10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand

10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand -- By Tom Humbarger

10 Steps to ImprovingYour LinkedIn Brand

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhumbarger


Which LinkedIn Profile Do You Want?



LinkedIn is the premier professional networking website and currently has over 347 million users worldwide and more than 107 million users in the US.

The best way to build your LinkedIn brand is to ensure that your profile is up-to-date and has outstanding “curb-appeal”. When people are selling a house, they spend time to make their property appealing by adding a fresh coat of paint, mowing the grass and sprucing up the interior. In a similar manner, you want to do the same thing with your LinkedIn profile.

With LinkedIn, you are essentially advertising your brand and your skills, and a complete profile makes people trust you more which will increase the likelihood that they will want to connect with you. In addition, having a great personal brand has a spillover effect on your company’s branding efforts as well. Even if you have been on LinkedIn for a while, the following tips will help you polish your LinkedIn brand to generate more “curb-appeal” and set you up for higher success.

The rest of this presentation provides you with a 10 Step Plan to improve your personal LinkedIn Brand.

Get Curb Appeal For Your LinkedIn Brand



When you have a picture in your LinkedIn profile, you come across as more believable and people tend to connect more readily when they visualize what you look like. In fact, studies show that people are 11x more likely to view your profile if you have a picture. They are also more likely to reach out to you as your photo helps to personalize and humanize your personal brand. It is important to select an appealing photo that strikes the right image and professional tone.

Add a Professional Profile Picture1



After your picture, your headline is the next thing that a user will see. By default, your headline is the job title from your latest position – but that does not really tell people much about yourself. You want to create a great first impression and the headline is the place to do.

Write a Strong Headline2



The summary section is best described as an overview for the rest of your profile – by providing the highlights of who you are, what you do and why someone should connect with you. You want to leave a lasting impression – and remember that you have 2,000 characters to make your point.

You should start your Summary section with a short one-sentence elevator pitch and then include the following information:• What do you do• Why people should connect with you• What have you accomplished• What are your skills and industries• How can someone contact you (adding an email and/or phone number is critical)

Use ALL CAPS to define sections and bullets when listing items.

Craft a Compelling Summary3



At the top right of the Summary section there is box with a plus. This button allows you to upload media to your profile. This feature provides you with another great way to improve your personal and corporate branding. The media upload options include Documents, Photos, Links, Videos or Slideshare Presentations. Examples of how you can leverage this option include: uploading a corporate overview presentation or video, adding a logo, and sharing a link to a favorite article or blog post. Note that only the top five uploads show on your Profile and any additional uploads are available when a user clicks on the More link.

Craft a Compelling Summary3



LinkedIn lets you add contact information your profile – some is visible to only your connections and some is visible to everyone on LinkedIn. Share what you’re comfortable with on the “Visible to connections” section. For the “Visible to everyone”, you should include your company’s primary website and you may consider adding links to your careers site, social media page, a personal blog or a profile on another site. If you are Twitter or WeChat user, you can also list your username as well.

Add Contact Information and Websites4



By default, LinkedIn assigns your profile with a URL that includes part of your name and some random numbers and slashes. Smart LinkedIn users know that they can get a personalized public profile URL which makes the link easier to remember and share with others—plus, it raises the visibility of your brand on Google searches.

From this same page, you can review who can see your public profile. My strong recommendation is that you make your profile visible to everyone which will include your profile directly in Google searches as well as searches on LinkedIn.

Update Your Public Profile and URL5



When you are documenting your work history, be sure to include a brief description of the company, and what you did and what you accomplished while working at the company.

Add a bulleted list of your key responsibilities and accomplishments and be sure to include key words.

Document Your Work History6



At the bottom of each entry in your Work History, you also have the option to Add Media to your profile just like you can do with your Summary section. This option is a great way to add employer branding to your profile or to showcase some of your favorite projects. You may want to check with your marketing group or team for appropriate corporate information that you can share in this section.

The Add Media links for the Work History section are more straightforward than the method for adding media to your Summary section.

Document Your Work History6



The Skills & Endorsements section is where you can highlight your strengths. In fact, users who list Skills on their LinkedIn profile are 13x more likely to have their profile viewed by others.

You can add up to 50 skills, so try to add as many relevant skills as possible and expertise to showcase your experience and to improve your findability in LinkedIn searches.

Add Keywords to Skills & Endorsements7



Make sure you document your college education and majors under the Education section. If you add the years when you were in college, it makes it easier to connect with others whose college experience overlapped yours. Do not forget to add in your collegiate activities and societies. Another way to connect with others who have a similar interest is to add in your volunteer activities and causes.

Document Your Education & Volunteerism8



LinkedIn has more than one million different groups organized around professions, geographies and interests. LinkedIn Groups provide an excellent way for you to network with others, gather information and brand yourself as a subject matter expert. LinkedIn lets you join up to 50 groups—and you should join at least four groups as a starter.

Build Thought Leadership with Groups9



Be sure to review your Privacy settings by clicking on your name in the upper right corner of the LinkedIn homepage. In the privacy settings, you can set who can see your connections, who can contact you, how often you receive emails from your groups and manage other productivity and privacy settings.

Key Privacy Recommendations:• Activity broadcasts - ON• Who can see – EVERYONE• What others see – NAME & HEADLINE• Who can see your connections – ONLY YOU• Discover by phone number - EVERYONE

Review Your Privacy Settings10



Summary – 10 Steps To Improving Your BrandStep

1 Add a Professional Profile Picture2 Write a Strong Headline3 Craft a Compelling Summary4 Add Contact Information and Websites5 Update Your Public Profile and URL6 Document Your Work History7 Add Keywords to Skills and Endorsements8 Document Your Education and Volunteerism9 Build Thought Leadership in Groups

10 Review Your Privacy Settings


I am Social Media and Digital Marketing Strategist experienced in both B2B and B2C arenas, and have proven expertise in multiple industries. My strengths include: developing and implementing marketing and social media strategies, generating brand awareness and demand, crafting marketing positioning and collateral, managing social media properties on a daily basis, curating content and writing blog posts, developing training materials and instructing associates on social media best practices, engaging with customers and prospects, analyzing marketing performance to determine effectiveness and evangelizing stakeholders and customers.

I am an early social media adopter and have been involved in Social Media since 2006 -- and I was the 82,754th person to join LinkedIn in December 2003.I also managed a LinkedIn Company Page that was named as a Top 10 Company Page for 2013.

Contact me by email via [email protected] or check out my blog or LinkedIn Profile for more information on how I can help your company achieve your social media goals and objectives.

Click here for my LinkedIn ProfileClick here for my Social Media and Marketing blog

About Tom Humbarger

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140701193719-82754-do-you-want-a-top-10-linkedin-company-page?trk=mp-reader-card

mailto:[email protected]?subject=I%20Want%20To%20Connect%20With%20You

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhumbarger

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhumbarger

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10 Steps to Improving Your LinkedIn Brand