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Page 1: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get
Page 2: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

We all want to stand out from the crowd and be noticed. It is imperativethat you stand out on Linkedin to be successful, but you want to stand outin the RIGHT way. Here is a list of mistakes that most people make on theirLinkedin profile. You will want to avoid these things to be a true All Star onLinkedin.

Linkedin gives you a massive opportunity to get targeted leads, drive traf-fic to your website, make sales, build a highly successful mailing list andmake huge profits. And the Linkedin platform is free to use. Linkedin canbe a major business tool to increase your income if you use it properly. Don’tlet easy to correct mistakes keep you from being successful on Linkedin.

Page 3: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Mistake 1 No profile photo is a no-no.

Mistake 2 No attention grabbingheadline.

Mistake 3 No top keywords in yourheadline.

Mistake 4 Writing in the third personin your profile.

Mistake 5 Speaking like a boringprofessor.

Mistake 6 Talking too much aboutyourself.

Mistake 7 Trying to ride on yourcompany’s coat tails.

Mistake 8 Describing yourself withempty buzzwords.

Mistake 9 Not having recommendationsor having lame recommendations.

Mistake 10 Leaving your Linkedinsummary blank.

Mistake 11 Not having a powerful callto action in your profile.

Mistake 12 Spelling mistakes.

Mistake 13 No vanity url.

Mistake 14 Not using Linkedin’s skills.

Mistake 15 Summary of Benefits.

Mistake 16 Experience…Lead byExample.

Page 4: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

People feel that they don’t need to put their faceout there or get lazy about getting a decent phototaken. You will lose 80 to 90% of your potentialviewers without a profile photo. People rememberfaces and if your profile doesn’t have one, it certainlywon’t stand out. Please don’t use silly or group pho-tos. And having no photo at all on your profile iseven worse.

You should use a headshot of yourself in a profes-sional manner. If you can see your elbows in thephoto, you need to have your photo cropped. Yourprofile photo shows up on all searches and it willshow up smaller in those instances. If the photo istaken from too much of a distance, it will not work.Look professional and dress appropriately for yourfield in your profile photo.

A picture isworth a thousandwords. Be professional on a businessnetwork.

Page 5: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

People will go right by your Linkedin profile if youdon’t have a headline that reaches out and grabsthem. Your photo and your headline show up on allLinkedin searches and the headline is your firstchance to get your readers attention. You need tomake your headline count.

Your headline should make your reader want toimmediately click on your profile and read moreabout you. Don’t just put your boring job title hereand think that people will head straight to your pro-file. This is a common mistake, but one that de-serves your attention. Tell the reader what you dowithout just using industry jargon keywords andboring fluff. Tell them what you can do for them inphrases.

The headline is your firstchance to getyour readersattention.Make sure that your headlinereaches outand grabsthem.

Page 6: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Remember, Linkedin is a search engine. When writingyour headline you should use your target keywords start-ing with the most important and the rest in descendingorder. If you don’t, you won’t be found on relevantsearches. However, there is a way to do this with goodcopywriting so that you don’t sound like a boring, self-centered individual that no one will want to connectwith.

You need to think of your best keywords from your po-tential target market’s point of view. What does your tar-get market care about? For example, if you are a cancerdoctor, your potential patients don’t care how manyyears you have served on the hospital medical board.What they care about is what you can do to help themin their time of need. Consider keyword phrases like this:Oncology Doctor with 25 Years Experience | Caring Can-cer Patient Follow-Up |Latest Cancer Treatments Avail-able |Oncology Disability Claims Specialists. The headlinegives you the opinion that this is an experienced doctorwho keeps up on the latest technology and cares abouthis patients.

Make yourLinkedin profileheadline key-word rich butdo so in ameaningfulway that willgrab their at-tention.

Page 7: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Most boring resumes are written in the thirdperson. And while the third person is the most pop-ular way to write in fiction books, it doesn’t work foryour Linkedin profile. Writing in the 3rd person istalking about yourself as if you were talking aboutsomeone else. This is confusing and often comesacross as vain or egotistical.

