Hey there, welcome to episode 30 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.  Can I just say, I’m a little excited to hit 30 – it’s not a big milestone, but it’s a milestone, nonetheless.  I thought I’d run out of topics by now, when I started out, and now I’m thinking I need to do more than 1 a week just to say everything I have to say!

This week I am talking all things LinkedIn – my absolute favourite social media platform!  If you’ve missed the last two episodes or if you’re new to my world, episodes 28 & 29 were audits of Facebook and Instagram respectively, so if you’re on those platforms – head back there and listen into those.

Let’s not forget my gratitude that you are listening in – you have a lot of choices – so I am very grateful you are lending me your ears today. 

It wasn’t long ago that I did an episode on it – in fact it was Episode 20.  I will try not to repeat myself too much, but I do encourage you to head back there and listen into that episode.

LinkedIn is my absolute fav of all the social media platforms.  That surprises many as many of the small business owners I came across are not going it to the attention and weight that it deserves – they are perhaps still trying to get their head around Facebook and Instagram!

But I hope, by the time I have finished this episode, I will have convinced you to start using LinkedIn or giving it some more love, if you’re already on the platform.

Remember, and this is a big thing to remember, googling anyone’s name will bring up their LinkedIn profile in the first 2 or so listings on a google search – that’s how powerful a LinkedIn profile can be.  Spend all your money on SEO only to be able to rank by having a good LinkedIn profile with key words!  It’s like magic – free magic!

But first, of course, let’s do our discovery of the week!

THIS WEEK’S DISCOVERY!

Headshots – I’ve spoken at length about them on the last two podcasts with auditing both your Facebook and your Instagram profiles – and I am about to talk about them again.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to make this week’s Discovery of the Week about headshots!

My photographer, Karen Merry, shout out to Merry Images, told me about this website ages ago. 

So, one of the best ways to make sure your headshot is LinkedIn worthy is to use Photofeeler. Photofeeler puts your headshot in front of thousands of people who anonymously rank it for competence, likability, and influence. You can upload a few different versions of your headshot and use the one that users rank the best on LinkedIn.

It’s not an exact science, but if it helps you choose a photo that’s going to attract the right people to your business – it might be worth a go!  I’d love to hear your thoughts if you go across and use it.

As always, just a little disclaimer, my discoveries are just that and I am in no way affiliated with any of them but promise to tell you if I ever am.  I just love them and from the response of my listeners, you guys, you are loving them too!

Hey and if you have a little discovery, or something you use in your business that you’d like to share, please do so.  Email me at jenn@jenndonovan.com.au or tag me @smallbusinessmadesimple.  I really love to know what tools you use to help make your life simpler!

LINKEDIN AUDIT

LinkedIn is professional Facebook.  No trolls and a heck of a lot more respect and it’s fabulous for connections and even education.  If there’s an expert in their field, they’ll be on LinkedIn.  HINT:: if you’re an expert in your field, better get on it!

It’s a great platform for connection with people – it’s like networking but online.  So, if you think networking can help grow your business or grow you (because we should always be investing in ourselves) then it’s the platform for you.

Now, confession time, when I saw it’s my favourite platform, it wasn’t always like that.  When I had my retail shop, it made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.  I did not invest the time or energy to find out or see how it could work for me.

But as I evolved as a business owner and my business evolved, I began to see and harness its power for connections.

One thing I have realised about LinkedIn which has allowed me to have such fantastic growth into my business, if you really do have to give to get!

You should be reaching out on any platform, but this one, in particular, can really love you back if you love it first!

Ok, that’s enough convincing that this should the platform for you, let’s get down to some auditing::

1. Your profile picture

If you’ve listened to my past two episodes you’ll notice I’m repeating myself here.  Your profile picture should be of you, should be professional and should give the message you want your audience to get.  It should look like you, today, not 10 years ago – today.

Looking sexy when you’re a chiropractor, not a good look.  Glamour shots – nope.  Not looking at the camera – nope!  Pets/friends/partners – nope nope nope. 

You want to be engaging, you want to give the impression of someone trustworthy, authentic and an authority in whatever their expertise is.  They should want to connect with you!  If you’re not sure – use this week’s discovery Photofeeler.com

If you can’t afford a professional photo shoot – then find a white wall or through a white sheet over your clothesline, use filters on your phone and ask a friend or partner to take it for you.  There’s always tricks to a good photo that will take effort but not money.  But remember if you’re not willing to invest in you – will they?

2. Your background photo

LinkedIn automatically gives you a blue background to your profile.  If you still have it – promise me you’ll fix that as soon as this Podcast finishes?

