LINKEDIN GUIDE FOR EXECUTIVES: HOW TO CREATE A WINNING STRATEGY
As a CEO, there’s a ton of potential to leverage your own personal profile as an extension of your company’s presence on the platform. Not to mention, LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Twitter and Facebook. But first, you’ll need to figure out how to use your own professional narrative to support your company’s overarching marketing goals. Here are some tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile:
Tell your story
Everyone loves a good story. Identify what your marketing goals are then use these insights to craft a compelling narrative for yourself that aligns with that of your business. Consider your personal profile as a place to share your professional journey with others, while also highlighting any skills or achievements in the field that would give you authority in this space. Ultimately, the goal here is to give your profile viewers a clear picture of who you are, what’s important to you, and what skills or experience you have that makes you an expert in this field.
Write a compelling summary
Don’t underestimate the value of including a well-crafted summary of qualifications at the top of your profile. Knowing how to write a strong summary will not only ensure your profile gets noticed by the right people, but it also invokes enough interest in profile viewers for them to keep scrolling to get to know you (and your company) better. In essence, a great profile summary should provide viewers with a snapshot of your skills and experience, while including relevant keywords that will boost the visibility of your page.
Add a profile picture
Say cheese! First impressions matter and the sentiment “dress to impress” doesn’t just apply in real life anymore. Try to add a recent, professional-looking headshot to your profile to help people put a face to the person (and brand). Moreover, being able to connect a face to the business can add a certain level of personalization to your brand that humanizes it. In fact, adding a profile picture to your account can lead to 21x more profile views.
Add a banner image
A picture is worth a thousand words. Even though your background photo isn’t nearly as important as your profile photo, adding a nice banner to your profile gives it some competitive edge. Furthermore, it can help complete your visual storyline while giving profile viewers a better sense of who you are and what’s important to you. Besides, why wouldn’t you take advantage of all the free marketing real estate that’s available?
Use relevant keywords
When done correctly, inserting a few keywords throughout your profile can enhance its visibility (another opportunity to drive traffic over to your company page). Identify a list of popular niche-specific keywords that you can use consistently on your profile and in future posts. When it comes to captions, try to use 1-3 hashtags to ensure your content lands in front of the right audience.
Grow your network
Network, network, network. Remember, LinkedIn is a professional networking site, so you do want to put in the effort to connect with people. Growing your network will not only strengthen your online presence, but it will also help extend your reach to a wider audience. Whether you shared a brief conversation with someone at a past networking event or worked together over a decade ago, don’t be afraid to send out an invite to connect. Chances are, they’re more than happy to grow their network as well.
Engage
Growing your network isn’t just about increasing the number of connections you have, but also actively engaging with others on the platform. In the absence of face-to-face interactions, you can still easily build rapport with other professionals online by liking, commenting, or sharing their posts. Just make sure it aligns with your own values or that of your business. Putting in the effort to engage with others on LinkedIn can help you build genuine connections with other like-minded professionals while increasing brand awareness for your company.
