Your LinkedIn Profile is as Important as your Website’s About Page

If you are in the service business your LinkedIn Profile is as important as your website’s About Page. It needs to sell you.

 

Are you a selling services? Coaching, consulting, strategy etc? If so, this post is for you and I will start with making a few assumptions:

• You think of LinkedIn as the place you’ll send your niece because she’s looking for a job
• The last time you’ve updated your profile was when you decided to leave Corporate America and become an entrepreneur
• You’re collecting connections but have no specific strategy for tapping into the power of your network

I get it. Really, I understand. Because it’s true that LinkedIn used to be just a place where you post your resume if you were looking for a new challenge. But things change…

LinkedIn today

Today LinkedIn positions itself as a media platform which “creates economic opportunities for every member of the global workforce. When you join LinkedIn, you get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help you be great at what you do. ” You see? It’s not just for Job Seekers. It now has 400+ Million user, thank goodness they are not all seeking for a job.

Google someone’s name and see what happens

To prove my point that almost every professional is now present on LinkedIn (whether he’s currently looking for a new challenge or not) I invite you to do a little test. Google a colleague’s or client’s name and see what comes up. I’m willing to bet that the person’s LinkedIn Profile shows up in the top five search results.

What do people see when they land on your LinkedIn Profile?

Yes, your LinkedIn Profile ranks really highly when people search for you on Google too. There’s a good chance that it’s even above your own website listing. Obviously people will go and check you out… so what do they see?

Below are a few questions that I hope will make you aware that

Your LinkedIn Profile is as important as your website’s About Page

Does your profile talk about the past or the present?

Most LinkedIn Profiles I see talk about the past. Yet if you are a business owner people don’t really care about what you did 10 or even 2 years ago. They want to know what you do now.

Does your profile talk to the customer or sound like a resume ?

There’s nothing worse then landing on a website’s ‘About Page’ and read a long description of the business owner’s background, in the 3rd person! It’s the same with your LinkedIn Profile. People know you wrote it, it’s your profile, so why would you write it in the 3rd person? It makes you sound so unapproachable.

Does your profile sell you?

If you’d be looking for a job you’d have to ‘sell yourself’ to recruiters or hiring managers. Now that you’re in business, you need to ‘sell yourself’ to potential clients. But wait, don’t just talk about yourself and how great you are. Instead focus on the customer and explain how you can solve his problems.

What tone are you using? Is it consistent with your brand?

Another mistake I often see is that people ‘pretend’ to be someone else on LinkedIn. They think because it’s LinkedIn they need to come off as ‘all corporate’ or ‘professional’. Don’t change your brand to ‘fit in’. 

Are you contactable?

In addition to the info above that would also go on your ‘About Page’ you need to also make sure that you’re contactable. People who are ‘just checking you out’ don’t have access to your contact information at the top of your profile.

People search on LinkedIn for Service Providers like you

Up till now I only mentioned your profile as a reference for people who already know your name: potential clients who’ve heard about you, referrals, colleagues, competitors etc. But did you know that people are searching for Service Providers like you every day directly on LinkedIn? It’s true, LinkedIn has a very powerful search engine and people are using it to search via keywords for professionals who can help them advance their career or business. Just like your website needs to be optimized for Google, your profile needs to be optimized for the LinkedIn search algorithm. Grab my LinkedIn Profile Quick Fix to create a cutting edge sales tool!