Small business marketing solutions need to include your LinkedIn profile

If you’re looking for effective small business marketing solutions that lift your marketing game, your LinkedIn profile is one of the best free online marketing tools to take advantage of. However, the personal LinkedIn Profile is often forgotten or put in the too-hard basket. But that should change! Now, more than ever, LinkedIn is the place to establish, grow and promote your personal brand as much as your professional one. Building relationships and trust first and foremost; selling comes much later. That means getting your entire LinkedIn profile up to date and showing prospective employers or clients you’re active, engaged and ready to leap at opportunities.

If you’re serious about getting started on LinkedIn, the first step is getting your ‘about section updated and shining. But! That doesn’t mean making your LinkedIn about section boring or reading the same as everyone. Personality is still something LinkedIn users need to have on display. Just because it’s a more business-related platform doesn’t mean you must have a serious and professional tone. Your profile should have some personality coming through in how you write. 

But we are here to help get things started! If you’re considering making more noise on LinkedIn to promote your personal brand, below are eight top tips for getting started.

1. LinkedIn is not like other social media platforms

LinkedIn operates differently from social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram. The platform talks about members instead of users, where you are encouraged to post helpful, relevant content that adds value and gets people talking.   What you post on Facebook and Instagram often won’t’ work on LinkedIn. Target audiences tend to engage in a different tone and format, the LinkedIn algorithm operates differently and while real images of people still perform better here, it’s not as showy as Facebook and Instagram. If you’re hoping your Reels game will work here, think again. 

The tone, messaging and designs are about building relationships first and foremost. As mentioned above, the selling comes later. If LinkedIn suspects you’re trying to hard sell it simply won’t put your content in from of people. It’s much more about what you can contribute, the value you add and the connections you build over fancy videos that don’t offer any help.

2. The LinkedIn Headline and LinkedIn About sections

Getting all the relevant information on your LinkedIn profile takes time, research, planning and proofreading.  But with information fields up to date and on-brand,  the more details for customers to review, and the more opportunity to showcase your professionalism. Start by working out a great LinkedIn Headline. This is the section at the top of your profile and is visible if someone sees your profile in a search or when they hover on your profile.  

According to Things Career Related, your headline is 46% more important than your experience to prospective clients or employees. In your headline you’ve got 220 characters to work with so make them count. You don’t want it to completely read like your job title, but you want some keywords in there too. Research other profiles and find what works for your personal brand. 

Your LinkedIn About section allows you to talk about previous experiences - both in life and work. You’ve got 2600 characters to use, so use them ALL! Avoid making your description look too sales-focused from the start. Instead, try something personal. The LinkedIn about section aims to hook people’s attention, not have it read like a CV - that comes later.  There are plenty of good LinkedIn about examples available to provide ideas.

3. The cover image

If you don’t update your cover image, this defaults to the plain LinkedIn standard blueish template. Canva is a great place to experiment as it has thousands of designs to easily update with your own colour palette and branding. Or, if you have a LinkedIn company page of your own, use the cover image from that. It links you with your company profile and is a great way to be recognised by the company brand.

4. The experience section

The experience section highlights your previous roles. This is almost like your CV but, with the provision that you can show as much detail as you can about the day-to-day work you took on; what you achieved; the experiences you learnt; what you enjoyed about each role; and the people you worked with. There’s plenty of scope to tell a story here, and it isn’t just a place to list achievements. You want to highlight areas where you’ve made significant differences, maybe increased profit or productivity levels, or made changes that have helped the company grow or realise new opportunities. 

If you’ve got a role in mind or something, in particular, you’d like to get noticed for, shape your content for that. Consider using keywords that describe aspects of previous positions you’ve undertaken and make them stand out in the first three sentences to encourage people to click and ‘see more’.

5. Skills and recommendations

Don’t overlook the skills and recommendations section. You’ll need to account for the skills you’re trying to promote and get work from.  LinkedIn provides suggested skills, with the option to add others. The top three skills are displayed, so reorder your skills to get the ones you want shown first.  There’s an option to do skills assessments and earn badges that are displayed on your profile too.  Encourage LinkedIn connections you’ve worked with or know well to endorse your skills. 

The recommendations section is another way to showcase your previous experience. Here you can ask connections you’ve worked with to write a review about you. Think of it like someone giving you a review on Google for a job well done. It’s a great way to get endorsed for your work;  it helps build your profile; and highlights your expertise to other potential connections or work prospects.

6. Show off your professional services

On your LinkedIn profile, there’s a drop-down of different services in the ‘services’ section to choose from - add in as many as are relevant.  For example, if you are an accountant, you might add bookkeeping, financial accounting, and tax preparation.  

People can search for particular services on LinkedIn, so you’ll appear here if one of those keywords is searched. This is the place to be precise with your wording as you have only 500 characters to work with. A good tip is to think of your elevator pitch, that is, what do you say to people when they ask what you do? Craft a good message here with keywords but again, not salesy. We want to encourage relationships and build trust, not a hard sell.

7. The type of content to post

Unsure what to post? All the advice points to one thing: JUST START. It may feel intimidating, to begin with, so do some research and start slow by liking posts. Look at what is topical; is there a good piece of industry news or a trend you could talk about? What insights can you provide? There are plenty of examples to gain inspiration from, but here are some key ones:

• Tips and advice with no hooks attached helps establish trust and authenticity. 

• Think about your product or service and how it helps solve a problem. For example, you might be a shoe repairer and offer free advice on how to stretch tight shoes. 

• Any hacks that save people time or point them in the right direction are helpful. Remember, you are always posting with intention, value and a long-term strategy.

• Offer your opinion on something. Have your argument and thoughts ready for why you think that way. It’s better to be black and white on a topic than to be unable to articulate your position. It may turn some connections away but will bring forward people that believe the same thing. Those are the connections you want to build relationships with.

8. Get involved with relevant conversations

Another helpful way to increase your brand presence is by commenting on other posts. Look at who you are following and which people you get value from and if you want to see more of their work, comment on their posts. The LinkedIn algorithm notices which content and connections you like and gets to work putting it in front of you. Commenting helps build brand awareness, and by providing useful and insightful comments,  you’ll start to be viewed as a leader on those topics. Think about the following when commenting: 

•  Your aim is to post in your own tone, message and thought; by default, attract connections and build relationships based on your own unique version of you. 

• Commenting where you can add value displays your expertise and helps get you noticed as someone who knows their industry.

•  It’ll build trust and help highlight the authentic nature of your brand and YOU.

• You’re more likely to be remembered when it comes time for potential customers to seek out products or services. 

• It also shows up as activity on your profile, so people can see how active you are and aren’t just one of the 90% of people on LinkedIn considered ‘lurkers’

Is LinkedIn really necessary as part of my online marketing solutions strategy?

If online marketing solutions are important to you, take advantage of LinkedIn. The platform is expected to continue growing, evolving and changing. Even if you are on LinkedIn, it pays to check your profile often - LinkedIn likes to roll out new features quietly. Updating your profile and being active does require a time commitment, but if you’re serious about growing your personal brand as much as your business, LinkedIn is the place.

Need more help?

If you’re unsure where to start or your current online marketing solutions aren’t achieving the desired results, reach out! We’re keen to ensure business owners are getting the right solutions for their business. Avoid throwing your marketing out into the universe and hoping something will stick. Let’s have a conversation to help move your marketing.