After all, Linkedin is still a social network; it is justgeared to business minded people. They wouldmuch rather hear about your benefits and solutionsto their problems directly from you. That’s right,they want to hear from you, not have you talk atthem like you are better than them. Just stick tousing “I” and you will do fine.

Strategicallywrite yourLinkedin profileto draw in yourtarget audi-ence. You cando this by writ-ing in the firstperson.

Page 8: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

The point of reeling in your readers is to enticethem with your words and compel them to readmore. If you speak over their heads with boringbusiness jargon you are sure to lose them quickly.You want your target market to remember you, butif you fill your profile with boring fluff you are actu-ally creating the opposite…an utterly forgettableprofile.

You need to leave your readers with a mental pic-ture of you and make them want to reach out andcontact you. Who cares that you are an experiencedsenior sales engineer who specializes in lead ori-ented goals? However, if you let your prospectsknow that you are a Linkedin marketer who canteach them to pull in highly targeted leads everyday, like clockwork…well, I think you might findquite a bit more interest in your talents.

Speak in a language your targetmarket can understandand relate to.

Page 9: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

People don’t want to know your personal historyfrom first grade on. What they really want to knowis what you can do for them. You need to tell yourreader about the benefits and results you can de-liver. Most people think that the Linkedin profile issupposed to be “all about themselves” and is a placeto tell all of their accomplishments.

The truth is, people just don’t care about every-thing you have done. What they do care about iswhat you can do for them or how you can helpthem. Unless you can show them why you might beuseful to them, you are not going to attract their at-tention. As an example, people don’t care about theprestigious schools you have attended nor do theycare that you passed the CPA exam on the first try.Here is what they care about: Certified Tax AccountWho Can Save You Boatloads of Money on Your TaxReturns.

Linkedin userswant to knowwhat you cando for them. Be sure youspell that out.

Page 10: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

If your company’s reputation is great, that helps;but tells your reader what you did to make the com-pany even better. Trying to make yourself sound im-portant because of the companies that you work forwon’t automatically make you popular.

While everyone knows that the Fortune 500 com-panies are great ones to be employed by you willgain their respect. Let your potential prospectsknow your contributions to the company, how thatapplies to your target market AND what you can dofor your prospects. The company doesn’t make theman great, the man makes the company great.

Don’t try toride on yourcompany’s rep-utation. Let thepeople in yourindustry knowwhat you havedone for thecompany andhow that canhelp them.

Page 11: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Using phrases like “team player” and “great com-munication skills” is a waste of precious Linkedinspace. These are all hype words that mean ab-solutely nothing to your reader. They also won’t getyou very far in searches.

Who is going to search for phrases like “greatteam player”, “hard worker” and “goal oriented”?Those are a given as who would want to hire or net-work with someone who is a horrible worker,doesn’t get along with anyone, works at a slow paceand never meets quotas or goals? You should usedescriptive and meaningful keywords while lettingyour prospect know what it is you do.

Use meaning-ful and descriptivekeywords to describe what you do.

Page 12: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonialsof your skills, achievements and overall credibility.Get these from people above your position and theywill go a long way in supporting your value. Thebest and easiest way to get recommendations is togive recommendations. Ask those people who youwould like a recommendation from if they would bekind enough to write a recommendation for you.

Another good way to do this is to write a samplerecommendation about yourself and send it to theprospect. Let them know they are welcome to usethe recommendation or write their own. This waythey don’t have to do the work if they don’t want to.Never use the standard recommendation email thatis set up as a default. ALWAYS customize thisrequest.

Be sure to askfor recommen-dation from theindividuals thatyou would liketo have recom-mended you.Offer to recip-rocate.

Page 13: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

I have seen this time and time again and have toscratch my head. The Linkedin summary allows youto sum up the most important things you want totell your reader and puts your message right outthere. Linkedin allows you 2000 characters to tellthe world what you do and how you can benefityour target market. If you are going to skip this, youmight as well not be on Linkedin!

Use the summary space to your full advantageand let your readers know what is in it for them. Letthem know what you do, how that is relevant toyour target market and specifically what you can dofor them. Be sure to end your summary with a greatcall to action.

