As a writer, I find the hardest thing to write is the ‘About’ page – whether it is my website, Medium, or LinkedIn.
There is something about writing ‘about yourself’ that everyone finds intimidating.
Whatever I write seems inadequate.
How can you encapsulate so much about yourself in a few hundred words?
Thankfully, LinkedIn has made the job much easier.
It gives a template, a space to write your bio, and a section to provide links to learn more about your work (or if you choose to market your products).
Perhaps because LinkedIn started as a resume sharing platform.
But now, it is emerging as a communication platform for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs (that includes authorpreneurs) to share ideas, find clients, and grow businesses.
Second only to Twitter in terms of making connections and growing your network, it is imperative to have a good LinkedIn Profile.
Why is it essential to have a good LinkedIn Profile?
Your LinkedIn profile is your landing page to manage your brand.
It is an excellent way to let people know who you are, what you stand for, and what you’re interested in.
It is your storyboard, where people can find you and stay updated on your activity.
Five ways LinkedIn profile helps you.
- To build your network.
- To establish you as an expert in your field.
- To manage your professional brand.
- To avail global opportunities.
- To track your professional milestones.
In a nutshell, your LinkedIn profile helps you get noticed.
Since your clients, recruiters and readers check your profile to know more about you, make sure your profile is complete and representative of you.
You need to optimize every touchpoint to build a following.
Let’s take them one by one.
Banner Image
Your banner is the prime real estate, which is the first thing people notice when looking at your profile.
You can use it effectively by bringing attention to what you want people to notice about you.
I have highlighted my books on my banner image, which I have created in Canva. It highlights my most important skill of being an author.
It also has my photo. A good profile photo increases the credibility of your profile and helps you stand out from the crowd.
LinkedIn users with a profile photo get up to 21 times more views than members without a photo.
You can also record and display a video on your profile introducing yourself, your achievement, and how you can help your clients/readers.
Tagline
Your tagline is the second most important thing people notice on your profile. Make it work for you.
My tagline is: Turn your big idea into a book with me in 30 days.
It explains my service in a sentece.
Read a few taglines and see which one stands out for you. Then tailor yours accordingly.
Featured
You can showcase work samples you are most proud of in the Featured section. It could be your posts, articles, newsletter, media or external links.
It is the most important section for marketing.
You can showcase as many items as you like, but I prefer three to keep it simple.
The three things you should have is:
- A Free Offer
- Your signature course offer
- A call for subscription, often to your newsletter
Many people try to put too many things in the Feature section. That dissuades people from exploring. When you have only a few, people check them out.
In my case, they are likely to click at least one or two links.
They might click on the free book offer to take them to a post where I give the link to download Writer’s Toolkit.
They might check out my course Write Your Book In 30 Days.
Or they might click the newsletter link, which will take them to my Substack page, where they can read some of my articles and subscribe.
Conclusion
So many people are intimidated by LinkedIn. Particularly how to fill in the profile information.
The best way is to find a few profiles you like and build your own based on that. If you like mine, feel free to use it as a template.
Concentrate on three primary areas, Banner, Tagline, and Featured, and ignore the rest for the time being. You can always fill them in later.
This is the simplest way to build a good LinkedIn profile.
There are plenty of help articles on LinkedIn. Just google your question, and one or more articles will appear to solve your problem.
If you still have any questions you think I can help you with, ask them in the comments section.
Good luck.
See you on LinkedIn.
This is part 3 of the series of posts I am doing on LinkedIn.
If you are interested, here is a list of my other articles about LinkedIn.
One Cool Way to Grow Your Audience Beyond Your Wildest Dream
Lesson Learned During 30 Day LinkedIn Sprint