Why Your LinkedIn Profile Might be a Wasted Opportunity

You’re probably on LinkedIn. And if you’re like a lot of other small business owners out there, you’ve possibly written off LinkedIn as a waste of time. Maybe you put your resume info on your LinkedIn profile and forgot about it.

Don’t.

LinkedIn can be a powerful platform, particularly for B2B marketing. It’s not just for recruiters and job seekers.

WHY YOU SHOULD RECONSIDER LINKEDIN AS A MARKETING PLATFORM

You can go on LinkedIn right now and use the advanced search features to find just about anyone you want—down to the industry, location, company and title. If you market to other businesses, why wouldn’t you use that capability to your advantage? Whether you’re looking for CEOs in Australia or solopreneurs in Austin, it’s the ultimate marketing list!

But if you’re going to use LinkedIn for lead generation then you have to get at least one thing absolutely right: your LinkedIn profile. It’s not just a virtual business card. It’s a full-length advertisement!

THE COMMON MISTAKE ALMOST EVERYONE MAKES ON LINKEDIN

Generally speaking, there are a few reasons people use LinkedIn (in no particular order):

1. To recruit job candidates
2. To look for a job
3. To keep up with their professional network
4. To develop leads

The mistake many make is that they create the same profile regardless of their objective on LinkedIn. The profile is essentially a digital resume. And while a resume profile works for numbers 2 and 3 above, it doesn’t work well at all for #4: lead generation.

When you use LinkedIn for job hunting, your target audience for your profile is either a recruiter in HR or a headhunter—both of which are trying to match keywords in your resume to a job description. So, the digital resume approach makes sense.

But if you are trying to connect with potential customers, a resume doesn’t work. That’s because simply listing a description of your previous jobs doesn’t really say much about what you can do for a potential customer in the future.

When was the last time you called on or pitched a customer using your resume? I’m guessing never.

IT’S ALL ABOUT POSITIONING

Your profile should position you as solving a pain point or problem for a particular audience. But the problem you solve for a potential employer is much different than the problem you solve for a customer. Position accordingly.

For lead generation, think through the following questions first:

• Whom do you serve?
• What pain or problem do you solve?
• How do you uniquely solve it?
• What does the customer get as a result?

Then work those answers into your profile.

A CHECKLIST TO OPTIMIZE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE

Here’s a really good checklist that Josh Steimle (influencer coach, thought leader, agency owner) put together:

Checklist: 13 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Josh provides some great tips, particularly for how to write a good title and summary bio. Combined with the answers to the questions above, you should be well on your way to a much stronger profile for lead generation.

In the end, you want to attract the right people to you. And, when you do decide to reach out to others, they’ll see you as someone they should get to know better.

So, sharpen up that profile and make it work harder for you… starting today.

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