Checklist 1: Optimizing Presence on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great platform for personal branding, and it can help to build a strong presence in your professional field. Things get more comfortable when you’re aware of the hidden tips and tricks to optimize your profile. Here is how to do it with this checklist of tips:

Important Tips

Start by ensuring that your profile is complete. Make sure that each and every section is completed.

Make sure there are no obvious gaps or blank spaces.

Treat your LinkedIn resume with the same seriousness as you would treat your normal resume.

The things that need to be completed for an All-star resume are:

Don’t forget to add your current position.

Add your industry and location.

Put in two previous positions.

Mention your educational information in detail.

Write about a minimum of three skills.

Have at least 50 connections.

Make sure to have a professional profile picture that represents the industry you belong to.

Some Other Tips

Create your vanity URL. Visit this link and click on “Customize your public profile URL.”

Get yourself written recommendations.

Create custom links for online properties.

Rearrange the sections of your profile by hovering the mouse over the title of each.

Then your mouse will turn into a four-arrowed icon.

Click and drag and drop to another position on your profile.

Optimize your profile by adding keywords to various sections such as the summary, job title, specialities, personal interests and career history.

Make use of keywords in your headlines.

Join various groups that are related to your industry or niche.

Be an active participant in at least two or three of these groups.

Add media to your profile. Add in visual appeal. How to add media samples:

> Move the cursor over Profile at the top of the homepage.
> Select the edit profile.
> Scroll down to the section you wish to add the sample to. Move your cursor over the add media icon.
> Choose upload file or select add link.
> Lastly, click on save.

LinkedIn is all about building connections and networks. It has the power to tap into existing connections, and it helps a person to grow their brand through the word-of-mouth. Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn for business:

Company Page

Create a personal LinkedIn profile before creating a page for your company. (If you don’t have one already.)

Go to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Portal and click on the blue tab saying, “Create a Company Page.”

Provide your official company name and select the URL that people will make use of to find your business on LinkedIn.

Click on the box that indicates that you have the right to act on behalf of your company.

Next, click on Create Page.

Fill in required details and click on Get Started.

Add in a cover image and logo.

Create your company description in 2000 characters.

Provide your company details and click on the Publish button.

Add page administrators by clicking on the Me icon and then choose your company page from the Manage section.

Click on Admin tools and choose Page Admins. Add in team members by their names.

Tips and Ideas

Start by encouraging your employees to connect with the company’s LinkedIn page.

Publish content that is valuable.

Include rich media. If you own a YouTube channel; link your videos from LinkedIn.

Make use of LinkedIn groups. To search for similar groups of interest; use the “Search” feature at the top of your homepage.

Make sure to make use of Showcase pages that will add a spotlight to specific areas of your business. How to:

Click on Me icon. Choose your company page from the Manage section.

Next, click on Admin Tools and select Create a Showcase Page.

Incorporate LinkedIn ads.

We’re living in a digital world. People and organizations are looking for talented candidates for jobs on social networking sites such as LinkedIn. Thus, you need to have a good and detailed LinkedIn profile to grab the attention of your potential employers. Here is a checklist to help you:

Start by adding in a relevant and decent profile photo.

The photo doesn’t have to be professionally taken but should make sure for a clear background with your face in the center.

Craft an attention-grabbing headline.

If you are a fresher at college; highlight your current area of study.

Come up with a professional summary.

Provide an introduction about yourself in it and give an overview of your achievements in academics and extracurricular activities.

Describe your skills and where you want to see yourself in future.

If you are in the last year of your graduation; enrich your summary with industry-relevant keywords.

Show off your study background and education.

List all the schools and colleges you’ve had studied in and describe your achievements in each.

Lay emphasis on your volunteer work especially for non-profitable organizations.

Mention your skills under the section featured for skills and recommendations. Showcase your abilities to others on the platform.

Write about proficiency in any languages that you know.

Add certificates, honours and awards that you have achieved throughout your education.

Share the projects you have worked on and highlight your test scores.

