This article is periodically updated. It was originally published in 2013.

Your LinkedIn profile is an outpost for your personal brand. For many, it takes the place of a website. It is a landing page you can manage and share your professional background, positions, experiences and achievements. A LinkedIn profile often takes the place of a resume or CV. We used to think of LinkedIn as the online resume. While it remains important for job seekers and recruiters, it is now a powerful business social network.

Changes happen quickly and it can be hard to keep up. It is important to advantage of LinkedIn. Maintain and enhance your company pages and team member professional profiles. Use LinkedIn for social selling and engagement.   Consider the following when setting up and using LinkedIn for prospecting.
 

Setting up an effective Profile

 
A LinkedIn profile often takes the place of a resume or CV. Your LinkedIn profile is an outpost for your personal brand. For many, it takes the place of a website. It is a landing page that you can manage. Share your professional background, positions, experiences and achievements.

 

LinkedIn Profile Elements

As of this update (December 2021), the following are items that LinkedIn has shared as elements of your settings. Gather this information as you consider updating your profile:

  • Introduction section – The top section of your profile that displays details of your current personal and professional status. This includes:
    • Name
    • Profile photo
    • Background photo
    • Headline
    • Current position
    • Education
    • Location
    • Industry
    • Contact Info
    • Summary
  • Open to finding a new job, hiring, and providing services
  • Experience – Professional positions and experience, including jobs, volunteering, military, board of directors, nonprofit, or pro sports.
  • Education – School and educational information.
  • Recommendations – You can request professional recommendations from your peers.
  • Certifications – Certifications, licenses, or clearances you’ve attained.
  • Courses – Adding your body of coursework can help your education to stand out.
  • Honors & Awards – Show off your hard-earned awards.
  • Languages – Languages you understand or speak.
  • Organizations – Show your involvement with communities that are important to you.
  • Patents – Any patents you’ve applied for or received.
  • Publications – Publications that have featured your work.
  • Projects – Showcase the projects you’ve worked on, along with team members.
  • Skills & Endorsements – A relevant list of skills on your profile helps others to understand your strengths and improves your likelihood to be found in others’ searches.
  • Test Scores – List your scores on tests to highlight high achievement.
  • Volunteer experience – Highlight your passions and how you have given back.

 

Here are some considerations as you adjust these settings:

Stop Broadcasting Temporarily

Prior to making a series of changes to your profile, turn off your update broadcasts. You may want to turn it one before updating a key promotion or position change that you want to make public.

Optimize your profile

Add keywords to your profile summary, header, and body.  By using key terms with which you want to be associated, people searching LinkedIn are more likely to find you through related search. Using hashtags can also help.

Claim a vanity URL

Instead of a URL with a numbers at the end, it will look nice and clean like this: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcstone3/

Add your Website

Be sure to add a link to your website or websites.  Re-title the display words from “My Website” to something that will drive traffic.

Add your business email address

Add your email to your profile. This way, people can more easily find and contact you.

Update your Profile Image

I generally recommend a professional image: This should be a semi-formal image consistent with your professional reputation. No partying.  No sunglasses.  No bathing suits. No images with half of your arm around someone!

Use 1st Person and Leverage your Website “About Us”

Your descriptions should be in the first person, not the 3rd person.  I often recommend adapting language that you may be using on an “about us” page on your website to assist with the copy to use for the description of the company associated with the role. Of course, add your own role and contribution.  Also, be sure to use the proper company or organization name and let LinkedIn identify this in the search so the proper logo and links are activated.

Skills and Endorsements

List your skills and expertise in the appropriate section.  Studies show the best way to receive endorsements is to give them so be sure to go through your connections and check off a few skills.

Be identifiable

Allow people to search for you.  Allow full-profile views.  View “Who’s Visited Your Profile” under your settings and click “See what others see when you’ve viewed their profile.”

Grow your network

While you may not want to connect with ‘everyone’ – a bigger network means more reach and potential opportunity.  Find LinkedIn connections by allowing LinkedIn to access your Outlook and other email accounts.

Join Groups

Join groups and in your free time, add to the discussion.  Social networks are supposed to be social.

Use InMail

Inmail is a very effective way to connect with someone outside of your network. It had very good results. Hint, if a recipient does not have a complete profile of a profile image, they are likely not active on LinkedIn and may not be worth connecting. Generally, I recommend adding a note when making a connection request.

Add this browser plugin

This plugin is a very helpful for prospecting. It is a Chrome extension to search for agents using keywords and then adding these to a call and prospecting list.

Take advantage of Sales Navigator and advanced search options

 
Sales Navigator helps you find prospects faster with customized search. It also provides sales-specific insights like lead recommendations. For account-based selling, it provides company updates.
 
The advanced Search feature provides a rich search experience.  For example, find out if you’re connected to anyone that works at a specific company.  Type the company name in the company field using Advanced Search, then sort the results by “Relationship” to see if you have any first or second degree connections.
 
Learn how use Sales Navigator account. The Sales Navigator Customer Hub has a range of resources to get you started. Customer Hub is only available on active Sales Navigator accounts.
 
We developed an eBook for LinkedIn onboarding. Contact us if you would like guidance on setting up and using LinkedIn.
 

Automated Prospecting Tools

 
LinkedIn automation, when used carefully, can streamline and track professional outreach. Use a cautious approach with these tools and consider the terms of service with LinkedIn. Done well, we have seen users realize positive impact and success from automated outreach and sequence programs. And, some tools actually help you stay compliant with LinkedIn limits. Use a “white hat” approach and use automation as an aid for your genuine professional outreach.
 
Automated connection tools allow you to add connections based on your search. You can use personalized messaging and send automated messages after you’ve connected. Send personalized Invites to Connect, Messages, and InMails. View, Like Content, Follow & Endorse help maximize getting in touch with your leads.
 

List of LinkedIn Automation Tools

 
For a current client, we conducted research to select a prospecting tool for an outreach campaign. We evaluated the following tools and selected Expandi. Part of this criteria was the use of the tool as an agency on behalf of the client. Contact us if you would like to learn more about the comparison and to see the analysis.

Functionality Considered

We used the following criteria in the analysis:

  • Click to return user to funnel
  • Allows for one-click saved replies
  • Allows post engagement targeting
  • Allows drip funnel including connection requests
  • Allows follow up message(s)
  • Stops follow up when user has responded
  • Upload your own list of LinkedIn profiles
  • Send automated connection requests to 2nd and 3rd level connections on LinkedIn
  • Personalize connection requests
  • Allows custom variables in messages
  • Personalization categories
  • Message first level connections
  • Allows InMail automations
  • Can setup automations to work through a large list over multiple days
  • Has recommendations for messages to send based on data
  • Auto-withdraw requests

Analytics Capability Considered

  • Has A/B testing built in
  • Shows messages sent
  • Shows messages responded
  • Show connection requests sent
  • Shows connection requests accepted
  • Breaks down messages by content
  • Breaks down connection requests by content

Revenue Architects has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Boston Social Media Marketing Agencies by DesignRush in 2021. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you with your social media strategies.

1 reply
  1. Vernon Niven
    Vernon Niven says:

    Great list for LinkedIn/Trigger event monitoring.

    If you use Twitter for prospecting/lead gen, then check out our new social prospecting tool, NeedTagger. Over 2,000 businesses use it today for top of funnel prospecting. Free trial avail in HootSuite and on web. (I am the CEO/founder)

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