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Tag Archive: LinkedIn Optimization

B2B Best Practices on LinkedIn Part Two: Optimizing Your Account

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October 21, 2010

by VivekaVonRosen

October 21, 2010

STEP TWO: Optimizing your account

WHY? Attract more eyes with customized and optimized content – increased traffic to your online presence

1. Your LinkedIn Profile is your professional identity, autobiography, brochure or ad on LinkedIn. Think of it as a website showcasing your

My LinkedIn Profile Snapshot

career, your company, your product or your service. Like any brochure or website, make sure your content is grammatically correct and free of spelling errors.

2. Use the Professional Headline on your profile to share your areas of expertise and interest. You have 120 characters to work with. This field is weighted heavily in both the LinkedIn Search and Google Search, so use your keywords. Almost every action you take on LinkedIn is accompanied by your Headline section and picture – so make sure they are engaging.

3. Your Photo should attract others by being engaging and approachable. I recommend a close up of your face. (If you are smiling or laughing, even better.) This is a business site, but it is a social networking site first. DO NOT have anything or anyone other than yourself in the photo and DO NOT use a logo (goes against the EUA – End User Agreement)

4. Use the Summary section to expand upon information in your profile. This section is searchable, so include keywords that are appropriate for your industry. You can write your summary in a Word document first and then cut/paste it into LinkedIn. This will allow you to check spelling and grammar, as well as create attractive formatting with bullets and spacing. The most common symbols and bullets will transfer over. You have 2,000 characters to use.

Create your "Summary" in a Word Document

5. Change the link/url in your Profile by editing Public Profile so that it includes your name, your company name or expertise in your industry (www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexpert) and include it in your email signatures, business cards, other marketing collateral, and as a website link in your “about us” section.

6. Invest in the “Update” section several times a week by informing your network of recent work you have done, successes your clients have experienced, good information from others, just to be helpful. Make sure you start your update with keywords and add a link to a website. The new update section work much like Facebook and will pull the icon from your website into the stream. With LinkedIn Signals your updates will carry a lot more weight – and be findable and viewable by more people

Now you can attach links, comment, share, and like updates

7. Link your update section to Twitter, but choose the “#in” option. Remember, LinkedIn works differently from twitter and your LinkedIn connections will not appreciate your twitter “prolific-ness”. Use your keywords in your LinkedIn and Twitter updates.

Stay tuned for next week’s B2B tip for LinkedIn users: Building your network

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Tags: LinkedIn Expert, LinkedIn Optimization, LinkedIn Profile Creation, LinkedIn Tips

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The LinkedIn Company Profile: Is your company properly represented on LinkedIn?

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July 16, 2010

by VivekaVonRosen

July 16, 2010

By now you should have read that to get found on LinkedIn, you have to have a well optimized personal LinkedIn Profile. This will, of course, also get you found on Google as well as LinkedIn. If not, check out this article as well as other blog articles I have written.

But what about your company? Many business owners don’t even have a Company profile on LinkedIn. And even if they do, their Company is not being found by their potential and present clients.

Why? For the simple reason that their Company is not correctly named, nor is the description content optimized properly.

This is not your fault. When first setting up a Personal profile on LinkedIn, and adding a company name to the Experience section, LinkedIn prompts one to “create” a company profile. All that is needed is a Company name and an email address at that Company. You do not have to be the CEO or Founder or President to create your Company profile. Any employee with an email address at your Company can set up your Company’s profile on LinkedIn.

I doubt many employees do this maliciously, but as an executive / owner of your own business, it might behoove you to see if you have a Company profile on LinkedIn that you didn’t even know about! To do this, simply go to the Company Search Box and type in your company name:

You will also want to keep tabs on your Company because right now ANY person who currently works at your Company can edit the Company profile. Scary, right? Even scarier is the fact that no one seems to know this, and LinkedIn does little to control unsanctioned creation or editing of a Company profile! What you can see is the last person who edited the Company Profile – so you can either thank them, chastise them, or fire them!

What else can you do?

Do Your Have a Company Profile?

Make sure that as the Company Owner or Executive you have a personal profile on LinkedIn
Make sure that that your Company Name in your Experience section matches the name of the Company in the Company Profile.
Once you have access and can edit your Company Profile, rename the Company name to what it should be (In case there are spelling errors or other naming issues – Inc. instead of Corp., etc) You will have to ask LinkedIn to do this for you at customer_service@LinkedIn.com
Make sure that you have all your keywords in your Company Description – you have 2000 characters to describe your Company’s Product or Service, the benefits to your clients, some features you offer.
Do an audit of your company! LinkedIn automatically lists the employees of your company when they put your company name into their personal profiles.

So make sure that everyone you think should be in your company is there, and no one is there who shouldn’t be! If someone claims to be an employee of your company, you can report them at: abuse@LinkedIn.com

Who here doesn't belong?

If there is someone listed as current employee who is, in fact, a past employee, simply ask them to change the “current” setting in their experience section to “past” by unclicking the “current” tab.

So now you should be current, clean and clear! We often forget about Company Profiles on LinkedIn. But they can be a powerful channel for client engagement. So make sure your company is correctly titled, optimized, and reflective of your brand!

If you have any more suggestions, questions or comments, please let me know!

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