6 Mistakes You Are Making On LinkedIn
Whether you use LinkedIn for your personal brand, your business, or both, it can be an incredibly valuable tool.
As a business, LinkedIn can help you to connect with your current customers, find potential customers, and even identify new potential target markets.
As an individual, it can help you find new opportunities, expand your professional network, and develop professionally through training and industry-relevant updates.
But that’s enough of a sales pitch for LinkedIn (we’re here to sell Goho’s social media services, not the channels themselves!) - let’s get to the reason you’re here.
Here are the 6 things you are probably doing wrong on LinkedIn, whatever you use it for...
Not Having A Vanity URL
Is your LinkedIn URL https://www.linkedin.com/ in/joe.bloggs123456789? Not only does this look unprofessional, it also makes it much harder for people to find you!
Head to your LinkedIn profile, click ‘Edit public profile & URL’ and pick a memorable URL. Your name works best, either all one word or with a full stop or hyphen (i.e. joebloggs joe.bloggs or joe-bloggs).
Being Overly Formal
It might sound a bit nuts, but LinkedIn isn’t the overtly formal networking platform it used to be. These days, success on LinkedIn is more about building a personal brand. We’re not saying you should be throwing nuggets of your private life around like confetti, but when it comes to establishing yourself as a key player within your industry - as a person, as an organisation, or both - a little bit of personality goes a long way.
This is one of the many reasons we take our time to really nail our client’s tone of voice when we begin working with them!
Not Updating Your Profile
The simplest (and potentially worst) mistake you can make on LinkedIn is failing to update your profile or company page often enough. Social media platforms thrive on a hearty combination of quality and up-to-date content. So, whilst we absolutely do not encourage posting on ANY social media channel purely for the sake of posting, it’s important to make sure your channel is kept up-to-date.
As a general rule, we recommend posting 3-4 times per week on LinkedIn, but the more quality content you can create that is relevant and useful for your audience, the better!
Posting More Than You Engage
Another basic but dangerous error, this one is perhaps more pertinent for those of you that don’t have a problem with point 3. Posting lots of quality content is great, but posting more than you engage with other content on LinkedIn is not. You might as well stick a flag on your head that says “I’m just here to sell myself” because a lack of engagement tells LinkedIn’s algorithm that you’re only here for yourself.
And by engagement, we don’t just mean liking every post that comes your way. Genuine engagement takes time and effort. It consists of checking through your news feed, hashtags, trending and recommended content, then commenting and/or sharing to add real value to the author or other viewers.
Need some advice on carrying out engagement on LinkedIn that drives real results? Drop us a line - we’d love to help!
Not Including Your CV and Previous Work
Whether or not you are currently seeking employment, your LinkedIn profile should include an updated CV. This isn’t just about selling yourself to future employers, it’s also an opportunity to sell your skills and experience to potential clients or customers.
If we’re talking company pages, your page should regularly be posting content that pertains to your previous work. If you sell a product, your customers want to see proof that your product sells, works, and is legitimate! If you’re selling a service, your clients want to know that your service has been used and approved by others. So collect testimonials, write case studies, and request imagery. Basically, prove yourself!
Your Summary/Description
Last but definitely not least, your profile summary and/or your company page description are vital tools in your LinkedIn arsenal. No pressure, but this is your elevator pitch. Get it wrong, and your potential clients might just get off and take the stairs…
