particularly want added to my profile at this time. So I choose for LinkedIn not to be clever and I do not add it to my profile.

I can choose to ignore it, by clicking “Skip” or “x”, however LinkedIn will get clever and keep sending me a reminder every time I log on to my profile.

 I certainly don’t want to add it, so I won’t be clicking “Add to profile”. 

Instead I click on the “X” next to the skill.

 

Step 2

I always thank the person for the endorsement! Send a message to your contact and thank them for taking the time to endorse you for such a skill, but politely tell them why you didn’t accept it. After all they were nice enough to consider you for that skill in the first place, you wouldn’t in real life not thank someone for a complement.

Step 3

In the same message, I find this really powerful to start a new conversation with a connection, ask them to allow you to demonstrate a skill you want to be endorsed for. For example, I offer a free coaching call on LinkedIn so I can demonstrate that I can be endorsed for the “LinkedIn” skills on my profile.

In conclusion

In order for “Skills & Expertise” to remain a useful part of a LinkedIn profile I believe we should all take responsibility to be honest with ourselves when accepting and giving endorsements for skills. I am sure lots of you have your own ideas on endorsements and how to manage them and I would love to hear from you and hear your examples of ways how you handle endorsements. This is just an opinion from where I sit, get involved and share your ideas on this blog. If you like what you have read and think the advice I have given could be useful to others, please share!