When I look at someone’s background, I want to see, in pictures, what they do.  If a picture tells a 1000 words, then make this one count!

If you’re a speaker, have a photo or photos of you speaking.  If you teach leadership, your picture should show you leading.  If you’re in customer service, show yourself giving service.  You get the picture right?

Canva.com – my favourite of all my discoveries, has lots of templates to help you play with your background photo.  They have the dimensions right – it’s just a matter of you choosing a template and making it work for you.  Don’t be afraid to play.

Your background is also a great piece of real estate for advertising your services or upcoming workshops et cetera.  So, don’t be afraid to change it, as the seasons and reasons in your business change.

3. Your Bio

So, now you’ve shown them you’ve trustworthy and told them what we do in pictures, it’s time to use our words – your bio.

Your bio, if you look at your profile, sits right below your name.

In your bio, you have just 120 characters to grab your audience’s attention. Make this snippet about your audience and how you can help.

Who do you help and how do you help them?  You have 120 characters to answer those two questions.  Use emojis or lines to separate words to make it look more engaging.

Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most visible sections of your LinkedIn profile.

It’s also one of the most important fields for LinkedIn’s search algorithm. Not only should your LinkedIn headline portray you as a credible member of your industry, it should also contain strategic keywords that help you appear higher in LinkedIn searches.

Again, you have 120 characters to play with!

4. About Section

Your goal with your about section is to::

1. Fill it all in! and
2. Get leads to call you or connect with you. And by leads I mean, people who will one day do business with you!

To write the about section – be succinct, clear and concise. 

Step 1: Write a short sentence about where you work and what you do, including any brands you sell.

Step 2: Include your contact details, website address etc, after the first sentence.  You want this stuff above the fold – visible before someone has to click the “see more” button.

Step 3: Answer the following questions

• Who do you serve? Persons/areas/brands and so forth
• What do you do?
• Why should someone choose to buy from you as opposed to everyone else who sells what you sell or does what you do? Include why your brand and why you, your experience and so forth.

(You have 2000 characters in this section).

To make this a bit more actionable, fill in these blanks::

TAP here to discover how I can help you …… (what do you help someone do)

Insert contacts (how do you want to be contacted, website, DM, phone, email etcetera – this goes next

Who is your target market?

What is their biggest pain point?

Include a link to schedule a chat or an appointment – if this is how you want to be contacted.

My mission is to help (who do you help) …..

Why you?  Why you do what you do plus something personal or human to human engaging

Any claims to fame (awards etc)

Any links to articles you’ve written, videos you’ve done or lead magnets you want to include

Lastly, again your contact details:  To let me assist you with ….., reach out at ……

5. Your Contact Information

Utilize the contact info area.  When someone visits your profile, is intrigued by your branding, is hooked in by how you can help them, then they will naturally click through that ‘See contact info’ link under your bio.

Make sure the links here are current and valid!  If this was a blog post – I’d underline that – so let me repeat it – make sure the links there are current and valid.

PRO TIP:: Your website address doesn’t have to be your home page – think about where you would like a LinkedIn connection to go if they were visiting your website.  Think about the type of person you’d like to attract and personalise it for that persona. 

6. Personalise your URL

You can customize your public profile URL when you change what appears on your public profile. Custom public profile URLs are available on a first come, first served basis.   Again, think google ranking when someone is googling you – magic I’m telling you, magic!

If you look at your URL and it’s got numbers and letters after it, it’s really easy to change.  Check out my show notes at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au to see how to do it. 

To change your public profile URL:

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Click View profile.
3. On your profile page, click Edit public profile & URL on the right rail.
4. Under Edit URL in the right rail, click the Edit icon next to your public profile URL.
5. It’ll be an address that looks like www.linkedin.com/in/yourname.
6. Type the last part of your new custom URL in the text box.
7. Click Save.
8. CONTENT

So now we have an updated profile, engaging headshot, great background that tells a story, our own URL, and headline and an about section to die for – now it’s all about the content you provide.  So, let’s quickly have a look at that.

If you’re a regular listener to my podcast you probably know what I’m about to say – if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it often – KNOW WHO YOUR WHO IS. 

It’s just not something us marketers say – it really is SUPER important to have a handle on.  If you’ve not worked on your client avatar before, maybe head back to episode 25 where I talk at length about getting to know your who.

So, if you know who you want to attract on LinkedIn, it makes creating, curating and designing content for your audience here so much simpler!

Can you repurpose what you’ve put on other social media sites?  Yes, to a degree!

