26 August How to Get the Most out of Your LinkedIn Profile August 26, 2020 By sma Marketing, Social Media business growth, LinkedIn, networking 0 HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE August 26, 2020 | Marketing, Social Media | business growth, LinkedIn, networking By Adam Kiesel, NPI, Inc.'s Digital Marketing Assistant Social media is an integral part of running a business of any size. It works to both promote different aspects of your business to customers and expand your marketing reach. One site that often gets overlooked in favor of more laidback platforms like Facebook is LinkedIn. Because it’s considered a more formal, business-oriented social platform, it can be hard to know what to post and how to best connect with others. Yet once you figure out how to optimize it for your business, it can pay off for you. Here is what you should know about LinkedIn and some tips and tricks to grow your account. How to View LinkedIn When looking around LinkedIn, you might notice some similarities with other social media sites. Most people like to think of it as a more professional version of Facebook in a sense. You can easily post content, connect with other business professionals and get recommendations for connections. Another way to think about your LinkedIn profile is like a digital business card or resume. You can list all of your current and past work experience and give a summary of your skills. This allows you to easily connect with other professionals in your industry. Describe Yourself and Personalize As you go through setting up your page, you’ll notice the option to add different profile sections. It’s important to fill out each section to the best of your capability so you can put your best foot forward. Adding a summary is key since it’s the first section visitors to your pages will see. You don’t have to write an overly long summary, but it should be one that highlights any major education or accomplishments. Being a small business owner, you can also use it to describe what your purpose or goals are in your business. These summaries help people better understand who you are and acts as an introduction. You should also add a professional profile picture to your page to help others put a face to the name. You can put a location so clients will know where your business is, as well as any contact information so that they can reach out to you. Keep Things Current Just like a resume or business card, you should keep the information on your profile accurate. You can update your page with items like education or experience that you have had over the years. As you complete different trainings or certifications, add those to your profile as well along with a date and short description. You can also add new skills that you have acquired to make your profile stand out more. People that you have worked with can then endorse these to show others that you are a highly qualified candidate. Posting Content Once you have finished setting your profile up, you won’t want to let it sit there dormant. You don’t necessarily need to flood your timeline every day, but you should post a couple of times a week at least. This will show others that you are active and will most likely respond to any messages or notifications from them. Just as important as the quantity of your posting is the quality. Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn isn’t exactly the correct place for comedic pictures or videos. Instead, you should post business updates, pictures or videos from the field and any promotional items. You can also post any reviews that you have gotten about your company to showcase your work. Join LinkedIn Groups A benefit that is often overlooked about LinkedIn is the group feature that is offered. Joining a LinkedIn group lets you network with other professionals in your area. You can share ideas and compare notes as well as ask questions. Making these connections can be crucial for gaining new referrals. Combining all these tips together will give you a polished profile and allow you to make connections that will grow your business. Give Your Marketing Team a Call Today! Your NPI marketing team can help you round out your LinkedIn profile for optimal networking. Reach out today at marketing@npiweb.com. About the Author Adam Kiesel, Digital Marketing Assistant Adam's responsibilities on the NPI, Inc. Marketing Team include content creation for our websites, blogs and social media accounts. He also works on informational items to be sent to current and prospective franchisees. Adam joined the staff at NPI in 2020. Comments are closed.