10 Steps to Make a Kickass Entrepreneur LinkedIn Profile

There is nothing more important than networking for entrepreneurs whether it is online or offline. While you can bank at your charming personality to win over people at expos and startup events, it won’t translate online.

You need much more to lean on than your personality to build a network online. So, you have to invest time in building social profiles, especially on platforms such as LinkedIn to up your game.

In this article, we have included a few important LinkedIn profile tips to help you make an impressive LinkedIn profile.

1. Generate a customized LinkedIn URL for your profile

LinkedIn is an amazing professional platform to connect with employees, business partners, or potential clients. People will use your name when they try to find your LinkedIn profile. The chances of them finding you are better if your profile’s URL is customized.

It will also raise the chances of your profile being found easily in case someone looks for you through a search engine. The best way to customize your URL is by using your name in the URL. Go to your account settings to make the necessary changes now.

However, if that customized URL is already taken, keep trying iterations until you find something that fits. It is also imperative that your profile is visible to the public. You can change your visibility settings through the account settings as well.

2. Completely optimize your LinkedIn profile

Every section on your LinkedIn profile is there for a reason. You need to optimize every section from the summary to the skills to make people recognize your potential.

Start with the summary section and then move on to the experience section. LinkedIn will give you suggestions at every step to make the process easy for you.

Listing your past profiles will make it more likely that people will show interest in your LinkedIn profile. Including keywords and industry-specific phrases is also a great way of attracting clients as they might look for specifics when they visit your profile.

Further, upload a clear and professional headshot of yourself as the profile picture and customize a background picture that speaks of your profession and your capabilities. List down your most-desirable skills in your profile as well.

Moreover, use the profile strength meter to estimate the effectiveness of your profile. Keep adding relevant content by following the recommendations for each profile section until you get an all-star rating. This will ensure that your profile is visible and worth visiting.

3. Post engaging content frequently

Post relevant content on your profile regularly including but not limited to updates about your business. Use this amazing platform to announce the release of new products to ensure that it reaches as many people as possible.

Keep your audience engaged by posting thought-provoking, original content while also liking, sharing, and commenting on other people’s posts to foster a healthy relationship with your connections.

You can also use your LinkedIn profile to look for employees so do not hesitate from posting about job openings as well.

4. Start a company page

Create a distinct page for your company so clients can easily look up your business. More than 30 million companies are being represented by LinkedIn and you should join them to increase your visibility in the market.

Another healthy habit is to follow the company pages of your competitors. Also, keep yourself updated with the news on companies and clients that you admire by following them as well.

5. Start building your network

Aim to connect with at least 50 people that you personally know. Start by connecting to current and former employees, your clients or business partners, and even friends and family to build the base of an organic network.

Once you are connected to these people, you will start seeing relevant individuals that might be a first, second, or third-degree connection of your mutual network. Get in touch with those people whom you think can help your business grow or simply someone you are interested in following.

You can also import your address book and connect with the people that are already in your contacts.

6. Gather genuine recommendations

Good recommendations can do wonders to attract new clients as they are a testimony to the great service that you provide. Furthermore, they help you showcase your professional capacity and make your work look credible.

If you have some happy clients, request them to write a recommendation for you. Don’t shy away from telling them what you would like them to mention in the recommendation. If you have provided a great service they will be more than happy to lend a helping hand.

7. Start joining relevant LinkedIn groups

A fantastic way to connect with like-minded people from the same industry is by joining relevant groups.

You can use keywords like “small business” or “entrepreneur” or more targeted keywords like using your location as well to find LinkedIn groups that will have fellow entrepreneurs.

These people can prove to be a great support network and you can learn from each other’s mistakes and accomplishments. Also, target groups that are related to your industry to put yourself on the radar of the right people.

Target groups that are full of the audience you are hoping to target. The discussions in such groups will help you understand the pain points of your potential customers and help you provide a better service which will inevitably attract more clients.

8. Find talent for your company

Everyone who’s anyone is on social media. Whatever position you are looking to hire for, there are a hundred potential candidates you could find on LinkedIn, you just have to start looking in the right places.

LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search allows you to look for people according to a job title so you can take advantage of this to find people actively looking for opportunities.

9. Start using the LinkedIn app

With the LinkedIn app available for both Android and iPhones, you can streamline your business needs on the go.

Look up profiles before business meetings, find connections near you when you are attending a work event or conference, look for suitable employees while you commute to work … With the LinkedIn app, you can do it all.

10. Gain insights

LinkedIn provides you with metrics over time-periods to help you understand how your profile or company page is performing and what areas you could take concrete steps in to make the best use of LinkedIn.

You can evaluate the engagement levels of the content you are posting and understand the type of people that are following you and if your growing number of followers will actually be beneficial to your business.

LinkedIn also provides talent brand analytics if you have used the LinkedIn career pages to enhance your page and pipeline building analytics for people running a pipeline builder campaign.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is an amazing platform to network for entrepreneurs. If LinkedIn profile optimization is not a part of your networking strategy, you are missing out on a great opportunity.