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When was the last time you took a good look at your Linked In profile?

A little background to this question.

I love Linked In.

But it wasn’t always that way.

In 2006, I received a Linked In invitation to connect – from a client of mine, a high level executive at a major corporation. I admit I was stunned. She was the very last person I would have expected to have jumped on to the social networking bandwagon. Intrigued, I accepted. That allowed me to see all 300 of her connections. And when I saw who was in her “online Rolodex” my jaw dropped open.

Linked In Profile Power

That’s the day I was bitten by the social networking bug. I saw the power not only of how many contacts could be generated, but the caliber of the contacts.

I started crafting and completing my Linked In profile, connecting with ideal professionals, and learning all the Linked In possibilities for business success available – still at the free level.

Soon, my Linked In results started to kick in. Over the next couple of years, here are just a few of the tangible results that stemmed from my Linked In profile and social networking actions:

  • hundreds of new subscribers to my newsletter
  • attendees at my live events
  • 4ooo members in a women’s professional group I launched.
  • Exponential new visibility and credibility with my ideal niche market
  • Actual new private clients and registrants in my online programs

Linked In Profiles Have Come A Long Way Baby

In the beginning Linked In was simply a huge professional resume bank, with limited features and a very clunky search function.

But then Linked In started to grow up.

It added content options – articles, blog post feeds, Powerpoint Slide Share to feature your content, automatic linking with Twitter (unfortunately now defunct ) travel posts so you could meet up with new contacts when you were in the same city (very cool feature). Then the search function improved, particularly with the advanced search feature.

The biggest advancement: Google started to favor and highly rank Linked In profiles..

Your Linked In Profile Is Like Having Another Personal Website Promoted By Google’s Search Engine – for FREE

This means you can no longer afford not to have a powerful Linked In profile working for you and your business.

With all of the new features now available on Linked In, it can be pretty confusing to figure out how to write the perfect Linked In profile for your business or career.

I want to make it very simple for you and give you a few essentials and priorities to writing your ideal Linked In profile – ones that will attract Google’s influential eyeballs and your ideal connections.

1. Your Linked In Profile Requires A Professional Photo (This is not optional for optimal results)

Yesterday, I was invited to connect with someone on Linked In. The photo was of her and a man behind her.  I have no idea who this man was – her husband, her biz partner???  I’ve seen others post family photos on their Linked In profile. What’s up with that? Linked In is not Facebook.

Do not post a photo that is not well lit and professional in appearance. You don’t have to be movie star good-looking to make a great impression with your photo. People want to get a sense of your personal brand through your photo.

2. Your Linked In Profile Should Feature The Right Keyword Rich Tag Line

Focus on creating a tag line that will be ideally searchable by Google. So if you are a lawyer, make sure you use the kind of law in you tag line as Google keywords are searched.  This means a bit of Google adword keyword research (Google Adword Keyword Tool found here).

ex. Use “food franchise business owner”  or “fast food franchise business owner” vs. “franchise business owner”.

3. Linked In Profile Summary

Talk less about how many years you’ve been doing what you’re doing and more about what you’ve accomplished, how you’ve helped your clients with specific case examples and denote special skills and talents you have. That’s what people want to know: what can you do for me, my business, or my company?

Mix up the formatting to include text and bulleted sections for easier readability.

4. Linked In Profile Career History – Close The Gaps

Today, it’s not uncommon to have career gaps if you’ve been between positions or business ventures.

Do what you can to fill the date gaps in with projects you’ve worked on, committees you’ve served, association activities, pro bono work.

Don’t avoid the gaps – be smart about how you fill them.

5. Recommendations & Endorsements on Your Linked In Profile

Linked In has made it very easy and acceptable to request and provide Recommendations. That’s why it makes so much sense to connect with as many respected professionals, colleagues and clients as possible. It’s great to display your recommendations and it’s a great feeling for your contact to receive one. It’s the perfect relationship builder.

Endorsements are a relatively new feature on Linked In. You can add your ideal skills and expertise through the edit button on your profile.

With one click many people can endorse you for just the right skills. Endorsements are quick but therefore don’t hold as much stock as recommendations.

6. Groups & Associations Reflected On Your Linked In Profile

When you join the ideal groups attracting your ideal niche clients, it’s a wonderful opportunity for you to get known, visible, and attract new contacts in your sweet spot market. No brainer.

People also feel more comfortable connecting with people through the common bond of mutual groups and associations.

Starting a group tailored for the needs of your ideal niche market is also a super smart way to build your top network.

7. Your Linked In Profile: Numbers of Contacts

For me, it’s much more about who you are connecting with than it is how many connections you have.

That being said, what’s the real down side to connecting with people? Are you afraid they’ll see who your clients are?

Are you afraid they’ll ask you to introduce you to someone?

These are very rare situations. And you can set your privacy features to closed connections (although that sort of defeats the purpose of connecting too)

For the most part, unless people are obviously prospecting through Linked In with abandon, I like adding high-quality connections.

The benefits far outweigh the negatives.

I’ll be touching on this more in a future post.

Get Started Upgrading Your Linked In Profile: Just Do It!

Maybe you’re not a comfortable writer.

Maybe you’re time crunched.

These are easily addressed so don’t let these obstacles stop you from having a top notch effective Linked In profile:

Here are 3 Easy Actionable Tips:

1. Devote only 15-20 minutes a day to upgrading and fully fleshing out your Linked In Profile (small chunks = no overwhelm)

2. Engage a professional Linked In profile writer to help you optimize your profile – this is a stress buster and well worth it because of the time saved, end results produced.

3. Ask 3-5 of your clients and colleagues to give you the good and bad of what they see on your Linked In profile. We’ve all got blind spots.

If you’ve found this post helpful, I would appreciate your passing it on to your colleagues and clients.

MY GIFT TO THE FIRST 10 COMMENTORS TO THIS POST:

I’ll give you my pass/fail review of your Linked In profile AND WHY.

(COMMENT BELOW)

And please do send me an invitation to connect with me on Linked In if we aren’t already bonded.