Feature organizations that you support.

Claim your unique URL.

Join LinkedIn groups, follow LinkedIn influencers and different company pages.

Make sure to share industry-relevant updates regularly.

Businesses that do not have their LinkedIn company page are only limiting their potential. LinkedIn company pages have a great deal of benefits, and hence you must make one for your business as well. Here’s how to:

Requirements for LinkedIn For Addition of Company Page

You must have a personal LinkedIn profile with a real and true first and last name.

The profile that you own must be seven days old.

There must be several connections on your profile.

The condition of you being a current employee of the company should be met.

Your position should be listed in the experience section of your profile.

There must be a company email address, which must be added and confirmed on your LinkedIn account.

Domains such as yahoo.com or gmail.com are not unique to a specific company and hence cannot be used.

How To Add a Company Page

Go to your LinkedIn homepage.

Move the cursor on the “Work” icon and choose “Create a Company Page.”

Then, choose the type of company page you want to make and create.

Provide your company’s required information.

Press on “Create Page” to proceed.

Finish the page set up by adding a cover.

A cover size of 1,536px x 768px is suggested.

Add your location details and content.

Some Important Steps

Write down a compelling summary. Include a brief description of the company near the bottom of the page.

Add in information about your services and products.

Ensure that your most salient product is mentioned and listed on top.

Ask the employees to connect with your page.

Ask for reviews for your services and products.

Promote your company page. Make use of LinkedIn company follow button to make it easy for you.

Just like the majority of people, you might have created a profile on LinkedIn but wouldn’t know what to do with it exactly or how to best use it. This is true for many people. We’ve come up with a checklist to help you strategize better:

The Crucial 5 E’s

Start by exploring opportunities.

Explore opportunities given by the platform. Do this in the following ways:

> Carry out advanced research to find prospects
> Take a review of the connections of your contacts
> Go deep with the Boolean search

For a person that you know well enough to ask for an intro:

Go to their profile and click on “See connections.” This will be present at the top of their profile box on the right side.

Next, click on “All filters.” Tighten your search with this option.

Expand your Network. Do this by:

> Connecting with people that you met offline lately
> Sending personalized connection requests to your prospects
> Becoming a member of LinkedIn groups that contain your target market
> Building connections with influencers with large networks

Then, Engage in connections.

Engage with your connections and prospects and start building rapport:

Comment on their stats uploads, updates and articles

Start a conversation after sending in a private message

Share their content when it’s relevant

Establish relationships:

> Make sure to engage with those who like, comment and share your content
> Have an interest in the interests of your connections and prospects

Carry out Expert Positioning.

Some Other Basic Tips

Start by triggering some positive emotion.

Incorporate the reader’s name into your writing.

Add in 1st person plural pronouns like “us” or “them.”

Emphasize on the freedom of the readers to choose.

Also, ask rhetorical questions to engage the readers.

Match your content with their promotion or prevention mindset.

Lastly, add in words that can include in signal justification such as “so that,” “due to,” “since” etc.

> Do you want to generate more leads?
> Do you want to drive traffic to your website?
> Do you want an increase in the content shares?
> Do you want to establish your business as an expert in the field?

Use tools like Google Analytics to track conversions from LinkedIn:

Open Google Analytics. Sign in.

Select “Acquisition” and then click on “Social.”

Click on “Conversions” and then on LinkedIn.

Do you wish to start advertising on LinkedIn? But you don’t know how to get a start at it? Don’t worry because we’ve got it all covered for you with this checklist on how to advertise on LinkedIn:

Basics

For advertising on LinkedIn, you must have a LinkedIn account. How to get one:

Open the LinkedIn webpage.

Put in your personal information, e.g. your first name, last name, email and password.

Click on “Join Now.”

Then, click on the box below that says “Country.” Click on the current country of residence.

Type your ZIP code and click “Next.”

Tell whether you are a student or not — type in your job title and the company’s name.

Click on Next. Carry out account personalization with the instructions provided.

Moving On

Start by setting up a Campaign Manager account.

