Read Your LinkedIn Profile Again
You really don need to re read your LINKEDIN® profile. I just stumbled upon a great LinkedIn profile article I posted nearly two years ago. And as I read the first line, it occurred to me how much power it has to look at things in a new unit of time.
Shortly after I started the OBN website, I was on a webinar call with a very established internet marketer by the name of Brad Fallon. Brad just happens to be the founder of Stompernet, a company that teaches others how to market on the web.
That day Brad was doing website reviews, so I asked him to look at my newly created and activate homepage. As he started analyzing the page, I started having “Aha” moments one right after the other.
I knew and understood everything he was telling me about my site but somehow in the middle of working on it has just gone off in the wrong direction.
This was an amazing experience. It pointed out the value of looking at things a new. It also showed me how very difficult to see the flaws in our own creations. Sometimes we are just too close to the action and do not really see what is there as others see it.
Your LinkedIn Profile
Your profile is probably the most important piece of your LinkedIn effort. Because your profile that has the power to get people, prospects, and new customers to engage you.
It is time to re read your LinkedIn profile with new glasses
All that said I want you to go to your LinkedIn profile and re read it. This time read it as if you were meeting this person for the first time.
Read it with the mindset of those you are trying to attract. Assume for the moment that you are interested in this area of expertise for your own business.
The other day, one of my connections sent me a note re the updating of his profile. I would like to share with you my comments and some additional annotations, as they are very relevant to most of the profiles on LinkedIn.
My comments
Your profile is a very nice and clean version of the typical LinkedIn profile. However, my recommendation would be a different approach.
First: Write your profile for the reader
Re write your profile with the visitor in mind, and not about yourself. People, and especially suspects, prospects, and potential new customers are not interested in you UNTIL they see what value you can give.
When your profile discusses what you do or have done, it does not answer the reader’s question — “What’s in it for me?”
It becomes similar to reading an article in which you have no interest at all. Remember high school and all the stuff you did not want to read.
It is unfortunate but the majority of LinkedIn profiles talk about the writer instead of reader.
Second: You need a call to action
A call to action is simply a statement that asks the reader to do something. It is the heart of any marketing piece and that includes your profile.
Remember the old saying “You don’t get what you don’t ask for.” If you doubt this, ask anyone who has spent some time selling for a living.
If your profile does not ask or even encourage the reader to engage you, they probably will not engage.
When you simply state facts about your company, products, and how great you think you are, you are not giving the reader a compelling reason to engage you.
The only way you succeed on LinkedIn is by getting others to engage you. If your LinkedIn profile does not give you the chance to tell your story, you will not sell much of what you have to offer.
Your LinkedIn profile must at least ask the reader to connect with you on LinkedIn, and better yet move him or her to your website.
You can accomplish this by offering the reader value – by showing the reader that you will help them improve their current condition by providing something of value. If you do this, they will visit your website.
To learn a little more about calls to action read this article:
http://flynpenoyer.com/call-to-action/
Third: A website link is not enough
This of course relates to the concept of having a call to action.
If you have no offer or compelling reason for the reader to visit your website you will not get visitors. If all you talk about is yourself, you will not compel or interest them in your business.
Remember, that what you say about yourself is rarely taken very seriously by the prospect UNTIL they see the value you will provide them.
Your profile is an advertisement or marketing piece. It is the headline of your business. Thus, you should consider Eugene M. Schwartz description of the headline’s job as given in his remarkable book “Breakthrough Advertising:” I quote “Your headline has only one job–to stop your prospect and compel him to read the second sentence of your ad.”
For more information on the marketing aspects of LinkedIn sign up for the free course module offered in the right hand column.
If you re read your profile understanding and considering the above, you should get a new picture. This new picture should reveal ways you can improve your LinkedIn profile and thus your results.
From Flyn
For help with your profile consider having me help…
http://www.onlinebusinessnetworker.com/services/linkedin-profile-rewri te
Hi Flyn
This is an excellent and timely reminder of what we all need to do: I shall re-look at my profile with your advice in mind. Thanks.
Excellent point, Flyn. As we all join the latest and greatest social media platforms, we are eager to get established, often not taking sufficient time to think through filling in all of those boxes required for each profile. Then, we get busy and find we have half a dozen or more profiles to deal with. Needless to say, reviewing and updating those profiles doesn’t make it to the top of our priorities list as it should. I will definitely be reviewing my LinkedIn profile soon. Thanks for these ideas!
Very useful and directing, thank you Flyn.