As a small business owner, you have likely been using LinkedIn for years to connect with former colleagues, find corporate roles, and stay up on industry trends.
You keep hearing that your LinkedIn profile is important as a small business owner. But why?
Your profile seems just fine as it is; however, you have a suspicion that it could be working harder for you. You're not exactly sure what that means or how to fix it.
In this blog post, I'll deconstruct how your profile can work harder for you and convert your community into leads.
Just for a minute, I want you to think that instead of running an online business, you have an in-person store. And now let’s say you want to market your store so more customers come to it.
What would you do first?
Would you paint the walls, create appealing signage, and make sure the cashier register is in a logical place?
Or, would you post flyers around the neighborhood, run ads, and throw an event to get new customers to come by?
You’d probably start with the first option, painting the walls. You’d make some up front investments to make sure that your store looks good and is a place where customers want to buy your products.
You know that designing your store is worthwhile because it will set your future marketing efforts up for success. Your store will deliver a "wow" experience and be a place people want to hang out.
While you don’t have a physical storefront as an online business owner, you do have a LinkedIn profile.
So before you start promoting your LinkedIn profile by using strategies like direct messaging and posting, I want to make sure your LinkedIn profile’s walls are painted and signage is clear.
(By the way, you can learn what a "LinkedIn strategy" is by reading this blog post, and why having one could be a game-changer for your small business.)
Today, your profile is completed, but not optimized.
If I were to guess, your profile is probably in decent shape because you’ve used it to recruit for corporate roles in the past. I can tell when you’ve worked on your profile because:
Your headline and about section are complete
Your featured section contains relevant links
You list all your recent work experiences
You have a few recommendations
You have a cover photo
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad you have filled in your profile. Because you've done that, when people come by it, they get a sense of what you do and who you are.
But what makes a profile optimized?
Let’s break this down. A profile is optimized when:
Your about section talks about your ideal customer’s problem
Your entire profile tells one story of taking a particular action
Your recommendations are plentiful, relevant, and recent
Your headline communicates your unique value
Your cover photo is designed to convert
When I help a small business owner with their LinkedIn profile, I am not building them a new profile.
I am helping them refine their messaging and improving how we use different features and settings on the profile so that we clearly communicate the following:
Who you are
Why you are qualified
What transformation you make possible
What services your online business offers
What action folks should take to work with you
What’s the impact of an optimized profile?
When you have these elements in place, your LinkedIn profile becomes a hard-working member of your team, as my friend Ophir Tal says. It tells a compelling story of your value and expertise to your clients.
If you already have a lot of traffic coming to your profile, optimizing it can result in more calls booked, like it did for Abe.
If you don’t already have a lot of traffic coming to your profile, optimizing it can result in having more clarity around your brand messaging, offers, and target audience. Here are just a few examples:
How to optimize your LinkedIn profile without the hassle
Many business owners find optimizing their LinkedIn profile intimidating, overwhelming, and unnecessarily time-consuming. I get it.
That’s why I created a service called a “LinkedIn Profile Refresh” where I optimize your profile for you.
Since opening my business in December 2023, I’ve provided this service to 80 and counting business owners.
Here’s how it works:
You fill out a questionnaire to tell me about your business (typically takes 30-60 minutes).
I ask you questions as needed to make sure everything is clear.
I create a document with all my word-for-word suggestions on your profile. My designer prepares simple designs for your cover image and featured section. Within 10 days, you'll have this document in your hands.
You review my feedback and we have up to 10 days of back and forth and implement the feedback using my step-by-step tutorial videos.
Get started by clicking here.
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