Sean E. Nelson notes in the Community Marketing Blog, that it is as important to consider the mistakes that people make on LinkedIn as well as the strategies to effectively utilize LinkedIn. Here are some of the seven commonly made mistakes and how you can correct them:
1. Bad Photo Choice
One of the first things most people do when they visit a profile is look at the photo. It’s natural to want to see the person behind the profile. People connect to people and a photo helps improve your visitor’s perception.
One of the worst mistakes is to not include a photo. What does it say about you as a business professional if you don’t understand the importance of the profile photo?
Don’t include a family photo, group shot, or your dog. That’s fine on Facebook but on a professionally based network it misses the point. If someone can’t see your face or recognize you then you have a problem. Avoid including a logo or product shot. The same advice goes for cartoon photos. Its a professional site. You’re a professional. Your photo should support your brand.
The Fix: Hire a local photographer and get a professional quality headshot. If you choose to take your own photo make sure you have proper lighting.
For a wonderful local resource read this article.
2. Lack of Detailing Your Profile
Your profile isn’t meant to replace your resume but it should tell your visitors who you are. There are some key areas that not only allow you to tell your story but provide an opportunity to add keywords naturally into your profile.
- The summary. Start your profile off with your elevator speech. This short sentence has been refined to capture attention when presented in face to face networking. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work the same on your profile. The rest of your summary should answer the questions of “Who you are”, “How you help people”, and “How they can help you”.
- Previous employment. First people want to know the path you traveled from college to your current position. Not including this in your profile introduces questions and alters visitor’s perception. There’s also the lost opportunity to include keywords in your job descriptions.
- Specialties, Interests, Awards. These are key areas to add other information and it’s a great place for keywords.
- Personal contact information. Don’t forget to include your phone number and your address. You never know how someone will find you
The Fix: Include as many previous employers that are relevant to your development as a business professional. It’s OK to skip that college job delivering Pizzas. Also be sure that when you write the job descriptions to write them from the perspective of how that job contributed to making you better at what you do today.
3. Ignoring Applications
When you look at the number of applications on Facebook (1,000’s) verses the number on LinkedIn (13) you might think that applications just aren’t that important. That would be a bad analysis. While few in number, the applications available are a key to sharing what it is that you do with your fellow LinkedIn members. They provide the opportunity to take your profile from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.
The basic LinkedIn profile is simply a lot of text. Sure you can tell people all of the relevant information about yourself, but it’s better to “Show, don’t tell”.
Applications give you the ability to post a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation (Slideshare or Google Presentations), add a video (Slideshare or Google Presentations), feed in your blog (WordPress and BlogLink), add PDF files or Word documents (Boxnet), announce and RSVP Events, conduct Polls, share the books you’re reading (Amazon), and utilize the Twitter application. Just about any way you want to communicate a message or information on LinkedIn is available. Your profile visitors can engage with your profile in print, video, even audio (add your podcast to a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation).
The Fix: Start going through your resources to see what information will help you show others what it is that you do and how you can help them. If you don’t have a blog WordPress makes it simple to create one. It’s simple to create a presentation to share, just be sure to make it interesting by including more than just bullet points. Load up those brochures, white papers, and one-pagers. Finally, add a video to your profile. If you don’t have the tools to record yourself in a professional manner (think lighting and sound), go to http://www.jing.com and download this free software. It will allow you to record a 5 minute screen capture as a video.
Or work with NEJS to create a professional ePitch.
To finish reading the 7 worst mistakes and fixes click here.
About Sean Nelson
Sean Nelson is the author of the Social Media Sonar blog and has written three LinkedIn eBooks including one of the first books detailing how to strategically use LinkedIn to grow your business. “LinkedIn MArketing Secret Formula”. He is a Partner in SONARconnects.
Nice reminder for a lot of folks who take a “set it and forget it” approach to LinkedIn. Too many useless profiles out there.
The one thing I don’t do:
“Don’t forget to include your phone number and your address. You never know how someone will find you.”
I can’t imagine that someone who finds me on LinkedIn needs to send me a letter, but I understand the concern about limiting an possible contact option. Phone # is personal preference, but I prefer email over phone for first contact, so I do not include it there.
Reminder to all: Applications are good, but think about whether you will manage those apps! Same applies to adding your twitter account. Being a active participant means always being conscious of what your LinkedIn connections can see.
Excellent points Rory!