20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2020

Make this the year that you invest a little time in personal branding on LinkedIn

Jane Fleming As marketers, we invest a lot of time and resource in building brands. We’re trained at it – and we’re good at it. But how often do we apply those skills to building our own personal brands? For many of us, it’s nothing like as often as we should. I know that there’s more that I could be doing to build my own profile on LinkedIn – and I know that I’m not alone.

We don’t get around to it because we’re busy, and because it can sometimes feel selfish or egotistical to invest time in marketing ourselves. However, when we neglect personal branding, we don’t just sell ourselves short – we also miss a big opportunity from a marketing perspective. The impact of employees who share content is huge. And the most effective employee sharers are those who’ve built their personal brand on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn profile page is the foundation for your personal branding. And we regularly add features to increase its capabilities as a personal marketing platform and give you new ways to signal your skills and motivations. If you haven’t checked your profile page recently, you might well find new ways to build your personal brand.

Here are 20 profile features you should check and update for 2020. Some of them are very quick wins, some of them may take a little bit of time – but all of them are very worthwhile. They will help to give you the LinkedIn profile and personal brand that you deserve.

1. Choose the right profile picture for LinkedIn Your profile picture is your calling card on LinkedIn – it’s how people are introduced to you and (visual beings that we are) it governs their impressions from the start. There are some great posts explaining how to pick the right profile picture on LinkedIn – but here are some quick tips to start with: make sure the picture is recent and looks like you, make up your face takes up around 60% of it (long-distance shots don’t stand out), wear what you would like to wear to work, and smile with your eyes!

2. Add a background photo Your background photo is the second visual element at the top of your profile page. It grabs people’s attention, sets the context and shows a little more about what matters to you. More than anything, the right background photo helps your page stand out, engage attention and stay memorable.

3. Make your headline more than just a job title There’s no rule that says the description at the top of your profile page has to be just a job title. Use the headline field to say a bit more about how you see your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you tick. If you’ve got sales reps at your company who are on the ball with social selling, then take a quick look at their profile page headlines for inspiration. They will almost certainly have more than their job titles in there.

4. Turn your summary into your story The first thing to say about your LinkedIn summary is – make sure you have one! It’s amazing how many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile. Your summary is your chance to tell your own story – so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had. Try to bring to life why those skills matter – and the difference they can make to the people you work with. Don’t be afraid to invest some time, try a few drafts, and run your summary past people you know. This is your most personal piece of content marketing – and it’s worth the effort.

5. Declare war on buzzwords Buzzwords are adjectives that are used so often in LinkedIn headlines and summaries that they become almost completely meaningless. Our regular rankings of the most over-used buzzwords include terms like ‘specialised’, ‘leadership’, ‘focused’, ‘strategic’, ‘experienced’, ‘passionate’, ‘expert’, ‘creative’, ‘innovative’ and ‘certified’. Now I’m not saying you can’t describe yourself as these things – or that they don’t matter. However, just using these words won’t convince people that you have these qualities. You need to demonstrate them as well – both in the way you describe yourself, and in the way you use LinkedIn profile features to show what you’re about.

6. Grow your network One of the easiest and yet most relevant ways to grow your LinkedIn network is to synch your profile with your email address book. This enables LinkedIn to suggest people you could connect with. It’s amazing how effective this can be at surfacing relevant people for you to reach out to – and no connection requests are sent without your permission, so you can vet all of the potential connections. Beyond this, get into the habit of following up meetings and conversations with LinkedIn connection requests – it’s a great way of keeping your network vibrant and up to date.

7. List your relevant skills It’s one of the quickest of quick wins on LinkedIn – scroll through the list of skills and identify those that are relevant to you. Doing so helps to substantiate the description in your Headline and Summary, and provides a platform for others to endorse you. However, the key here is staying relevant. A long list of skills that aren’t really core to who you are and what you do, can start to feel unwieldy. Take time for a spring clean of your skills list every now and then.

8. Spotlight the services you offer Services is a new LinkedIn feature that helps consultants, freelancers and those working for smaller businesses to showcase the range of services that they offer. Filling out the Services section of your profile can boost your visibility in search results.

9. Spread the endorsement love Endorsements from other members substantiate your skills and increase your credibility. How do you get endorsed on LinkedIn? For starters, go through your network and identify connections who you feel genuinely deserve an endorsement from you – that’s often the trigger for people to return the favour. Don’t be afraid to reach out with a polite message asking for endorsement for a few key skills as well. Remember though – relevance matters. Reach out to people whose endorsement you’d really value.

10. Manage your endorsements more proactively Once endorsements start to come in, you might find that they skew the emphasis of your LinkedIn profile in ways that don’t reflect who you are. It could be that your core area of expertise is content marketing for example, but the people who’ve worked with you on events are more enthusiastic endorsers. Be proactive in managing your endorsements list using the edit features in the Skills section of your profile – you can choose which to show, and which to hide.