Use this link to set up an account. https://www.linkedin.com/ad-beta/new-advertiser

Next, choose your ad type. Then do the following:

> Create a new campaign name
> Select the target audience language
> Choose a CTA option (for Sponsored Content Ads)

Then create your ad.

Target the ad you just created. Specify options such as:

> Location
> Job functions
> Company names
> School names
> Skills and other filters

Choose your budget and a schedule. Choose from:

> Location
> Job functions
> Company names
> School names
> Skills and other filters

Refine and measure the performance of your LinkedIn ads.

Set up conversion tracking to measure your:

> Conversions
> Cost per conversion
> Conversion rate

Refine and measure the performance of your LinkedIn ads.

Set up conversion tracking to measure your:

> Cost per lead
> Leads

Are you thinking of starting LinkedIn Marketing? You will be in search of some good tips to help you with that. To help you get started, we’ve come up with a checklist on some tips for LinkedIn Marketing:

Basics

Start by getting active on your LinkedIn Company page.

Update the page with content that is designed to appeal to the target audience.

How to update page that appeals to the audience:

Make use of videos and unique images to develop the audience’s visual interest and prevent the use of stock photos.

Try to keep your headlines and text short; approximately 140 words with a clear CTA mentioned.

Allow page management to become easier by integrating it with famous social media management programs.

Ensure the use of Showcase pages to give your different audiences exactly what they want. How to:

Click on the “Me” icon. Choose your company page from the Manage section.

Next, click on Admin Tools and select “Create” a Showcase Page. To make showcase pages more effective:

> Add a LinkedIn follow button to website pages.
> Cross-promote with your Company Page.
> Make use of keywords in page names so they can be found easily in search.

More Tips

Make use of Analytics to inform content and to boost sharing.

Use insights to help you decide which content to publish and which topics to cover.

Create authority on LinkedIn SlideShare.

Embed links that are clickable in your SlideShare to give readers the next steps.

Use a great deal of images.

Establish and maintain engagement with regular updates. How to:

Make use of the “4-1-1” rule. For each self-serving update, give one audience-centric update and four pieces of content that is relevant written by others.

Interact with your audience by responding to their comments to continue the discussion.

Lastly, increase your audience personas by using advances search.

Did you know that LinkedIn could be a vast social network to generate income in many different ways? If you knew already or if this is new to you; in both cases here’s a checklist to tell you how:

Growing Your Mailing List

Start by creating a LinkedIn group.

Create this group around a topic that is relevant and interesting.

Grow your mailing list by making use of welcome and announcement emails to promote free:

> Webinars
> Content giveaways
> Auto-responder sequences that are educational

Make sure to copy the most important email that you send to your list each week and paste it into a weekly announcement email in your group.

Put in a free giveaway like an ebook, report etc. on the publication section of your LinkedIn profile.

Sell Information Products

Start by creating a free piece of content. These could be:

> Reports
> Ebooks
> Training videos
> White papers

Share a link to squeeze your page within the LinkedIn connections and groups that you have.

Give invitations to people for a webinar.

Give and offer LinkedIn discounts. Create an exceptional offer code for a product that is new and shares it.

Make use of the promotion section of groups.

Find influential members of LinkedIn and connect with them and see if they can write a review or become an affiliate for your product.

Selling Physical or Digital Products

Make separate product listings on the company page and utilize features such as banners.

Encourage people to write down their recommendations for your product by adding a recommended button to the product’s page.

Put in a presentation, explainer video or a commercial as a media element.

Make sure to add in a strong CTA and link.

Increasing Book Sales

Tell your contacts when you publish a new book by:

> Sending personalized messages to each of your contacts
> Sending private messages to up to 50 contacts at a time
> Add an invitation to interview

Join groups that are relevant to the topic of your book.

Make a video trailer for your book. Add the video to YouTube and add it as a media element on LinkedIn profile’s summary section.

Define the ideal audience for your book and formulate an ad campaign towards LinkedIn users that match with that definition.

