Are you getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile? Hannah Martin returns to The Next 100 Days Podcast to tell us how to maximise the potential of LinkedIn for both yourself and your business.
Hannah Martin
We welcome back the multi-talented Hannah Martin from the Talented Ladies Club. Last time, Hannah taught us all how to write copy. On this podcast, Hannah discusses her new LinkedIn course.
Hannah noticed that a lot of women were struggling with the LinkedIn platform. Women seemed to lag men on the platform. So, she wrote a course to help them build an ideal profile and to show them what to do with it.
Optimising your linkedIn profile with Hannah Martin
How should you use LinkedIn?
You cannot be passive on Linkedln. Hannah was surprised when she had her first cohort go through her course. When she had testimonials back and she spoke to them, they had all used it for business. Hannah had imagined her Talented Ladies Club readers – www.talentedladiesclub.com – would use it largely as a return to work thing following maternity or wanted to change role. Not so.
Hannah has now written a module to help both talented ladies and talented men in small businesses, where you are not sure what to do with LinkedIn. As the business owner, you need a profile on LinkedIn. And you need to get it right. How to use LinkedIn Company Pages and how to use LinkedIn Spotlight pages.
Your brand and reputation on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Spamming is such a short-term strategy. Don’t do it.
Your brand and reputation are so important. In the business module, Hannah shares the 6 questions you need to ask to build a proper LinkedIn strategy and 5 sales strategies that work and how you can leverage LinkedIn properly in the relationships you’ve got.
Hannah advises an organic use of LinkedIn. A little bit, often. Measure and track what you are doing. There are lots of different ways you can approach connecting with people on LinkedIn. Finding the right people, the right businesses with the right job titles.
The 6 questions reveal finding the right people on LinkedIn that are going to help you. It’s about identifying the most likely people who are going to help you deliver on your aims. How you work out who these people are, where they are.
They are fundamental questions. Anything you do in business, you should have a strategy for it. You shouldn’t be on LinkedIn or at least devoting time to it unless you can track back that time to some core business goal.
Corporate versus business owner LinkedIn profile?
Graham’s LinkedIn profile looks like a CV and he doesn’t want it to look that way anymore. Kevin said his is much the same.
What’s the difference between a corporate LinkedIn profile and a business owner LinkedIn profile? Hannah answers by stressing the summary section. Write it properly. Add files, videos, images to the summary. It’s a multi-media experience. And that’s as far as many people will travel down your profile.
Also as people search on LinkedIn, it is important to think about your keywords.
Hannah says there isn’t much difference between a corporate and business owner profile. The key thing is in your summary decide WHO DO YOU WANT TO READ THIS. What do you want them to think, feel, know and act upon?
Write YOUR SUMMARY as a letter to that person who you are addressing your summary towards:
- I want this type of person reading my LinkedIn profile
- I think they are looking for this
- These are the things they want to know about me
- This is what I want them to do.
Keep all this front of mind and make sure you write your summary appropriately. A LinkedIn profile is more powerful than a CV, in that more people can find it.
A CV is part of a job application process. Your LinkedIn profile sometimes can be the opening door.
Hannah reminds us that 94% of journalists are on LinkedIn. They use LinkedIn to find people for stories.
Search is useful for location, job type search. Think about Google long tail searches.
The 6 Questions – here’s a taster
The questions help you narrow your thinking down.
- Who am I supposed to be talking to?
- Who am I connecting to?
- What am I going to say to them when I connect to them?
It narrows your thinking to help you decide
- The type of person I need to be connecting with
- How I’m going to find them
- What I want from them
It’s like going to a networking event with no idea who’s going to be there, no idea what you were looking for out of it, what you could offer someone, it’s unlikely you’ll get much from it. LinkedIn reverse all this.
When you first join LinkedIn you may be trying different ways to make it work for you. Groups for example. Communication strategies, how to network and reach out to people. Over time you will find something that works for you and your business.
The 6 questions enable you to track and measure, so you are creating a formula that works for YOU.
The LinkedIn Paid-For Version
Would you do it? Hannah says if you are using ALL of the free elements of LinkedIn and you want to go further and contact more people, outside your network and it is part of your business strategy, then YES trial the paid version.
It is incredibly powerful, but only if you are maximising the use of LinkedIn right now. Otherwise, don’t bother.
Who do you connect to?
Do you need to know the person first? It depends. No right or wrong answer. Some are careful about connections, others connect to anyone. The more connections you have a wider span of potential connections, or do you want a high-level connection database.
Don’t cut and paste broadcast messages to new connections. It’s uncool. This is a personal network. Write and explain why they have connected with the person, you may be far more likely to listen to them.
Think through your approach to connections, don’t be elitist.
Why choose Hannah’s course over other courses?
It is highly practical. It is easily accessible. Only the stuff you need. The course teaches from the perspective of what you want from your business. It is applicable to both talented ladies and gentlemen, and it is online. You can dip in and out of the training. There are checklists. A thorough but easily accessible course.
The 5 sales strategies?
Example: How to spot warm connections. Let’s say you have someone in your connections who you haven’t spoken to for a long time versus someone you have come across recently and wish to connect to. One may be cold and the other (recent) warm. The course advises the best way to look through the people you know to find your warm connections.
Use LinkedIn is a good way to warm up a person you used to know well. Find reasons to trigger a conversation. You are not intruding on them in their personal lives, it is a professional network.
Your Photograph
Why would you have a profile with an icon? Your profile is 19x more likely to be viewed if you have a profile on there.
You must get your photograph right as well. Smile! You must look approachable. Not a grinning idiot!
On the course, Hannah explains the 5 GOLDEN RULES of your LinkedIn photograph.
- One of them, is not having a glass of wine in your hand.
Someone will make a judgment about you based on your photograph. Be approachable. Be appropriate for your industry.
So, do you need a professional photograph. Maybe. Can you take one yourself? Graham’s is a little too formal.
What 3 things about LinkedIn that we should get done in 100 days?
- Profile completion
- Know your keywords
- Be active, use groups, share status updates.
Are LinkedIn Groups still worth using?
Spammers. Lost enthusiasm. Are FB groups better?
There are certainly some that are ok. Big enough that they active, small enough you won’t get lost and your target audience is there.
ABOVE ALL – Get your LinkedIn profile right.
LinkedIn often comes up on a Google search. If your profile isn’t impressive, people may choose NOT to get in touch with you.
Hannah’s personal favourite LinkedIn? Getting found on LinkedIn. She didn’t use proactively to find clients. It was an important tool to look great on the platform.
It’s a validation of who you are. Fill it in properly. Think carefully about your profile. Write your summary properly.
Get testimonials. Have a call to action. Think about the impression you want someone to have of you. Don’t just stumble on there and say I’m going to do my profile. Think first.
How much does this LinkedIn Course cost?
If you do the business version for doing your profile and the module for how you then use your profile it is £99.
Or just want the module to help you write your profile and then be active on LinkedIn that’s £49.
Fantastic value. High quality and affordable.
Hannah has other courses too, and you can see them all on Thinkific
What comes next for The Talented Ladies Club founder? A kick-starter project to help members with new ideas. The TLC helps to provide clarity.
The Next 100 Days Podcast is brought to you by Graham Arrowsmith and Kevin Appleby
