Pre-covid, our lives were busier than ever before, and although we knew that having an active professional network was good for us, it was difficult to make time during busy schedules. If you’re keen to make use of this extra time, this blog is for you…
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with 720+ million users across 200 countries. LinkedIn can help you to build credibility, maintain your online reputation, create a meaningful network of referrals and highlight your expertise on this social media platform.
What are the different page types?
There are three different LinkedIn page types; personal profile, company page and showcase page. A personal profile is a central place for your own personal brand. It’s a great place to explain who you are, what you stand for and give a history of your professional experiences and achievements. A company page lets a practice promote its services, recruit new talent and share important, interesting and useful updates. A showcase page is an extension of your company page, designed to highlight a brand, proposition, or initiative.
Why have a LinkedIn profile?
Your LinkedIn profile is where first impressions are formed and is a chance to showcase your skills and experience amongst your peers. You should also consider adding buttons to your LinkedIn profile from your email signatures, your website and your practice website to drive traffic to your social channels. This can also provide valuable social proof for your business.
So, it’s time to spruce up your profile. Here are our three top tips to get started.
- Update your URL
Make yourself visible and easy to remember by personalising your URL. It’s easy to do.
Go to your profile page –
● On the right hand side, select Edit public profile & URL
● You can then update the URL on the right-hand side of the page. Consider taking out the numbers which LinkedIn automatically adds when you set up your profile.
2. Complete your profile fully.
Google loves a completed profile, fill it with keywords and you’ll be found when someone searches for your name or speciality. So to get a completed profile, you’ll need to have a look at your “Profile strength meter”. The Profile Strength meter gauges how robust and complete your profile is. Once the meter is full and all prompts are complete, you’ll receive an All-Star profile rating.
So how do you find out how complete your profile is?
● Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage
● Select View profile
● Below your top card information, move your cursor over the meter to see which steps you’ve completed
● Click the Dropdown icon in the upper right corner of the meter to discover more information about the next profile strength completion step
● Follow the prompts to complete any of the steps listed
3. Get involved!
Social media is social for a reason. By engaging with content on LinkedIn, your connections or followers see this action, which builds your reputation and keeps you at the top of their mind. Engaging is as simple as liking or sharing someone else’s post which resonates with you and building a conversation. You can share your view, your experience or perspective on the topic.
Creating updates (or posts) gives a chance to showcase your expertise and knowledge. Updates are generally shorter and it is important to put the company’s position or view on the content, so readers can fully understand the brand and the differentiation. You can create longer pieces of content called articles on LinkedIn. This can allow you to write in-depth about your expertise – challenges, opportunities, important trends in your specialism. They are typically longer than posts and are limited to 125,000 characters at the moment, plus you can include images, external links and rich media.