Did you know that LinkedIn is the largest professional social media network? You might think that LinkedIn is only for job hunters and employers to find one another; however, LinkedIn can be powerful tool for affiliate marketing. Here’s a checklist to guide you:

First Few Tips

Start by highlighting your business on the profile that you own.

Don’t just highlight your professional experience, competencies; highlight your company.

Build a great focus on the products that you manage and own.

Do the detailing of the operations of your business.

Make sure to add links to your websites and other professional social media accounts.

Display testimonies of satisfied customers. This will add extra credibility to your page.

Make use of important keywords so that your page is easily found with searches that are relevant to your company and products.

Next, work on building your network. Do this by:

> Seeking out clients that are potential ones. Seek out, customers and other associates.
> Add these as connections.
> Join professional groups for affiliate marketers.

Building Your Company Page

When you design your company page, do not forget the following:

Include all the important information about the company.

Make sure to add logos and images.

Fill out every field including the “Products and Services page.”

Use rich sentences that have keywords, so your page is easily found through a search.

Add in the company’s URL so people can quickly click to find more about your business.

Make use of the showcase page.

Becoming Content Matter Expert

Start by setting up a schedule to post regularly to keep the conversation continued.

Most clicks come on LinkedIn on Tuesday-Thursday between 10-11 am.

Make use of the “4-1-1” rule; add four pieces of original content, one piece of shared content and one piece of advertising.

Competitive Insights

Use the advanced search feature to search for people, companies and groups.

Filter your searches down to interests, industry and location.

Make use of advanced search to find competitors to see how they promote their brand online.

Make use of the Company Page Analytics to understand the performance of your page.

To navigate on LinkedIn is not an easy task. This is true for both experienced  individuals and newbies. There are some dos and don’ts of LinkedIn, and we have compiled them for you:

Do not become a stalker.

Always mention your intentions.

Make sure to validate your tasks. Before connecting with an individual via some other person; always investigate for a real relationship.

Show a healthy sense of patience once you’ve requested to connect to someone.

Never ignore the acceptor’s request to chat or connect further once the person reaches out to connect.

Make use of messaging that is authentic and personalized.

Do not approach right away with an “ask” but approach with a “give” of some kind.

Refrain from posting irrelevant stuff that is out of context such as posting a selfie when it was not related to the post.

Take complete time to fully understand the settings of LinkedIn and its features especially the ones that have to do with privacy.

Do not become a lurker; engage in the posts of your connections. Like, share and comment on their posts.

Consider making use of some lighter stuff for personal engagement.

Always check on who views your profile. Invite people who check your profile and tell them why they should connect.

It is highly recommended to have a professional profile picture for your LinkedIn account.

Give good impressions on most visible places using catchy headlines and captivating summaries.

Take care of your privacy settings but keep your profile public. Make sure your full name is visible to your connections.

Share content that is enriching, nourishing and valuable.

Always keep a professional tone that reflects responsibility and professionalism.

Make use of LinkedIn groups.

Are you familiar with LinkedIn tools that can help you drive better results from your marketing efforts? If not, then this checklist will be of great help to you, as we will discuss how to use various tools related to LinkedIn:

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an advanced sales tool that helps sales teams, individuals and organizations in building and nurturing customer relationships on the network.

Start by starting your Free Trial.

Setup an account by going to the Sales Navigator page.

Click on “Start Your Free Trial” button.

Enter credit card details and sign up for a 30-day free trial.

You will now be directed to the Sales Navigator site.

Configure the page with your preferences.

For this click on “Preferences.”

Save your existing LinkedIn connections as leads.

Click on the + button to import a lead into the sales navigator.

Then, sync Sales navigator with Salesforce to import your accounts and contacts.

View and save companies that are suggested by the navigator.

Lastly, fill in information about the type of leads you are searching for.

Find prospects and leads by clicking on “Lead builder” button.

Keep tabs on Saved leads. Click on the accounts tab to see the companies you’ve saved.

