Lesson 4 is about reviewing your LinkedIn Profile to make sure that when potential members look you up on Google (your LinkedIn Profile will usually be one of the first items on a search for your name on Google) or directly on LinkedIn, it had better be compelling. This is shot at differentiation and presenting a powerful image that attracts others. I draw the comparison to standing out from the crowd.
Does your LinkedIn Profile allow you to stand out from the crowd?
A boring, mundane, run-of-the-mill, same-as-everybody-else profile on LinkedIn will be the world’s biggest turnoff.
The first thing I recommend is taking our LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment to identify the areas you need to work on to improve your profile. I have the fill listed below. Please download it, fill it out, and send it back to me.
Click this link to download the LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment.
The self-assessment will cover these 8 elements and provide an overall evaluation score of your LinkedIn Profile.
Once you've completed filling out the self-assessment of your LinkedIn Profile, please email it back to me and I will work with you to develop an action plan for improving your LinkedIn Profile.
Key LinkedIn Profile Components
The Headline at the top is critical to capture the attention of potential members. Without a compelling headline, they’ll skip to the next profile.
Secondly, your summary will be read long before your chronological resume. The summary should include how you impact the lives and companies of the members of your group.
What is Vistage? How does it work? How do your members benefit from it? What are you looking for in a new member?
This is your chance to put a short marketing statement together and provide a quick pitch to tease and excite potential members into wanting to learn more about you and Vistage/TEC.
Lacking any real connection to you, most CEOs will look in your profile for validation you're a great person. They find that in either awards OR references.
Make sure you include every award on your profile and what it means. For example, don’t list that you’re a Master Chair and leave it at that. If I’m not affiliated with Vistage/TEC, I’ll have no clue what a master chair means.
The other key area on your profile that people tend to look at is the reference section. Who has said great things about you? Have you asked all your members and coaching clients to complete a reference for you on LinkedIn? You should have 20-30 of these references. Ideally from Vistage/TEC members since those are the peer references most of the people viewing your profile will be interested in reading.
Make it easy to connect with you. Include your email address, phone number, website, blog address. Make it easy. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a profile, wanting to connect with that person – but the individual has every security and privacy option checked off. What’s the purpose of networking and putting yourself “out there” if you’re going to make it difficult to connect with you?
Results on Having a More "Effective" LinkedIn Profile
Once we start leveraging the process of creating content, distributing content, optimizing your profile for LinkedIn searches, you should be appearing in LinkedIn Searches 20-30 searches every 7 days, and probably having your profile viewed at least 3-5 times a day. You’ll see these stats on the right side of your home page where the heading is “Your LinkedIn Network”.
When CEOs and Trusted Advisers see your "effective" profile, they'll want to start connecting to you. You'll start to get invitation requests. You may start to receive requests for interviews in the local paper, radio, or business publication. Your network will begin to give you positive feedback about the strength of your LinkedIn Profile. You'll find that your network will look to you for help and assistance in being connected to each other through you (one of the most important elements of networking if you want to receive hot/warm leads - being a connector).
Lesson 4 Action Items
1. Complete the LinkedIn Chair Profile Self-Assessment
Once you download and complete the assessment, please email it back to me. I'll work with you on "polishing" your profile to be a powerful marketing document.
2. Develop a "compelling headline" and post your draft/idea into the Chair LinkedIn Discussion Group
3. Review some of the blog posts I've saved into my Delicious Bookmarking Account regarding LinkedIn Profiles.
You can find the list by clicking here.
This is a good live example of how using Delicious Bookmarks can come in handy. I've read 15 blog articles from experts over the past few years. These 15 were strong enough that I felt I should save them for future reference with a specific tag called linkedin-profile so that I could retrieve them at a later point for research on my e-course, personal learning, or to share with my network.
I left all my information in Delicious as public. I really have nothing to hide in the storage/collection of these blog posts/articles. It's also a great way for others to find you that share similar interests to the type of things you're tagging.
4. If you've not done so yet, you should be asking all your members to write recommendations for you. I would also add other chairs that could recommend you. You might consider your senior level trusted advisers.
5. Check out some of the profiles of other chairs, speakers, and trusted advisers who have grasped social media/LinkedIn and have done a good job with their profile. Here are some profiles you might wish to take a look at:
Mark Taylor - last Chair e-Course Class
Clyde Horner - last Chair e-Course Class
Gini Dietrich - well-known Vistage Speaker and Social Media Expert
Denise Wakeman - popular blogging expert
Lesson 4 Discussion Points
How many of your members have you asked for a recommendation on your LinkedIn Profile - how about your TAs? Other Chairs? Vistage/TEC Executives?
After looking at the profiles of the list above and reading some of the ideas/suggestions from other experts off my blog/article list in Delicious - what general theme/ideas start to emerge of what the most successful individuals do with their LinkedIn Profiles?
How do you feel about the strength of your LinkedIn Profile after taking the Self-Assessment? If you landed on your own profile in a search, would you be impressed? Would you say to yourself - this is someone I MUST send a connection invite?
Post your own ideas for a headline on your LinkedIn Profile and offer your thoughts and comments when you see your fellow e-course "classmates" posting their ideas.
