There are some things on LinkedIn that you just shouldn’t do, it’s not the place to be posting your party photos or leaving ‘what I just had for lunch’ status’! LinkedIn is a professional social networking site for professionals, some people seem to forget that sometimes, and then wonder why they can’t generate any leads from LinkedIn.
I urge you to carefully read the ‘10 mistakes below and to make absolutely certain you do not slip up on the same damaging errors.
1. You Lie on Your Profile – This can be very damaging to your reputation and credibility. Always work on a foundation of truth, remember in the era of big data, someone somewhere will always find out!
2. Typos – Although a seemingly obvious thing to double-check for, I have seen typo’s in job titles, company names, summaries and other notable places. A typo has the power to make whoever is viewing your profile think long and hard as to whether they really want to contact a person if they can’t be bothered to check the spelling on their profile.
3. No photo – This is arguably one of THE most important parts of your profile. I never accept a connection request from anyone without a photo, why would I want to do business with someone who I can’t see. A photo is the first thing a prospect will look at when viewing your profile, so even if you have the world’s best summary section, they may leave your profile before they get a chance to read it.
4. No Summary – This is arguably the 2nd most important part of your profile. No summary = not interested. If you can’t be bothered to include a summary, you won’t get very far on LinkedIn. You have an opportunity to showcase yourself, your business and your achievements in a way that will resonate with your ideal customer. Don’t throw this important piece of real estate away.
5. Boring Headline – When others perform searches on LinkedIn there are 3 things that appear. Your name, your photo and your headline. Just having the headline, “Director of Initi8 Marketing”, is pretty boring, doesn’t call out to your prospect and there are no keywords. Spice up this space by adding in your industry keywords and your value proposition or notable achievement.
6. Inappropriate photo – This is a biggie that I come across all the time. Let me define what inappropriate is…..Inappropriate = not suitable or proper in the circumstance, so in the scenario of LinkedIn, inappropriate include:
- Photos with your other half
- Your wedding photo
- Photo of a night out
- Photo with a drink in your hand
- A group shot
- A pixelated photo – make sure you have a good quality image that fills the specified pixel dimensions of 500 X 500px maximum
- A photo of your logo or product
- A photo of you 10 years ago
7. No Work History – Not listing any previous places of work, including details of your job role, could reduce trust when viewing your profile. People like to get an idea of the background of a person before reaching out. Ensure this section is as complete as possible to add credibility to your name.
8. You Don’t Personalize Your Connection Request – When sending connection requests, especially to people you don’t know, your must personalize the message before you send it to ensure the recipient doesn’t reject it as spam. If you fail to do this, expect to be ignored.
9. You Haven’t Created Your Custom URL – This is a simple step, and important when linking others to your profile and adding your link to your e-mail signature. Check the URL you have at the moment…..it ends in loads of numbers, right? Well, this can put people off, due to the spammy nature of your link. Customise yours with your name to get more click-throughs.
10. You Don’t Have at Least 1 Recommendation – To be taken seriously on LinkedIn, in a network crawling with your competitors, you need to be able to back up your abilities with social proof in the form of a recommendation. You need to get at least 1 recommendation as soon as possible, so reach out to colleagues or people done business with to notch up your 1st one. You really need to strive for 3 before LinkedIn considers your profile 100% complete.
Please take action right now, to ensure you DO NOT commit any of the mistakes outlined above. You need the most leverage possible on LinkedIn to stand out, and by committing any of the silly mistakes above, you put yourself in an undesirable position, as there will always be a competitor who has taken the care to NOT make any of these mistakes.