Click on all employees link to see everyone who works at the company.

Crystal

Crystal can easily predict a person’s personality from his social media profile or form a simple text sample that the person wrote. This tool can be used to make one’s communication impactful with a specific person by knowing the person especially if you haven’t met him before.

Visit crystalknows.com.

Click on “Get Started For Free.”

Provide the required details, i.e. Company email address, first and last name, company name, gender, password etc.

Click on “Sign Up.”

Provide the next details and upload a profile picture. Then, click on Next.

Build your personality profile.

Click on Finish.

Click on See Results.

Do you wish to bring improvement in your content marketing plan using LinkedIn? Here is a step-by-step guide to help you create a LinkedIn content marketing plan:

Where to Begin?

Start by defining your Marketing goal.

Think about your content marketing plan. Your goal could be from the following:

> To increase brand awareness
> To generate more leads for your business
> To connect with clients and ideal customers
> To carry out promotion of your products and services
> To build a community to surround your brand

Figure out the type of content you want and your LinkedIn content media.

Be familiar with these LinkedIn content mediums:

> Groups
> Personal profile
> Company page
> Emails
> InMails or Direct Messages
> Other’s content

Also, be familiar with the content types of LinkedIn:

> Text posts
> Articles
> Photo posts
> Video posts
> Engagement
> Links

Next, select your topics and themes.

Do not exhaust your audience and use a different theme for each month. Use a unique theme for each weak and a different content type for each weekday.

Organize everything. Create processes and systems to help you organize your editorial workflow. Do this by:

> Organizing your team
> Assigning topics from your content strategy to specific writers
> Make sure to set specific content goals, e.g. the number of words
> Create and establish deadlines
> If you are a team of one, then assign all these tasks to yourself

Make use of your native LinkedIn content to occupy a sales funnel.

How to occupy a sales funnel:

First, create a content upgrade.

Then place it on your website.

Include the link to your upgrades in each of your native content posts.

Planning Basics

Delegate. Make sure you have someone or a group of people allocated to carry out responsibilities for your channel.

Make sure to follow brand guidelines.

Look beyond your team to come up with content.

Create an editorial calendar.

Make a goal-driven content marketing approach. Do this by making an aim to:

> Be interesting and captivating in your approach. Add some bright and fun graphics to make it enjoyable.
> Give original information to the readers.
> Be active in other groups and forums so that your content gets noticed.
> Create a write-up that is worthy enough to spark a discussion.

Making and creating a LinkedIn company page is the easy part. The real game starts in getting people to follow your page; this is where many business owners require some guidance. Here is a checklist to help you and your business:

First Batch of Tips

Ask your employees to add your page as their workplace if they are on LinkedIn. This will automatically make them followers of your page.

Make use of LinkedIn company follow plugins to put a follow button on your blogs and website.

Carry out the optimization of your LinkedIn page for every search engine. Do this by using a relevant keyword in your description and posts.

Engage with your present connections and page followers as your priority.

Get engaged in various LinkedIn groups.

Promote your page using other marketing channels such as email list, Twitter and Facebook.

Add in the LinkedIn share button next to all your website content present.

Make use of images in all your page posts.

Ask your employees to regularly share your page posts for you to gain maximum visibility.

Include a Call to Action at the end of your blog posts, e.g. ask your visitors to follow your company page.

Second Batch of Tips

Make sure to add in company widgets to the website’s sidebar.

Ensure that the content you share is insightful and innovative.

Make use of videos and Infographics. Label each with your LinkedIn page as the source.

Add in the URL of your LinkedIn to business cards and various other stationery.

Post your page updates when LinkedIn has its busiest hours ongoing for maximum impact. (Monday to Friday, morning or midday)

Ask your followers questions. These will engage them.

Sync all your contacts present on LinkedIn through the LinkedIn Connected and then ask of your connections to follow your page.

Make sure that the first 156 characters of the page description are optimized for search and click-throughs.