11. Take a skills assessment A skills assessment is an online test that enables you to demonstrate the level of your skills, and display a Verified Skills badge on your profile. Data shows that candidates with verified skills are around 30% more likely to be hired for the roles they apply for – and displaying proof your abilities strengthens your personal brand more generally as well. Displaying the results of your skills assessments is entirely voluntary, and you can retake the tests as often as you like before showing that you’ve passed.

12. Request recommendations Endorsements give people viewing your profile a quick, visual sense of what you’re valued for. Recommendations take things a step further. They are personal testimonials written to illustrate the experience of working with you. There’s a handy drop-down menu in the Recommendations section of your profile that makes it easy to reach out to specific contacts and request recommendations. Take the time to think about who you would most value a recommendation from – and personalise your request. It’s worth the extra effort. 13. Showcase your passion for learning

When you complete a course on LinkedIn Learning, you’ll have the opportunity to add a course certificate to your LinkedIn profile. You do this from within the Learning History section of your LinkedIn Learning account – where you can also send updates about your learning to your network if choose.

14. Share media and marketing collateral The marketing collateral that you produce for your business can add an extra dimension to your own profile as well. Sharing case studies, white papers and other brand content helps to show what the business you work for is all about – and helps people understand what makes you tick. It demonstrates passion and commitment as well.

15. Get credit for your thought-leadership with Publications The Publications section is one of the most under-used elements in LinkedIn profiles – and that means that you can really stand out from the crowd when you use this feature to draw attention to existing thought-leadership content. Have you helped to write an eBook or a White Paper? Or written a post on your company’s blog? The Publications section links your profile to these assets.

16. Share relevant content from your LinkedIn feed It’s one thing to have a network of connections on LinkedIn – it’s far better to have an active role in that network, appearing in your connections’ LinkedIn feeds in a way that adds value for them. Sharing relevant content with your network is one of the most accessible ways of doing this. You can make a start by keeping a close eye on your LinkedIn feed, and sharing content that you find genuinely interesting – and that aligns with your point of view.

17. Add comments Sharing is great – but it’s just the starting point. When you add comments to your shares, you give yourself greater prominence within the feed and start to express why you think a particular piece of content matters. Well-expressed comments also enable you to share a broader range of content. It might be that you don’t agree with a point of view but still find it interesting, for example. A comment that can express that viewpoint starts to establish your opinion and thought-leadership. It’s also more likely to draw additional comments, which then raise your profile across LinkedIn. Bear this mind when you’re writing your comment – and make sure you’re saying something you’re happy for people to associate with you. 18. Follow relevant influencers for your industry Following relevant influencers on LinkedIn helps to put a range of interesting content in your feed, which you can then share with others when you think it adds value. It also helps to give context to your LinkedIn profile, demonstrating your passion for what you do.

19. Become an employee advocate LinkedIn Elevate is our platform for helping businesses to launch and manage employee advocacy programmes – and it generates some fascinating insights on the impact that employee sharing has for those doing the sharing. In fact, 86% of employee advocates say that sharing content for their business has had a positive effect on their own career. If your business is using Elevate, then it’s a great way to take a more active role in getting your brand content out there. If it’s not, then it’s still worth reaching out to colleagues and asking who’s producing content that would be worth sharing on LinkedIn.

20. Publish long-form content – and use it to start conversations The more you share and comment on content, the more you establish your expertise and thought-leadership credentials on LinkedIn. Publishing long-form posts is the natural next step to take. A great starting point is to monitor the response that you get to your comments and shares. Are there particular subjects and points of view that seem to resonate with your network? Are there comments that you have shared which you feel you could expand on in a post? Evolving your thought-leadership in this way keeps it real – and keeps you plugged into the issues your connections are talking about. Be ready for your long-form posts to start new conversations too. Keep an eye on the comments and be ready to respond.

Getting your LinkedIn profile working harder for you doesn’t have to take up hours of your time. Try working through these ideas, building from one to the other – and you’ll find that you can make progress quickly, even if you’re just able to set aside a few minutes over a lunch break or in the evenings. Once your flexing the full advantages of your LinkedIn profile you’ll be amazed what a difference it can make to both you and your business. Make 2020 the year it happens!

Great article by Josh Steimle on how to be a thought leader on LinkedIn:

https://www.joshsteimle.com/linkedin/how-to-become-a-thought-leader-on-linkedin.html

Here’s a 7-step process to get you started.

1. DEFINE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Who are you, or who do you want to be? Gay Hendrick teaches in The Big Leap about “expert zones” and your “genius zone,” and how we often assume we need to do anything and everything we’re good at. However, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean it should take up any of your time. Anything you’re good at is an “expert zone,” but we should be spending our time in our area of true genius where we can make a unique contribution.

