by John Espirian

LinkedIn is the world’s biggest business networking platform. Although it has many of the same features as other social media, its primary intent is to connect the world to business opportunities. Far from being solely a job board, LinkedIn allows individuals and businesses alike to communicate their professional activities and hence attract and discover colleagues, clients and advocates. As LinkedIn approaches the 1 billion user mark, it’s not a network to ignore.

Here are some tips to boost your LinkedIn profile and presence.

Use a consistent, clear headshot

A smile to camera and a relaxed pose goes a long way to make your profile look welcoming. Use a realistic representation of what you look like right now, and crop the photo to include only your head and shoulders.

To help you be recognisable online, use the same headshot everywhere – on your website, social profiles, printed materials, etc.

Keep your profile banner image on brand

The banner is the rectangular image at the top of your LinkedIn profile. This is valuable digital real estate, so don’t leave it empty. The image should be 1584×396 pixels – though any image that has a 4:1 ratio of width to height will work. Free design services such as Canva.com will allow you to create a suitable banner. 

Keep your banner on brand to match the look and feel of your website, if you have one.

If you don’t have an existing visual brand identity, keep the banner simple. A couple of colours and a very short text description will suffice. 

LinkedIn have said that 70% of all traffic on the platform comes from the mobile app. Your banner will be hard to read on small screens, so any text in it needs to be large and bold.

Avoid putting anything important in the bottom-left portion of the banner, as this part may be obscured by your profile photo.

Image by Freepik

Make your headline clear

LinkedIn headlines can be up to 220 characters long. The most important part is the first 40 characters, as that’s all that’s visible when your posts and comments are viewed on LinkedIn mobile (unless people go to your profile to see the full thing). 

It’s challenging to convey an interesting and differentiated value proposition in such a small number of characters. Your headline opener needs to be a stock cube full of flavour.

After getting your main message across, use the remainder of the headline to add relevant keywords.

End the headline with what I call a “bravery badge” – a little dash of extra personality that says something out of the ordinary. The aim is to include something that could start a conversation or otherwise make you memorable in the minds of your intended audience.

There are a lot of editors and proofreaders on LinkedIn. If you don’t say something that sets out your specialism and/or your personality, there’s no reason for a potential client to pick you over the next person. 

All other things being equal, such a potential client may choose based on factors you really don’t want to compete on, such as price or turnaround time.

Make your About section clear

Start the About section with a clear problem statement. 

What problems do you fix and who do you help? For example, if you focus on proofreading for construction clients based in the UK, make that as clear as possible in the first 4 lines of the About statement, as that’s all readers will see before they click the “see more” link (which most people don’t!).

Where possible, include some specifics about your working processes. How long does it take? What factors determine your prices? Are there any impressive projects you’ve worked on or results you’ve been part of?

Comment for visibility

We don’t have space here to get into a full posting strategy, but I recommend that people start on LinkedIn by commenting with substance on the posts of those who already have an engaged following. 

If you can be a consistent early commenter on relevant posts, you’ll expose your knowledge to people in your second- and third-line networks, and those people might never have otherwise heard of you. 

LinkedIn comments have disproportionately high potential for visibility compared with other engagement actions such as reactions and shares, so use them wisely to help you build a reputation on the platform.

John Espirian is otherwise known as the relentlessly helpful LinkedIn nerd. A maths and computer science graduate, he began his career as a software and hardware tester before becoming a copywriter for more than ten years. Searching for more clients, he turned to LinkedIn, and in 2017 he started writing content to explain how LinkedIn works and has written a book on the subject, Content DNA. Now John focuses exclusively on LinkedIn consultancy for small business owners and solopreneurs to build their personal brand online and promote their business in an ethical way.

For more information on John’s products and services, visit: www.espirian.co.uk