John Davy

Be better at LinkedIn

Be better at LinkedIn John Davy

What’s all the Fuss about?

• What is LinkedIn?

• Why is LinkedIn good for you?

• Why is LinkedIn good for your business?

• Where does LinkedIn fit between you and your business?

What is LinkedIn?

• The LinkedIn Mission statement:

“The mission of LinkedIn is to connect the world’s professionals to enable them to be more productive and successful.

To achieve our mission, we make services available through our website, mobile applications, and developer platform, to help you, your connections, and millions of other professionals meet, exchange ideas, learn, make deals, find opportunities or employees, work, and make decisions in a network of trusted relationships and groups.”

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman

What is LinkedIn?

• It is a social media site & communication platform designed to support business interests

• A global database of business connections with over 380 million members

• Your personal web page to display your skills and services with those who have common interests

• LinkedIn connects you with your business and promotes both!

Why LinkedIn is good for you

• A free web page that promotes your “personal brand”

• An opportunity to demonstrate credibility and reputation within your area of expertise

• A highly credible website that improves your chances of being found for what you shine at, both within LinkedIn and on a range of search engines

• A place to connect with professional people and extend your network of business contacts

A place to connect with people who have common interests

Why LinkedIn is good for your business

• It promotes the business and the people within that business by highlighting skills and experience

• It helps your company find new clients and communicate with existing connections

• It assists inbound and outbound due diligence

• It can be an effective way to attract new talent

• It facilitates an integrated approach to Digital Marketing & SEO

The LinkedIn fit Between you and your business

• A completed profile connected with a company page creates an integrated strength, adding to ranking & credibility - everybody wins!

• Those looking at the business have confidence that the people within have the abilities they are seeking

• Personal networks can be used to promote sales of service & products

• The connection of profiles to company pages allows for sharing of content and information to an expanded network

The LinkedIn Ranking System

• LinkedIn constantly evaluates how well you have completed your profile and assigns a rating

• This affects how well your profile does in the LinkedIn search results

• The Traffic Light system ranks your profile by level:

• Beginner• Intermediate• Advanced• Expert• All Star

The LinkedIn Ranking System

• Most of us want to present ourselves in the best possible light.

• You want to stand out for the right reasons.

• You want to rank ahead of your competitors.

• You want to be found for your expertise.

The aim of this course is to get you to all Star!

Anatomy of a Great Profile

Anatomy of a Great Profile - Overview

• The key sections that make up a LinkedIn profile

• An explanation of each section & why they are important

• The LinkedIn grading system for profiles

• Common errors made when creating profiles

The Top Section - Image, Headline and Contacts

• This section is your Newspaper Front Page. If it is good they will pick it up, if not they will move onto the next one

• Having a good professional Image will give your profile a far better chance of being read

• The Headline allows you to snapshot your role, the services you provide and the problems you will solve

• You can insert contact data such as phone, address, contact numbers, email, websites and links to other digital assets

The Top Section - Image, Headline and Contacts

• It is often the difference between someone looking at your profile, or not!

• It is the only part of your profile that will feature in a search on LinkedIn, Google, Bing etc.

• It is your first opportunity to stand out from the crowd

• It is a chance to invite interested parties to delve deeper

The Top Section - Image, Headline and Contacts

The Good (!)

The Top Section - Image, Headline and Contacts

The Bad & the Ugly

London 2012 Waterpolo Venue

The Summary Section

• One of the most important parts of your profile

• Where you can define yourself from scratch

• The first thing people read if they get past your headline

• It is personal:

• It is where people will look to see what makes you tick

• Done right you will allow people to engage on a personal level and start to build a relationship

• It can add further value to your headline and give a compelling reason for people to work with you, rather than your competition

• It is a big part of the profile rating system used by LinkedIn (and a lot of people don’t even fill it out!)

The Summary Section

The Summary Section

• Things to include:

• A short version of why you do what you do (in your own words - first person is good here)

• Your personal story, including your strengths, capabilities and personal values

• Advertise your value by telling the world about:• The challenges you come across• How you help solve those challenges• The positive outcomes for your clients

The Experience Section

• The place you can: • Tell a story of your work history • Inform people of your title and role (and more) • Insert key words and phrases that support your

current business

• Your chance to clearly outline what you have done in the past, what you do right now how you can help and serve others

The Experience Section

• These entries are another big part of the profile ranking system used by LinkedIn• Fill out a bit more than Title and from/to dates!

• Another opportunity to create a short case study on:• The kind of problems and challenges people come

to you with• What you do to help and solve those problems• The positive result that comes from that process

for the people you are helping

Network Elements

• Network Elements are the sections of your profile that reflect the strength of your profession network, including:

• Connections - colleagues, peers, clients, mentors etc

• Endorsements - “social proof” from others

• Recommendations - long-form recognition

• Projects - successful projects you have been associated with

• Group Membership - that mentor your interests or help your clients.

Common Mistakes!

• Image - no image, cats, bad backgrounds, out of focus, crops of “facebook” or party photos etc.

• Headline - accepting the default - LinkedIn uses your current experience position and title

• Summary - not using it, or wasting it by writing about your current position

• Experience - lacking detail, not telling a story, CV style• Network elements - Incomplete or missed out

sections

• Bonus: Any meaningless “buzzwords” without evidence to back them up - e.g. Highly motivated / Driven / Strategic / Holistic / Team player

Thanks for Listening to my Beta!

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CONTACT US ON linkedin@dojoplex.com