When you think of marketing strategies, do you immediately think Google AdWords, Facebook advertising, banner ads, building backlinks or creating a press release? Don’t forget about LinkedIn. With its membership at 433 million and growing by 2 new members per second, LinkedIn is well on its way to its goal of obtaining 3 billion members. Of those 433 million users, 128 million come from the United States.
So, with all those members, what’s the secret to being found and converting more prospects?
The first thing you need to realize is that LinkedIn is NOT just a forum for job seekers, so once you get past that misconception, you’re already miles ahead of your competition. Next, you need to optimize your profile, and fortunately, LinkedIn has some great guidelines to help you do just that.
The more complete your profile, the more views you’ll receive, leading to more conversions. Of the big three, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which do you suspect converts more prospects? The answer is LinkedIn. Why? Of the three, members on LinkedIn are more business oriented. They’re movers and shakers, leaders of industry and entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses. On average, they also have higher incomes. They can make stuff happen.
Improving the odds of being found (the back side of LinkedIn)
On the back side of being found, what LinkedIn does with your information can be summed up by comparing them to Google. How? They use their own (proprietary) algorithms to determine how your profile shows up on search queries. Those algorithms take into account the relevancy of your profile to the searcher. Just like Google, how you rank depends on multiple factors.
You may show up on page 3 for a specific keyword from one prospect and on page 8 from another (using the same keyword). It really doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a LinkedIn member, how big your network is or what your subscription level is. For example, if the prospect is looking for services in Honolulu and you’re a local firm serving Metro Miami Dade, then variances are to be expected in their search results.
More keywords are not the answer either as you should only focus on keywords that are relevant to the services you offer. Ensure that your profile reflects your expertise and experience.
First order of business – make sure your profile is visible to the world
This seems so simple, but apparently quite a few folks don’t realize that profiles can be or NOT visible. You’ll certainly never be found if your profile is not visible. To check whether or not your profile is visible, click on Edit Profile to verify this.
Second order of business – fill in the blanks
My gosh, how do you expect the world to come knocking on your door if all you put on your profile is your job title and description? Follow the LinkedIn prompts to completely fill out your profile. Trust me, it’ll greatly improve the odds someone will seeking your services.
Third order of business and this is a BIGGIE
I see so many headlines that read CEO of this or that, Sales Manager, Sales Executive, Customer Service Manager and the like. Think about this for just a moment – who is searching for those keywords? To increase conversions, you need to approach this from your prospect’s point of view. They have a problem or issue they need resolved. Are they searching for a Director – probably not. Odds are they already have one of those things. They’re looking for someone who does what they’re looking for – someone who can actually help.
This goes back to Sales 101 – convince prospects that you can solve their issues.
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