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You may be out of sight for your connects but that’s no reason to be out of mind…

With more and more people reaching out to each other on the world’s largest professional network, how do you appear on searches on LinkedIn?

How credible, how authentic and how persuasive is your profile?

“Social is not a place for a hard sell. It’s a place to build trust and credibility.”

— Julio Viskovich, Author of "Social Selling: How to find buying signals on social media"

LinkedIn is a platform we take very seriously at Rebrand Advisory and we specially sit with our clients and help them visualize their LinkedIn page.

Here are some tips from us to #redo and #reset your LinkedIn personal page. LinkedIn is divided into certain sections to help you break up your strengths and showcase your best professional attributes.

Cover Image, Display Picture & Headline

Take a look at the two examples above of Cover Images, Display Picture and Headline.

This information is the first thing a new connect or even your existing connects will view. It is also read by LinkedIn algorithms which enables your name recognition in searches.

Cover image

Utilize this space to showcase your skills, your values, your achievements, your speaking engagements or address a potential problem that your client might have.

This can be easily designed in Canva. online software.

Display Picture

Ideally should be a professionally taken head shot.

It should portray you as approachable and professional

Name

Add your area of expertise with your last name - this enables you to show up in searches.

Headline

Talk about your strengths in your Headline. Include key words which you think people will use to search for you and what you would like to portray yourself as.

Complete this section with your current position, your education, your location and your industry.

About Section

The About section is your canvas to impress your audience . It addresses the Who, What, Why, Where and How of your professional credentials.

Use it to showcase your expertise and cajole a potential client to approach you.

You can also add media here which can be past speaker engagements, featured publications, a sales deck or anything that strengthens your profile.

So what you should focus on, in your About Section…

Experience Section

This section shows your expertise in detail: your entire career graph, the organizations you’ve worked with, the projects you’ve handled etc.

You can attach relevant documents here as well.

This is followed by your Education section.

Do mention online certifications, on the job training in addition to your high school and university degrees.

Skills and Endorsements

In this section, you may mention your key skills. You may request your connects to endorse you as well.

Recommendations

Again, you would need to request your connects to give you a recommendation and as goodwill, you should give them one as well.

LinkedIn is not your online resume

Your LinkedIn page is much more than your CV. It’s your professional personal brand. Unlike a CV, your page ideally should not have intricate details of project management, teams you have led and targets achieved.

It should demonstrate what’s important to you, highlight your greatest professional achievements, show how dependable you are and portray your intellectual and emotional intelligence.

It should speak to a potential employer or client on why they should hire you or invest in your services.

What you post and how you interact with your connects validates your knowledge of your industry. What you care about must come across thru your updates, the companies you follow and the media you upload – all of this adds up to your online authenticity and credibility.

How important is my number of connections, testimonials and engagement on posts?

Obviously, all of the above is important. But it’s nothing to stress over.

Nor Rome nor your social media standing can be built in a day.

For all those online influencers, 500 + connections, ‘dhaasu’ testimonials and solid engagement you see, is hours and hours of background work, years of consistency and a lot of patience!

Building up anything takes time, effort and consistency. Once your basic profile is built to your satisfaction, invite your phone connections to build your network, request for a few testimonials and endorsements and make sure to return the favour for them too…

You may not immediately start with a planner on what to write and post, but you can definitely read your news feed, reshare what’s important to you and comment (albeit intelligently) on posts or articles that really call out to you.

This will increase your engagement and you will start showing up on your network’s news feeds.

Do remember, when you create your own content, credit relevant sources, don’t cut copy paste and write in a conversational tone.

Just like on any social platform, what you write is an extension of your thoughts and beliefs – so stay honest and watch the appreciation come in!

We are here for you

The times we live in right now is a time like no other. None of us have experienced branding, marketing, selling or making our business work in such volatile times.

We all are worried about the future of our businesses, the economy, how our customers will react and how we will survive in the coming months.

What is very clear is that, the way we’ve communicated with our audiences in the past is not going to work. Empathy, sincerity, concern and support is what will drive brands ahead in 2020.

It is essential for all of us to relearn the ropes of marketing and branding as we know it.

As a part of our #re-power series, we as Rebrand Advisory are here to help you get through whatever difficulties, doubts or concerns you might be facing with regards to your business.

That’s part reason why the above blog is written – if your personal brand is strong, you will be a trusted and remembered name when your customer eventually requires your services.

If you do need someone to bounce answers off or just need a guiding stead – do reach out to us.

The Power of supporting each other is what will help us navigate the turbulence of this pandemic.

#stayhome #staysafe #stayconnected

How to Ace Your LinkedIn Profile by Yourself