A few weeks ago, I sat through a fun little webinar put on by Sarah Santacroce and Denise Wakeman about The Recipe for LinkedIn Success.
I’ve always been pretty up front that social media isn’t really my bag (and I use my introversion as a crutch to cling to that). But nonetheless, I still try to stay on top of what’s going on in the social media world and try to take the advice others generously offer and actually apply it (and then pass it along where appropriate).
So Sarah is a die-hard introvert, too, and in this webinar she came across extremely relatable. I garnered quite a few gems from her presentation that I wanted to share.
The core premise of her webinar is that unless you’re actively looking for a job, your LinkedIn Profile should not be geared towards your resume and work history but actually function more like a mini-website (which is naturally something I can really get behind).
The #1 mistake coaches make on LinkedIn is their “LinkedIn Profile sounds like a resume instead of being a cutting edge sales tool.” ~Sarah Santacroce
Here are some other great bits of advice she had to share:
Use the first person voice
Talk to your audience to build up your know/like/trust factor (as opposed to talking about yourself in the third person).
Talk about the present
Focus on what you’re doing TODAY, not what you did in the past.
Typically if you’re in job search mode, you’re playing up your past experience, but if you’re in business-building / client-attraction mode, you want to put the spotlight on who your ideal client is and how you help them now.
Leverage your “headline”
Those first 120 characters that show up at the top of your profile are your prime real estate. Don’t waste them. This is the one sentence that makes or breaks your profile.
Things to include in your LinkedIn Profile headline:
- Who you are
- A title that people will understand
- Explain what you do (again, in non-jargony terms that people will understand)
- Who you help
- And how you help them or what kind of results you get from them
(That’s a lot of pressure for 120 measly little characters.)
Use your keywords
In your headline, and throughout your profile, use your keywords several times so that you actually show up in searches for the services that you offer.
Keywords are common words and phrases folks use when they’re searching for help with something – as opposed to a snazzy title that might sound good but isn’t something people will really use.
For instance, in my email signature, I say that I’m the Owner and Chief Web Wiz of “N” Powered Websites. Trust me – no one is searching for a “Web Wiz” on LinkedIn, so I’m leaving that out.
So now I’ve taken a good hard look at my own LinkedIn profile and am realizing that it doesn’t quite measure up.
Whenever I’m writing posts like this I’m often thinking to myself, “I hope people don’t look too closely at how I’ve actually used this advice in my own business – or rather, haven’t used it in my own business yet.” It’s the whole thing with the cobbler’s shoes, as I’m sure you’ve experienced, too (so I try not to beat myself up about it too much).
But this time I’m putting my money where my mouth is and going to actually do something with these tips for myself along with hopefully benefiting you.
Below is a screencast where I’m doing a walk-through of my own LinkedIn profile and showing the before and after from implementing Sarah’s recommendations:
Sarah had a lot more to share in the webinar – it was really a worthwhile one – and she’s got excellent resources and programs available on her website. It looks like she runs the webinar as an evergreen offering. Definitely check it out and take some time to give your own LinkedIn profile a little love.