If your target audience is the same – YES

BUT, remember this is professional Facebook so sometimes you might be able to deliver the same message, content, idea but the language you use to convey that might be different to other platforms.

You be you for sure – but just be aware of the language you are using here and if it’s appropriate.

Here’s an example of what I mean::

LinkedIn is for professionals – business owners.  Yes, granted we are all consumers at one time or another, but here we are business owners and therefore nearly everyone on the platform has something to sell.  They may not be selling but they definitely have something to sell.

So, going in with a selling mentality like you might on another platform, won’t work here.  On all platforms we should have a give, give, give, ask mentality, but here, everyone is selling – so being a big fish in a small pond is harder – so with content it’s has to be value, value, value.

Write blogs – repurpose them here.  Repurpose them, for instance, as

• Articles (LinkedIn’s built in blog platform)
• Short snippet paragraph or video taking 1 point from the blog and then pointing to the blog
• Take quotes from your blog and do “quote” posts and add more text to it – again, linking to the original blog
• Images with stats over them always get engagement!
• Repurpose your blog into an Infographic if you can

If you don’t write blogs, the content you would share would still be of that educational version – never underestimate what you know that others need to know – heck millions of people have built businesses and podcasts on just that premise!  I know this – you need to know this – so I’ll tell you – sometimes I’ll tell you for free, sometimes you’ll have to pay me for it!

My podcast is free for everyone to listen too – my course Facebook Ads for Beginners won’t be!

Other subjects you might post about on LinkedIn might be::

• Industry knowledge
• The latest and greatest trends
• Tips, tricks and how-to’s
• Part of a PowerPoint presentation
• Make industry predictions
• Talk about patterns in your industry
• Lessons you’ve learned
• Hot media stories that relate to your business (or an angle that does!)
• Celebrate company/business triumphs, milestones and wins
• If you have a team – highlight a team member
• Share someone’s content that not in competition to you but complimentary and you know your audience would love to know about X too.

Can I give you a PRO TIP – you might not like it ….

Video, video, video

Facts: Video is 5x more likely than other types of content to start a conversation among members.

LinkedIn members spend almost 3x more time watching video ads compared to time spent with static content.

If you hadn’t heard, LinkedIn just went all in on video.

You could do a short video series – like LinkedIn Marketing Minute or video case studies.  Or you can just stand in front of your camera and talk!  Captions – remember captions – they are important because people are looking at LinkedIn at work (most than likely) and don’t necessarily have the sound on.

Business Pages on LinkedIn are making a comeback.  You’ve been able to build a business page since the platform existed, I think, but they haven’t been all that successful and honestly they have a little way to go – as there’s lots of clicks to get to them.  But it’s definitely something to put on your to-do list – it’s on mine.  It will be interesting to see 12 months from now what weight and power they hold.

Before I finish up talking about this wonderful platform, I’ll give you the Pro tip to end all pro tips – on this platform, if you engage, reach out, give value, connect with people with a personalised message, respond to connect requests with personalised messages, comment, like and give love – it WILL come back to you 10 fold. 

This is what I recommend for ALL social media platforms, but they all won’t love you back as much as LinkedIn will because the algorithm hasn’t killed the platform yet.  It’s almost algorithm-less (sort of!).  Microsoft owns the platform and they are doing great things – follow trends yes but trying to stay different.

Embrace LinkedIn, and if you’re someone who sells physical product, be an early adopter and give this platform a go.

There’s lots of other tips and tricks when it comes to LinkedIn – but I covered them in Episode 20 – so head back there and have a listen.  This episode was more of an audit of your account – but Episode 20 is an in depth run down of the platform for sure.

FINALLY:: DON’T FORGET TO CONNECT YOUR EMPLOYER IF THEY HAVE A PAGE ON LINKEDIN!

So – that was quite the episode – I hope you got lots of gold from it.  But that is it for episode 30.

If you have any queries, questions, thoughts tips or tricks, let’s continue this conversation in my Facebook Group – Like Minded Business Owners. Not joined yet.  Well welcome … let’s do that!

I’ll be back next Thursday with some more marketing know-how and another discovery of course. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this with a friend.  And maybe leave me a rating and a review wherever you listen in.  Those things are like gold for podcasters like me!  PS – you can leave more than one rating and review – just saying!

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have.  Thanks, so much for lending me your ears, I know you have LOADS of options – so thank you for making me one of them.  I’d love to connect with you all on LinkedIn – look me up – Jenn Donovan – that’s Jenn with 2 x n’s and Donovan – D O N O V A N

…….. and remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!