LinkedIn continues to be the most evolving social media network. Do you have a professional LinkedIn profile? Do you think you have your bases covered? Even if you do, read this checklist to help you review your professional LinkedIn profile:

Optimization of your LinkedIn profile is very important. It involves the proper population of each section and the performing of right activities for maximum exposure. Here is a checklist for your profile:

How to improve your profile?

Start by getting your name in the light. Enter the name on your profile, as you want to be called.

Make sure to make the most out of your tagline.

Optimize your tagline with phrases and keywords.

Put in deliverables, descriptors and keywords into it.

Use this 12-character area to give your reader a snapshot of what you are about.

Build a professional-looking profile headshot.

Use a photo that is professional and is appropriate for the type of industry you work for.

Choose a headshot that is cropped, free from blurs, other people and various other background distractions.

Make use of a background photo for additional personal branding.

Claim vanity URL.

More Tips

Remember to adjust your public profile settings.

Customize which sections are visible and which are not.

Review the sections you want to include in your profession and industry.

Allow public visibility in some sections to allow your profile to show up in search results when searched through a search engine.

Create an achievement-driven summary and add in experience sections.

Make use of keywords in summaries and your experience sections.

Cut and paste a job description into a word cloud application, e.g. in Wordle.net. It will help to identify keywords that you need to have in your profile.

Showcase your work. Use the project section to spotlight the work that is pertinent to your profession.

Fill in all sections completely including certifications, education and interests.

Do you use LinkedIn Marketing? Are you looking into what works for you the best; your strengths and weaknesses? Using key metrics to measure your page’s performance can help identify your strengths and weaknesses. Here is a checklist to help you:

Audit Spreadsheet

Conduct audits regularly. Compare your current performance with your past efforts to highlight your progress.

Before you start your audit, create a spreadsheet to track your assessments.

Include in columns like:

> Post Type
> Company page URL
> Reporting Period date
> No. Of Followers
> Impressions/Reach
> Clicks
> Comments
> Likes
> Shares
> Percentage of Engagement
> Channel traffic from Google Analytics

Followers

Make use of LinkedIn built-in analytics.

Click on “View Admin Pages” on your LinkedIn page.

Then, click on Analytics.

Make a note of your total no. of followers.

Track this number over a period of time to see your progress.

Then, look at the follower demographics. Add the information to your spreadsheet.

Engagement Data

Audit the various engagements for your page by clicking on them.

Manually add up the data and note it down on your spreadsheet.

Then, look at update analytics and view the number of clicks, impressions and other engagements for individual posts.

Make a note of all of this information.

Referral Traffic

Go to website’s Google Analytics dashboard and then click on Acquisition.

Then, click on Social.

Next, click on Network Referrals.

See the amount of traffic generated and make a note on the spreadsheet.

A person’s LinkedIn profile can say a lot about their brand. Hiring managers and colleagues are increasingly paying a visit to your profile; it is essential for you to make sure if you’re sending the right message. Here is a checklist to help you out:

Do’s and Don’ts of Profile Pictures

Use a photo that has high quality and has good lighting.

Make use of a photo in which you are in a professional setting, e.g. an office or up against an appropriate background.

Choose a photo that clearly shows your face.

Select a photo in which you are wearing age-appropriate clothing.

Do not use a photo in which you are present with another person.

Do not make use of a photo where you’re at a bar or are wearing inappropriate clothing.

Killer Summary

Take your summaries seriously.

Make an amazing first impression.

Write your summary in the first or third person.

Make the summary broad enough for everyone to understand it.

Keep the summary short and give a quick overview of who you are. The rest goes onto your website.

Describe your job and highlight your achievements.

Recommendations and Endorsements

To get recommendations and endorsements, give them out to other people.

Do not be afraid to ask for recommendations from people you have worked with.

Other Tips

Share your company updates frequently.

Show value to followers by posting content that is relevant and insightful.

Connect with a broad range of contacts that includes your friends, colleagues, clients, family and alumni.

Make use of the search function to find people to reconnect with, e.g. your peers and other relevant business contacts.