Do not leavethe summaryblank. This isprime real estate to reachout and grabyour targetmarket.

Page 14: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Tell your reader what you would like them to do.You see it time and time again where people willpitch their product and services but never ask forthe sale. There is an old saying that still rings truetoday. “If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.” Peopleneed to be lead by example and you need to spellout very clearly what action you would like them totake next.

Lead them to your website, your opt in form orwhere ever you would like to collect some informa-tion from them. For example, “To get my free list ofMistakes that KILL a Linkedin Profile, click here.” Or“Email me today at [email protected] a free sample of my work.”

If you leave outa call to actionin your profile,you are leavinga ton of moneyon the table.

Page 15: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Please be sure to proofread your profile, have anintelligent friend or co-worker proofread your pro-file and copy and paste your sections into an editorlike Microsoft Word and do a spelling and a gram-mar check. You know the saying…check, check andthen double check. Nothing will steal away yourcredibility faster than someone who doesn’t havecorrect spelling and grammar in this day and age.

With online editors, spell check, grammar correc-tors and other online tools, there is simply no excusefor poor grammar or blatant spelling mistakes. Takethe extra few minutes to make sure things are rightbefore publishing them for the world to see.

Correctspelling andgrammar go along way toportray thatyou are a trueprofessional.Take the timeto proofreadyour work.

Page 16: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Be sure to customize your Linkedin url for brand-ing and clarity. Use your name or some form of it sothat it is easy for people to remember when you useit in your email signature and on professional lettersand documents. Linkedin allows you to have a van-ity url so that it is easy to send potential prospectsdirectly to your profile.

Be sure to take the extra step to get your vanityurl and be sure to use it on all your business corre-spondence. Provide a link back to your profilewhenever possible to make it very easy to send peo-ple from your target market directly to your profile.But when that is not possible, it is always best tohave an easy to remember, concise url to share withthem.

Make it easy to share yourLinkedin profile withothers by getting a vanity url.

Page 17: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

Linkedin allows you to add 50 skills to the “Skillsand Endorsements” section. While I don’t recom-mend that you fill in all 50 as that would be prettytough, I certainly suggest that you take the time tosit down and make a list of at least 20 skills that youpossess.

When adding skills to your profile, you need tostart typing your keyword and then go with theform of the word that Linkedin suggests in the drop-down box. This will get you higher rankings asLinkedin knows what keywords people search forthe most. If you are having trouble coming up withskills, go to Linkedin and search for others in yourindustry and take a look at their skills. Be sure to en-dorse the people you know on their skills and askthem to return the favor.

Use Linkedinskills so thatLinkedin willsuggest connec-tions with otherpeople in yourindustry and sothat those key-words will be-come a part ofyour profile onLinkedin search.

Page 18: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

People don’t really want to know what you havedone since grade school. What they really want toknow is what you can do to help them. So, in yoursummary be sure to mention the problems that youcan solve for your target market and how you cansolve them.

Speak to your reader and not at them. Tell themwho your clients are and don’t forget to tell themhow your product or services can help them. Somany people write about what they do but neverexplain the solution to the problem and how it ap-plies to your potential market. Talk about the resultsthat you can give them. You need to create a wantor a desire in your target market. Get them engagedand end with a call to action.

People are interested inRESULTS. Show them the solution totheir problemand how theycan get results.

Page 19: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get

In the experience section of your profile you havea chance to declare yourself as the expert in yourfield. Don’t just list every job position you have everhad and let it read like an outdated resume. Listeach job position and then tell your readers whatyou did for others in that position. Tell them whatresults you achieved in each position and how thatcan help your potential target market.

By telling your readers how you solved problemsin your past job experiences and how you can helpthem, it will lend credibility to you and give themconfidence that you are the one that can help them.

Declare yourself an expert in your field and lead by example.

Page 20: No profile photo is a no-no. - Homepage | Linked Into Jobs · 2/16/2017  · On Linkedin, recommendations are testimonials of your skills, achievements and overall credibility. Get