To build a powerful personal brand one needs to understand what makes one unique and means combining expert zones.

For example, I’ve run a marketing agency for 20 years, so I know a few things about marketing, and you could call me a marketing expert. But there are a lot of marketing experts out there who know just as much as or more than I do. That doesn’t make me unique.

I also know a lot about skateboarding. I’ve been involved in the skateboarding industry for decades, but that also doesn’t make me unique. There are 20 million other skateboarders out there in the world. But how many people know as much about marketing as I do, and also know as much about skateboarding as I do? Maybe a few dozen.

That’s not the intersection I’ve chosen to make my genius zone, but this example shows how by experimenting with different overlapping interests you can find an area around which to build a powerful personal brand.

2. FIND YOUR AUDIENCE

Once you know who you are, it’s just as important to know who your audience is. As with discovering your expert zones and your genius zones, you have good audiences and your ideal audience. If you’re planning on making a living or growing a business through thought leadership then your ideal audience will be like you, want what you are selling, and be able to buy it. Also, it should energize you to work with your audience, rather than leave you feeling drained.

To find your ideal audience, brainstorm a list of all your potential audiences and then identify which ones are the best, ideally narrowing it down to one, highly targeted audience.

3. CREATE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND TAGLINE

What value do you provide to your audience? Once you know who you are, who your audience is, and the value you provide to them, you can combine this all into a “personal brand tagline.” Here are a few examples that describe the personal brands of well-known thought leaders. You may never hear these exact words come out of their mouths, but through their words and actions these are the personal brands they’re communicating to us.

Gary Vaynerchuk – “I teach hustling entrepreneurs how to day trade attention.”

Amy Porterfield – “I teach entrepreneurs how to build email lists and create online courses with ease.”

Ramit Sethi – “I will teach you how to be rich.”

Each personal brand tagline identifies an audience, and explains the value that will be delivered.

What’s your personal brand tagline? Once you create it, use this as your title on your LinkedIn profile.

Download a checklist to create your personal brand tagline.

4. OPTIMIZE YOUR PROFILE

Most people skip the first three steps and jump right to setting up their profile on LinkedIn, and that’s why they don’t get results and think LinkedIn isn’t worth their time.

Once you have your personal brand nailed down, the rest is a lot easier. Your personal brand tagline becomes your title. Your bio becomes laser focused. You know how to talk about your work experience the right way to appeal to your audience and give them the information they need.

There are many points of optimization on your profile, the most important being your photo (here’s what not to do with your LinkedIn photo), title, bio, and banner.

Read more on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

5. CONNECT WITH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

When it comes to who you connect with on LinkedIn, quality comes first. However, the larger your network, the further your content will spread, so if your goal is to impact as many people as possible then pursue a strategy to consistently add members of your target audience as connections. This can be as simple as doing a search for the type of people you want to connect with and sending an invitation. Invitations that have a custom message are much more likely to be accepted, as are invitations that are sent to individuals in your geographic area, who are alumni of the same school you attended, or with whom you share many mutual connections.

One of the best ways to find quality connections is to see who comments on the content you produce, or on content of people you would like to be like (at least on LinkedIn). People who take the time to comment on posts on LinkedIn are worth their weight in gold. Treat them like you would treat your most valuable customer or client and they will help you spread your message far and wide.

An even better way to build your audience, whether you want a large audience or a small, focused one, is to create great content that attracts them.

6. CREATE COMPELLING CONTENT

As you’re building up your network, start creating content that will appeal to your audience. If you’re not sure where to start, follow the advice given by Marcus Sheridan in his book They Ask, You Answer and start answering questions your audience has.

If you’re not sure where to start, create a post and ask your connections to comment with questions they have about your genius zone. Then create a post for each question, and give your answer. Done. Easy.

Creating great content on LinkedIn gets easier the more you do it, so don’t quit if it doesn’t come naturally at first. Especially post native video. Video gets outsized attention on LinkedIn right now, and it doesn’t need to be professional. I posted a video I filmed on my phone, while walking, with no more than 20 seconds of preparation or thought beforehand, and it was seen over 150,000 times, generated hundreds of comments, and even led to new clients.

7. ENGAGE

Finally, what many thought leaders leave out on LinkedIn is they treat it as though it were a TV or radio broadcast. Perhaps you can become successful on LinkedIn telling everyone what you think and never listening, but you’ll enjoy so much more success if you dive in and respond to comments, and respond quickly. You’ll develop meaningful relationships, you’ll attract raving fans, your network will grow faster, your business will benefit more, and you’ll have more fun. It’s also one of the secrets to get your content to go viral.

Comments, comments, comments–it’s all about getting comments and responding to them in a meaningful way that adds value.

If you’ve achieved success on LinkedIn would you add anything to these tips?

If you’re new to thought leadership on LinkedIn, what other questions can I answer for you?

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